*Fresh Ginger* Spiced Pumpkin Gingerbread

Growing up, my mother made a few fancy breads for the holidays: a zucchini bread for Thanksgiving and an apple bread for Christmas. With the holidays just around the corner, I began craving a spiced holiday bread. Inspired by the flavors in a cake recipe from the cookbook “Salt Fat Acid Heat,” I set out to turn this cake into a healthy bread loaf with pumpkin, walnuts, zucchini…you know, ALL the things that I love from my favorite bread and muffin recipes. I’m proud to say that my first attempt was amazing! But to be sure, I made three other versions and conducted a blind taste test with my husband to ensure that the recipe I posted was the best.

A few notes on the ingredients:

• For the pumpkin in this recipe, I used fresh kabocha squash (Japanese pumpkin) chopped up, boiled in water and mashed. You could also used canned pumpkin to save some time.

• I used Monk Fruit with Erythritol sweetener instead of processed white sugar. You could use regular sugar here, but I purposely used this zero calorie sweetener to keep the overall sugar content lower since the recipe already includes 1/3 cup of molasses.

• The fresh ginger is a must. I used this in addition to the ground ginger on your spice rack. Do not skip the fresh ginger. This is what gives the bread that extra spice! To mince the ginger with the sweetener (see instructions step #3 below) I used one of my favorite kitchen tools: this Tupperware mini chopper. It’s more like a mincer than a chopper and I use it all the time to mince garlic and ginger for dinner recipes. It’s amazing!

• The zucchini in this recipe is optional, but more than 1/2 cup is NOT better. The zucchini adds additional moisture to the bread (it’s still quite moist if you choose not to add it), but more than 1/2 cup makes the bread too moist and it becomes very flat when baked.

My mother always makes dozens of loaves of apple bread for Christmas gifts and gives them out to everyone she knows. This year I will be following in her footsteps and making mini loafs of this recipe to gift to friends, teachers and neighbors. I hope you enjoy this *fresh ginger* spiced pumpkin gingerbread. It goes great with an afternoon cup of coffee or tea, and it’s even better when shared in the company of a good friend. Happy Holidays!

In this loaf that I photographed I didn’t use zucchini, just FYI!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp clove

• 1 egg, beaten

• 1/3 cup monk fruit with erythritol sweetener

• 35 grams fresh ginger

• 2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted

• 1/3 cup molasses

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree

• 1/2 cup shredded zucchini (optional)

• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Mix dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl: flour, salt, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon & clove. Set aside.

3. Remove the peel of the ginger root and cut it into a few pieces. Using a blender or food process, puree the ginger and monk fruit sweetener together until well blended. (As mentioned above, I use this mechanical chopper.)

4. Crack and beat an egg in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the other wet ingredients: the blended ginger + monk fruit sweetener, coconut oil, molasses, vanilla extract and pumpkin puree.

5. Combine dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stir in zucchini and/or walnuts if using.

6. Pour mixture into a silicon loaf pan (mine is 4.5” x 8.5”) and bake for 50 minutes. If not using a silicon loaf pan, coat pan with coconut oil to prevent sticking. Use a toothpick to verify that bread is done by sticking it in the center of the loaf. It should pull out clean (no batter stuck to toothpick) when the bread is done.

7. Let the bread cool in the silicon loaf pan for 10 minutes before removing the bread from the pan. Let cool on wire rack. After a day, store leftover bread in the fridge for up to a week.