Pumpkin Apple Bread

I’m so glad it’s pumpkin season. For me, the rest of the year is just a long waiting line leading up to this very moment. I’m convinced that I could weave pumpkin or winter squash into almost any meal, it is truly one of my favorite flavors. I love to roast my own pumpkin and scoop out the flesh for recipes, the smell it puts in your kitchen is amazing, but I always keep canned pumpkin on hand because it’s just so easy.
For the past year, however, canned pumpkin has been hard, if not impossible, to find due to the country’s shortage on the product. Canned pumpkin sales went up so much last year because farmers were having a rough time growing their pumpkins with all of the rain and not enough sun on their crops. So more consumers than usual were having to make due with the canned product instead of fresh. Some areas of the country weren’t able to get pumpkin of any kind for their Thanksgiving tables and had to make due with butternut squash. People were even selling it on eBay for up to $7 a can! I have images in my mind of women in pajamas and Uggs running and screaming through the grocery aisles, throwing elbows and knocking old ladies over for the last can of pumpkin puree. And now, of course, you do too. Your welcome.
We can all breathe a sigh of relief now because the pumpkins are back. But for how long…? (enter dramatic piano chords here)
If you want to kick off the season with a great recipe, this is just the one. This recipe makes 3 small loaves or 2 large ones (depending on the size of your loaf pans). It’s fairly healthy and just sweet enough to be a dessert, but wonderful for breakfast. And it’s excellent with cream cheese.

*Abbey’s Pumpkin Apple Bread
-5 cups whole wheat flour (oat flour is a great, healthy substitute or you can certainly use white)
-1 tsp kosher salt
-2 TB baking powder
-2 cups light brown sugar
-2 tsp ground cinnamon
-1 tsp ground ginger
-good pinch each of allspice, nutmeg and cardamom
-4 eggs
-1 cup apple sauce
-1 12 oz can of evaporated milk
-1 can pumpkin puree
-6 TB melted, unsalted butter

–Preheat oven to 350*.
-Combine your dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside.
-Beat your eggs with the apple sauce and milk, slowly whisk in your melted butter, then stir in your pumpkin.
-Fold the wet ingredients into your dry until everything is moistened, but don’t over-mix, a few lumps are fine.
-Pour into your greased loaf pans about 1/2 way up.
-Bake 1 hour, but check after 40 mins just to be sure you don’t over-bake. (You want a toothpick to come out clean when placed in the middle of your loaf.)
-Rest your bread in the pans until cool enough to handle and then carefully remove them from the pans to finish cooling on a rack.
-Serve warm, room temperature or toasted with cream cheese.
(*these freeze beautifully)