O, Great Pumpkins

“Eat food.
Not too much.
Mostly plants.”
~ Michael Pollan

We had BIG PLANS to participate in the Vegan Month of Food challenge. We planned on making coconut milk caramel to go with our harvest apples. We were going to experiment with making black-eyed pea fritters, marshmallows from a new recipe we’d found that uses xantham gum, and a tribute remake of a lovely Clementine Pie we saw this summer. We had all manner of nifty things we were going to bake and cook and post about.

Instead, on the very first day of the month, I got sick with the Days of Incandescence; five horrible days of fever over 101°F/39°C and aching joints, and spent two miserable weeks with a cough and aches and weakness that wouldn’t go away. I believe I was visited by the dreaded Bacon Lung, close cousin to the Swine ‘Flu. Seeing as I’m a vegetarian, it plagued me only briefly, then had to go away…

In all seriousness, though, I was bummed to be getting sick so early in the season — and so seriously sick. I had to sleep with ice packs at one point, because doses of echinacea, olive leaf extract, Sambuccol/black elderberry extract, Tylenol/Paracetemol and other non-aspirin fever reducers weren’t working. (And, as you can see, we tried everything.) Every time I get sick, I wonder if it’s something I’m doing wrong. Am I eating too much sugar? Am I not drinking enough? Is it because I don’t do yoga? Should I not color my hair? So, instead of it being a month of fun food, it’s been a month of obsessing. And driving D. crazy.

Luckily for you, though, I’m almost done.

D. brought home a pumpkin the other week, much to my glee. Like most New World foods, pumpkins are sold here, but we usually see the wee-tiny decorative gourds or big massive things that are meant to be cut up for jack-o-lanterns. Though it’s really more a matter of seed variety, I suspect that the big pumpkins don’t expend all their energy on flavor, so it was nice that our grocer down the way had small ones.

We halved the pumpkin and baked it face down on the tray. D. scraped the cooked flesh from the rind, and we had enough to freeze, and enough to make two loaves of pumpkin bread. Using your own pumpkin purée is not the same as using canned pumpkin; the canned is a.) often not solely pumpkin and b.) packed in and of consistent water content. This first pumpkin was drier than expected, so the batter turned out a little thicker than usual (this is what I get for “winging it”), making for a slightly heavier loaf. However, I only used half the purée for this first batch, and will do a little adjusting of liquids for the second batch, which should be prettier.

Great Pumpkin Bread

• 3 tbs freshly ground flaxseed *you can buy it pre-ground, but it goes rancid quickly. We just keep seeds on hand and use the coffee grinder.
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup agave nectar *or sub maple syrup or honey; 2 sugars keep it moist
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp each of the “usual” freshly ground spices: cinnamon, nutmeg and powdered ginger
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup chopped candied ginger

Preheat the oven to approx 350°F/177C°.
In a big bowl, stir to combine the flaxseed and water. Let it sit for two minutes, until it thickens. Add your sugars, applesauce, oil, and pumpkin.
In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

A little at a time, stir the dry ingredients into the wet, at the last, fold in the chunks of candied ginger. Divide your batter into two regular lightly oiled loaf pans — or you can use four tiny loaf pans, and make gift-sized loaves. Sometimes we sprinkle a bit of raw sugar on the top just before baking, but post-sick, I’m sticking with a bit of wheat germ. (Yeah, that’ll pass.) Bake for 55 minutes until golden-brown. Allow the bread to cool in the pans for about fifteen minutes before attempting to remove it, as it will be quite moist and apt to break if you try earlier.

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