Molasses-Olive Oil Pumpkin Bread

The first pumpkin recipe of the season! (Well, if you don't count toasted pumpkin seeds and mashed pumpkin with butter.) Pumpkin and molasses compliment each other beautifully, especially in baked goods. This bread turned out fluffy and moist in texture but dense and dark in flavor. The olive oil lets the molasses and pumpkin shine, without weighing them down.

Molasses-Olive Oil Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

2 large eggs, at room temperature

½ cup olive oil

5 tbs water

1 cup pureed pumpkin (fresh or canned)

¼ cup sugar

½ cup molasses

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

½ cup oat flakes, divided

1 ½ teaspoon salt

1teaspoon ground nutmeg

1teaspoon ground cinnamon

1teaspoon ground clove

1teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350º degrees. Briefly beat eggs in a large bowl. Stir in olive oil, water, pumpkin, sugar and molasses. In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients except 1/3 of the oatmeal and the nuts. Add the mixture of dry ingredients to the pumpkin/molasses bowl in three parts. Stir to mix but do not over stir! Don’t worry if there are still lumps. Stir in walnuts. Pour batter in a greased standard-sized loaf pan (9" x 5"). Dust the top with remaining oat flakes. Bake for 45-60 minutes until a knife slipped into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool before slicing.

picture by Dušan Zidar