Once again it is almost the time of year when the leaves start to change colors, the weather cools down and it’s totally appropriate to start wearing scarves for warmth, not fashion. Not to mention, it will be PUMPKIN season soon and I could not be more thrilled. To preemptively start this season off right, I decided to make pumpkin bread and also ventured from my usual recipe to try a more low-fat/reduced sugar version. I found the recipe on cookinglight.com and was extremely pleased with how the final product turned out.

This particular recipe called for a lot less sugar and oil than a past recipe I had been using, but I don’t feel the flavor was compromised at all. If you want to punch up the recipe even more so, you could substitute 1 cup of the regular flour for wheat flour or even use ground flaxseeds instead of eggs (1 egg = 1 tbsp ground flaxseed +3 tbsp water). If you do use flaxseed as an egg substitute make sure to combine with water and stir until the mixture becomes gelatinous.

– 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

– 2 tsp baking powder

– 1 tsp ground allspice

– 1 tsp ground cinnamon

– 1 tsp ground nutmeg

– 3/4 tsp salt

– 1/2 tsp baking soda

– 1/2 tsp ground cloves

– 1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar

– 3/4 cup fat-free milk

– 1/3 cup vegetable oil

– 2 tsp vanilla extract

– 2 large eggs

– 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin

– Cooking spray

** To give the bread your own twist you could also add walnuts, raisins, craisins, chocolate chips, etc.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups. Combine flour and the next 7 ingredients (flour through cloves) in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine sugar and the next 5 ingredients (sugar through pumpkin) in a bowl, and stir well with a whisk until smooth. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.
3. Divide batter into 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray.
4. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool loaves in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool loaves completely; cut each loaf into 12 slices.

Note: I cooked the bread for around 55 minutes instead of the full hour, but it does depend on whether you are using a glass, metal or ceramic pan.