Spiced Pumpkin Bread

I get so excited for fall flavors every year!  Apples, pears, cranberries, cinnamon, squash, pumpkin...I love them all.  Really, I can't get enough!  This pumpkin bread is a great way to get your pumpkin in.  It is very light, but you wouldn't know that from tasting it!  It has a great moist texture, and the pumpkin and spices blend perfectly.  This is perfect with a nice cup of Rooibos tea -- my favorite. 

(Look carefully at the background there, and you can see how cookbook and magazine crazy I am!  And that's not even half of it!)

Spiced Pumpkin Bread
(yields 1 9X5 loaf, 12-18 slices)
source: Cook Healthy Cook Quick

Ingredients:

2 cups sifted cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

3 Tbsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, lightly beaten

cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Coat a 9x5 baking pan with cooking spray.

2. Combine the first 8 ingredients (flour through cloves) in a medium bowl.

3. Combine pumpkin and next 4 ingredients (through eggs).  Add to the dry ingredients, and stir until just combined.

4. Spoon batter into the prepared baking pan.  Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

5. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, than turn out to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way. 

Fruit Cobbler

Here in Internet-Land, there are some recipes floating around for really beautiful, classy cobblers.  This ain't one of them.  If this blog were a Nigella Lawson cookbook, this recipe would go in the "trashy" chapter. 

But, this little cobbler, however humble, is delicious.  And it is healthy (well, healthier than most), and it is quick, and it is cheap.  And I like it. 

But you see those day-glow cherries up there?  Yup.  From a can.  I have no shame about this.  I am not even sure that it should actually be called a cobbler, myself being untrained in the classification of buckles, cobblers, crumbles, etc. 

All of these things aside, this is a nice light dessert.  It's not too sweet.  The crust is moist and comforting.  This literally will take you under 15 minutes to get into the oven.  And it has those little day-glow cherries.  I love day-glow cherries.  I actually used to make this recipe fairly often when I was in high school...with peaches (from a can, of course!).  But I can't convince my husband to eat peach cobbler, even though he ate all the peaches in the fruit cocktail cobbler I used as a substitute.  And went back for seconds (I saw that, honey!).  I think we should all forgive him for coming between me and the canned peaches, since it is thanks to him that we have here a cobbler with day-glow cherries.

Fruit Cobbler

serves 6

adapted from Cook Healthy, Cook Quick

Ingredients:

1/4 cup light butter, melted

2 16-oz cans fruit cocktail in light syrup, undrained (I used a Triple Cherry Fruit Cocktail in Light Cherry Syrup)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar

1/4 cup skim milk

Directions:

1. Place the melted butter in the bottom of a 9 inch square baking dish.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Drain the fruit cocktail, reserving 1/2 cup of the syrup.

3. Mix together the flour, baking powder, and sugar.  Add the reserved syrup and the milk.  Mix well to combine.

4. Pour the batter directly over the light butter in the dish.  Spoon the fruit cocktail on top.  Do not stir.  Place into the pre-heated oven.  Bake for 35-40 minutes.  Serves well hot, warm, or cold.  Whipped cream or ice cream would not hurt.