Since buying our oven we’ve been putting it to very good use. Alexander found a recipe for delightful pumpkin muffins from Martha Stewart the same day we brought the oven home. Soon after I prepared sweet potatoes in it and this week I finally came round to baking beskuit (called rusks in English) and a pumpkin loaf recipe I found at The Scent of Water.

The loaf is awesome, I have a hard time not sitting down and eating it all at once. I want it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and with coffee. It is, without a doubt, one of the most delicious breads I have ever baked. I altered the recipe a little to suit what I had in the kitchen.

Round up:

1 cup pumpkin puree

100g butter

1/2 cup caster sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon fresh ginger- minced

Make:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream the butter and sugar together, add the eggs, beat well and then mix in the puree. Sift in the dry ingredients and the ginger and fold it in until combined. Place in a greased bread tin and bake for one hour, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

We had it hot with coffee. Then we had it cold with Milo. Then again cold with more coffee.

Suggestions for Pumpkin Loaf:

- I use puree that I make by cooking some pumpkin and mushing it up in the blender. I once baked some pumpkin in the oven too and then pureed that in the blender.

- the fresh ginger worked well in the bread, but I assume powdered ginger would work just as well.

- the original recipe is here and it looks lovely