Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread

There was still some leftover pumpkin puree left in the freezer, but instead of making yet another batch of pumpkin muffins, I wanted to try something new. By something new, I was going to make the muffin recipe in a loaf pan, except add something better.. peanut butter. I love peanut butter so much I would like to think it goes with everything, but I guess there are times when well... it doesn't. I hate to admit it, but this is one of those times. There was just way too much competition going on with the pumpkin and the peanut butter, I don't even know what I was tasting! The best part about using peanut butter was I could totally eliminate the butter and use just two tablespoons of oil. Occasionaly, I see other bloggers use just one or two tablespoons of oil and always wondered how that would turn out. I mean, it's hard enough sometimes trying to get full fat desserts to work, think about how much harder it must be to do low fat baking! Since I had all that peanut butter going in, technically it wasn't low fat, but I guess I have to start somewhere.


The quick bread ended up being something totally different from what I usually make. It was actually the first time I branched out from a recipe and changed things up a bit. I also skipped the whole mixer thing and folded everything by hand. Too bad no one in my family liked the flavour combination, but I thought it was still good. The best part was I didn't end up with something overmixed considering I went mixer-less.. hmm.. I guess those folding skills are improving! Maybe I should've thrown in some chocolate chips, since everything seems to taste better with chocolate! If you're still into regular pumpkin baked goods, you should definitely tryout this recipe from CI. Just replace the peanut butter and oil with 8 tablespoons of melted butter.

I still can't find my camera charger and I think I'm going to go crazy if I have to continue taking pictures with my phone!

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Pumpkin Nut Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups pumpkin, mashed (or 1 15-ounce can pumpkin)
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup peanut butter
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F
1. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt in a bowl
2. Whisk peanut butter, oil, eggs, sugar in a bowl
3. Mix pumpkin puree with wet ingredients
4. Combine dry ingredients with wet being careful not to overmix
5. Pour batter in 9 x 5 inch loaf pan
6. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with a few crumbs attached
7. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to wire rack