Pumpkin Quick Bread

As you might know, I have been wanting to bake or prepare different things which are gluten and casein free for my nephew Advik. I had been asking my sister to give me some ideas about some gluten free recipes which she would like me to make and then finally she mentioned about the pumpkin spice bread. On checking some recipes I found that it is a quick bread which does not require any xanthan gum either. I had most of the ingredients and only needed to buy pumpkin. So, I thought, before the pumpkin season is completely over and I cannot get any of them any more in the market, let me get one and try a recipe of pumpkin spice bread, which I also found very fast.
I did very careful calculations to convert the cup measurements into grams, and planned and checked and rechecked everything, and got going with it this weekend. I had no idea of how it would turn out, not a clue. But, I made the recipe very carefully, and didn't make any substitutions, or only that what was really unavoidable. I went step by step slowly beating everything one by one, taking time for every step carefully. It looked good, almost all the way until I had also added the milk. Then all that I could think of was : "Oh no! That does not look so good.....", as all the fluffyness which I had acieved with all the beating seemed to go away. So, I stopped beating it and continued with adding the flour and beating the batter side by side. This time I had to hurry up as I had added soda, which, once added to the wet ingredients start working. The end result didn't look bad. So, I quickly poured it into a springform pan and put it in the preheated oven.

Pumpkin Quick Bread

Based on a recipe from a Gluten free recipe source

I converted the amounts using the online weight conversion calculator and have given the weight in grams I actually used, if deviating, at the end.

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups (480 g) rice flour - I used gluten free whole meal rice flour, coarsely ground
1/4 cup (30 g) soy or gram flour - I used 35 gram flour – Indian besan)
1 heaped tsp turmeric powder (optional -I used it to give it a yellowish tinge)
1/2 tsp. baking powder - I used 1 tsp gluten free cream of tartar baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt - I used 1 tsp
1 tsp. cinnamon (powdered)
1 tsp. cloves (if using for the first time: use ½ tsp) - I ground about 15 -20 cloves with my coffee mill
2/3 (150 g) cup butter or margarine - I used margarine, free from trans fats and milk products
2 cups (460 g) dark brown sugar - I used 400g whole cane sugar / powdered jaggery and 50 g castor sugar
1 envelop (about 5 g) of bourbon vanilla sugar ( contains ground vanilla bean, vanilla extract and sugar)
4 eggs (medium sized)
1 can (1 lb.) or 2 cups (500 g) mashed squash or pumpkin - I used cooked and mashed fresh hokaido pumpkin
2/3 cup (11 measured tbsp) water or milk - I used soya milk
2/3 cup chopped nuts (I used soaked almonds chopped coarsely)
1/3 cup (60 – 80 g) golden raisins - I had none, so used chopped soft dried-apricots)
1/3 cup (60 – 80 g) raisins

Method:

• In a bowl mix both the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices
• Cream butter and sugar with a hand blender until it turns from brown to creamish in colour and is fluffy
• Add eggs one by one and keep beating
• Add pumpkin and milk one after the other and keep beating
• Add the flour mix to the pumpkin batter
• Stir in almonds, apricots and raisins
• Pour into a greased springform pan or into two 9''x5'' loaf pans
• If you use a springform pan, then almost double the amount of time will be required, like in my case
• Bake at 350 ° F (175 °C: 160°C convection) for one hour or until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

I baked the bread for the first hour at 160°C and then for the next hour at 165 °C in a convection oven, since I had used a larger spring form pan instead of a loaf pan.

Changes I plan to make for next time:

1. reduce the amount of sugar to about 380 g, if using castor sugar, to 350 g
2. reduce the amount of salt to 1/2 tsp; 1 tsp was still too much for my taste
3. leave out cinnamon or replace with half with dried ginger: saunth
4. leave out cloves, gives too strong a flavour, or use ½ tsp


I was quite afraid about how it would turn out. But after about 15 minutes itself, I could see how it had risen, to my happiness. And after another 15 minutes it had risen even more to make me even more happy. I felt that it was a good sign as that could be a good indication of the bread being soft and spongy. But, after an hour when I checked the bread with knife, I found that the centre was all wet and undone. So, I knew it needed to be baked for at least half an hour more. I also increased the temperature by 5 °C. Afterwards when I checked the cake, it was much better but still far from being done, much too soft at the centre. So, another half an hour of baking and then I swithed off the oven and let it stand there as it was in the oven for a while, before I took it out and checked. And yes! The bread looked quite good. Infact much too good! No... wait... it was perfect! As perfect as I could imagine it to be. Soft, and with a nice sponge. Perfect crispy crust. It was just wonderful! It tasted sweet, a bit too sweet actualy , which I realised only later on. But, it did not disturb us. We like to eat things too sweet, if only the health factor wasn't there. :)
But, there was one thing which had started worrying me by the time I had switched off the oven. The smell. I guess some would love it, but I don't like cinnamon and clove in sweet things so much and I could smell it distinctly. I had purposefully kept the recipe the way it is . After all it is pumpkin spice bread. But, my fears were unfounded. The bread tasted very good.
But, still I would reduce the amount of these spices, as I feel that would be more like my bread. And sugar, I felt that it was too much, but didn't feel like making an changes and in the last moment added the remaining sugar as per the calculations.

Hubby was the first person to eat it and found it wonderful. Sonny boy loves this bread, I served it with whipped cream, but to go with the recipe I also wanted to prepare a gluten and casein free icing and found a nice recipe at Sophie's Flour Arrangements. But, as I wanted to make the spread I realised that I had finished off the margarine while making the cake. I had forgotten to stock up on it when I went shopping last time. So, I used butter instead to prepare it and, of course, left out all the spices, as I felt these were enough in the cake this time and only mixed some powdered jaggery with butter to make a simple but lovely icing. The jaggery gives a wonderful flavour to the butter so that nothing else is really needed.
And I also prepared an orange sauce for the cake from one of my cookbooks. Here also I had to use butter instead of margarine. If you wish to have the recipe, then ask me and I'll send it to you. And I sprinkled the butter icing with oraganic lemon zest and poure some orange sauce over it. Yummy!


And now I have to mention one thing: I was planning to send this recipe for Zorra's Bread Baking Day event: Coloured Breads for December, but this turned out to be dark brown as you see. Now breads usually look dark brown and I had hoped for something in yellow or orange. So, I would think, if I were to use regular caster sugar for this, it might actually turn yellowish in colour. Well, to find that out I'll have to wait for a while, before I try this recipe again. But this is one good recipe I would preserve carefully so that when one day the need arises, I can bake it for my my nephew, my dearest Advik.

And this wonderful and successful experiment I am so proud of, I'm sending off to Srivalli's Rice Mela at Cooking 4 All Seasons !!

Pumpkin halwa with Butternut squash

I wanted to make a nice sweet for Diwali this year (on 28th October-if you want to know more about Diwali, go here). It had to be something special, but no kheer or the kinds, and I was in no mood for gajar halwa (carrot halwa). Somehow I don't like the taste of these orange carrots found here despite cooking them in milk and adding cream or butter or ghee. But then I remembered the event Tried and Tasted by the Zlamushka and thought of Indira and her wonderful blog Mahanandi.

While searching, I came across this yummy recipe there and I knew it was just the right thing for Diwali. Something totally new to me. I have never made any other halwa with vegetables except for gajar halwa (carrot halwa). And I was on the look out for something simple but Indian to make at home for Diwali. And on seeing this recipe, I knew this one had to be it. On reading further, I found that she was using butternut squash, a North American variety which is not so common here, but I had seen it the last time I had gone to Edeka, a supermarket which usually has a large variety of things, including the lactose free milk products for my son I'm so thankful about and fruits and vegetables from all over the world. Now, these were not brought from some far off place but rather grown locally here, but still is something fancy with fancy prices too! But, I had made up my mind and went to buy my very first ever butternut squash and brought it home and began my experiment, which reallly turned out to be one.....!Before I continue, a very concise information on the health benefits of pumpkin is here at About.com. The main features are the high amounts of beta-carotines, a part of the pro vitamin A found in pumpkin, high amount of potassium - a very important mineral for a healthy cellular functioning, and it is high in fiberes. Although raw pumpkin also contain good amounts of Vitamin C, I'm not sure how much of it remains after cooking or baking. And I think it is a well known that pumpkin seeds have the repuation of helping against prostrate problems and incontinence.

Butternut Squash Halwa

Based on the recipe from Indira's Mahanandi


Ingredients:

1 Butternut squash (1,6 kg), peeled and grated
3 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
1 1/2 l Milk (low fat lactose free)
2 cups sugar, or adjust to suit your taste
8 caradamoms
3 tbsp rosewater
1/2 cup almonds, soaked overnight or in hot water for about 2 hours, and chopped
1/2 cup ground almonds with skin, readymade



Method:

• Cook the milk and sugar on medium low heat till it thickens and reduces to one fourth its quantity - mine became quite brown with time, maybe because I ket the heat to about medium high and later medium and while I cooked it in a deep pan I needed 1 1/2 hours instead of the 40 minutes as in the original recipe (explaination: Maillard reaction?!)
• In the mean while grate the squash
  
• grind the caradamom seeds to a fine powder and chop the almonds - I did not grind it to a fine paste like in the recipe, but used ready made ground almonds for it
  
• heat ghee in a large saute pan and cook the peeled and grated butternut squash in it till it turns yellowish and soft - I cooked it for very long and it had become quite soft, but mine never turned orange like in the original recipe
• Once done add the thickened brown khoya or kova to the pumpkin and the ground cardamom and almonds as well as the chopped almonds and the rose water and stir to mix evenly.
• My pumpkin had turned very soft and mushy and I had to cook it for another half an hour and later again for another half an hour bake in the oven at 120 °C and let cool in a slightly open oven till it thickens
  
• Place them on the table and let it cool down. Cut it into pieces - very soft pieces!

NOTE:

• Although I have cut it into pieces, it was so soft that one can only eat it with a fork or spoon and not with ones hands.
• It became quite sweet as I didn't take into consideration that at the end the quantity would reduce. One could easily reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup. But, it was just the way I actually like it!

My verdict, despite all the differences that appeared compared to the original recipe - Fabulous!...Great taste!!... Marvelous!!! And a wonderful recipe!
I'm very happy to have made it for Diwali. Something I'm surely proud of, as I have never made something sweet with pumpkin before. And what I loved about Indira's recipe was the method of preparing the halwa. First prepare the thickened khoya and then after cooking the vegetable or fruit for short, be it pumpkin or whatever, mix the both. Genial! Unlike the way I know and have tried so far where you add everything together and cook it for very long. This is one way of cooking I'm surely going to adapt more often, for sure!

This recipe goes to Zlamushka's T&T event: Mahanandi.

And of course, how could I forget to send it to the Festival Jivha being hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons, which I was so happy to discover and A Fruit A Month (AFAM), an event started by Maheshwari of Beyond the Usual and being hosted this month by Madhuram.

And I just realised, now that it has turned brown, it would be a good entry for the event Food in colours: Brown at Sunshinemom's Tongueticklers for this month too! So, be it!


Now, the list of events to which this blog post is going is getting longer an longer!
But this one has to be, I feel, which I just saw and feel is very appropriate for this event:
Time to be Thankful at Ivy's Kopiaste

Pumpkin baked with Potatoes

Yesterday, it was a Sunday and I saw this lovely red organic Hokkaido pumpkin lying in my vegetable basket for much too long. With pumpkins you always take it easy. You buy when you see something nice and let it rest there with its other friends in the basket , thinking "it has time...."as you want to prepare something nice on a weekend when you have more time at hand". Now, I felt, it really was time and I also knew what I wanted to make.
Hubby dear was playing with Rishab or, so to say, giving in to all his demands of " Now...we'll do this ...." and a while later "..now let's read a book...this one of Rabe Socke..." So, I had the peace of mind to prepare the meal and many more things I had planned for the day. For me to be able to spend time in the kitchen at length undisturbed has become a luxury, now that sonny boy also requires his attention and I always loved to be in the kitchen, especially on weekends, as that was the best way I could relax... to cook a nice meal and enjoy it. Earlier I didn't have the time to cook so often like I do now, but the fun factor has still not gone and now blogging has surely added the icing on the cake.
Since I had chosen a recipe which has almost become like our family recipe, there wasn't much thought I had to give while preparing it. It just comes from the heart. You know what I mean...? I came up to it without referring to any recipes or books (blogs were unknown to me then). I have created it entirely trusting my own instincts and after trying to get a feel for the new fruit (variety) which it was then. Ever since the recipe has remained more or less constant with only a few small variations depending on my mood. As, this is our family favorite and we love to eat it this way every year in Autumn.
So, this time I did not put whole coriander seeds, but ground them in my coffee mill. And used a small bunch of fresh thyme leaves which I think go quite well with the Indian spices. Though, dried fenugreek leaves taste splendid with the pumpkin. And I always have pumpkin nuts and I somehow feel they should not be missing in the dish either.

Ingredients:

1 large Hokkaido pumpkin, seeds removed and cut into small pieces
6 potatoes, washed, peeled and cut into thick long slices / wedges
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds, optional
2 large cloves garlic, grated or thinly sliced
2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated or chopped fine
2-3 large tomatoes, sliced
1 tbsp fresh or 1 tsp dried herbs like thyme or dried fenugreek leaves
3 tsp salt, or to taste
4-6 tbsp olive oil

Roast separately:
1 tsp Fenugreek seeds,
2 tbsp coriander seeds,
1 tsp cumin,
6 cloves
2 star anise and
2-3 black cardamoms,
2 red chillies (or to taste),
10 peppercorns

Method:

• Roast the whole spices one by one and, clean and cut the vegetables.
• Mix all the ingredients together in a large porcelain baking dish
• Bake for 1 hour in a preheated oven at 175°C (160°C Convection)
• In between, take out and mix the vegetables
• At the end check if the potatoes are done with a fork, if not extend time as required to up to 20 minutes or until done
  

Both of us just love this very nutty flavour of Hokkaido and its smooth texture as compared to other pumpkin varieties and this fruit stays quite high in our list of favorite vegetables. And this time it was no different.
We ate this pumpkin with some Arabic whole wheat flat breads (they are just like Indian rotis) which hubby had bought at a shop in the city centre. We had made them warm on a cast iron pan before eating. But, this is also a perfect side to a nice pan fried fish or chicken breast. A bowl of fresh green salad would have made it even more better, but we were happy with it alone this time, as we had already had large portions of fruit salad I had made as a small midday snack for us.
Now that I am writing this post, I'm thinking that I haven't tried using pumpkin seed oil which I have been wanting to since a while now. But, I could imagine that a green salad with white wine vinegar vinaigrette with a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil must be a perfect match to it. I really have to get a small bottle and try it.
This one goes to Sensational sides at Meeta's What's for lunch Honey being hosted by Ruth of Ruth's Kitchen Experiments this time.

And I'm sending this off to another wonderful event World Food Day created and being co-hosted by Val of More than Burnt Toast and Ivy of Kopiaste.


Update:
This recipe also goes to the AFAM Event started by Maheswari at Beyond the Usual and being hosted this month by Madhuram of Egglesscooking.com.

Savoury Pumpkin pie (Pikante Kürbis Torte)

This is a pie I saw at Kopiaste in her savoury pies event and it was her own entry to it. I instantly liked it and bookmarked the recipe and since the pumpkin season has started now, which means not just Hokaido, which you start getting in August itself, I didn't have to wait long to try it out.
And the results were just as I expected : Wonderrrrr...ful! Dellllll...icious!
Now this is one recipe which I know I will use to impress others at partys! " you know....this is a greek........... and ......called Badjina........." Ha! :D ( :[ as if I'm celebrating partys every month.....
:)
Ivy, thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!
I have actually tried another recipe of hers but will post it as soon as I get time for it.

Since I'm sending this recipe off to a "German" event -my very first ever(!!), the remaining post will be in German (for the original recipe please visit Ivy's blog here)Für den Fall, daß es tatsächlich jemandem aus dem Deutschen Sprachraum gibt, der das obige nicht versteht, ich erwähne es hier nochmals und noch mehr dazu.....:

Diese pikante Torte habe ich auf einem Food Blog "Event", wie es so schön heißt, entdeckt and mir lief schon das wasser im mund zusammen und wollte es unbedingt probieren. Da der Kürbis Saison schon angefangen hat, mußte ich nicht lange warten. Es ist eine Griechische torte Badjina, und wird ein ksevrakoti genannt, was so gut wie "die torte ohne unterhosen" heißt, da es dem der Teigboden fehlt. (Das Rezept findet ihr auch hier auf English auf Ivy's Blog Kopiaste).


Backtemp. : 180 °C (160 °C Umluft)
Vorbereitungszeit: 45 Minuten
Backzeit: 1 Stunde

Zutaten:

1,3 kg Fruchtfleisch von 1 mittelgroßen Kürbis, geraspelt (geschält und ohne kerne gewogen)
500 g Mehl (405)
500 g Maisgrieß
1 gestr. TL Backpulver
1 1/2 Tassen extra natives Oliven Öl
1 TL salz
500 g Feta (ein Teil musste ich mit Gouda ersetzten)**
100 g Ziegenkäse ( habe mit Camembert ersetzt )**
3 kleine Eier
2 EL Margarine oder Butter zum einfetten der Backform

(Das nächstes mal werde ich wohl genauer auf den Zettel schauen :P)

Zubereitung:

• Kürbis schälen, und mit einer Reibe raspeln
• Alle Zutaten bis auf eine Tasse Käse (ich habe dafür Gouda genommen) mischen, es müßte eine ordentlich feuchte Masse sein
  
• Ein Backblech einfetten und die Kürbismasse reinfüllen
• Im vorgeheizten Backofen auf 180 °C (Umluft 160 °C) für 1 Stunde backen, wenn es anfängt oben braun zu werden, dann ist es auch fertig
  
• Warm mit ein paar Blätter Petersilie garniert servieren (diese waren sogar aus meinem eignen Garten!)
  

Guten Appetit!

**Da ich die Mengen für Feta falsch eingeschätzt hatte und beim Einkaufen nicht daran gedacht habe Ziegenkäse zu kaufen, habe ich sie dem entsprechend ersetzt. Was für ein Glück, daß ich so viel käse noch parat hatte! :´´( *wein*
Trotz der Pannen mit der Käsemengen und fehlender Käsesorten, war das Gericht einfach super lecker!! Sehr empfehlenswert! Wir haben sogar daraus unseren Hauptmahlzeit gemacht, mit einem einfachen Rukola-Gelbepaprika-rote Zwiebel Salat mit Viniagrette als Beilage. Aber trotzdem blieb einiges überig, das jetzt in unserem Gefrierfach ruht....
Wir sorgen für die Speckfalten für den bevorstehenden Winter, wo die Gas- und Öl-preise so wie so so hoch steigen..... können wir da vielleicht ansparen?!!


Diese Torte schicke ich zum BLOG-EVENT XXXIX - Quiche, Tarte & Co. , daß von Genial Lecker bei Zorra's 1x Umrühren bitte ausgerichtet wird. Es ist mein allererster Beitrag zu einem deutschen Blogevent, und daher bin ich doch irgendwie aufgeregt!