I can't possibly be the only person who goes on an insane pumpkin buying binge every year when fall weather comes around, can I? I honestly love the stuff. Sweet, savory and everything in between; I become Libby canned pumpkin's biggest fan.
This week, I give you pumpkin bread with brown sugar streusel topping and vanilla glaze as a way to use up some of your pumpkin stash.
Now, if I'm being honest with you (and I would never lie) as much as I love Colorado, this is when I start fantasizing that I live in New England and I'm driving over covered bridges with a kaleidoscope of fall colors every where I look.
Ivy and I would stop for cider, apple picking and visit old quilting shops and then have pumpkin bread with our afternoon coffee.
Of course, we live in Colorado. Which has fall color (yellow) for about a week and then those hills are bare. There was a late freeze in the spring, so apple picking is out the window. But pumpkin bread and afternoon coffee are still a go, so I can make some of my autumn dreams (and hopefully yours too) come true.
High Altitude Pumpkin Bread with Brown Sugar Streusel and Glaze
Adapted from Rocky Hedge Farms Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients:
8 tbsp salted butter, melted
1 cup pumpkin puree (Libby's preferred, not pumpkin pie filling)
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 eggs room temp
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
Brown Sugar Struesel
1/4 butter softened
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp kosher salt
Basic Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1-2 tbsp heavy cream
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (Quick breads can collapse at altitude so the extra heat helps them set up). Line a standard 9x5 loaf pan with parchment paper and leave some overhang to help remove the loaf.
2. Using a stand mixer, combine the wet ingredients, melted butter through vanilla, and using the whisk attachment mix until combined. In a separate bowl, mix whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through cardamom.
3. Switch to paddle attachment and with mixer on low, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients just until combined. Don't over mix.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan. If you're not into streusel, skip ahead. Combine the butter, flour, cinnamon, cardamom and salt and mush together with a fork or your fingers and combine to make a streusel. This crumbly mixture goes right on top of your batter. Press it in lightly to make sure it adheres.
5. Place your loaf pan in the preheated oven and bake for 60 minutes. Check your streusel after 30 minutes and if it's browning too quickly, tent foil over your pan. After the hour is up, test the bread with a tooth pick in the deepest part of the bread. If it comes back clean, pull it. If you still see wet batter on your toothpick, continue to bake and test for 5-10 minutes.
6. Remove your bread from the oven and let it rest in the pan for 15 minutes. Then you can take it out and let it cool completely on a rack. When it's cool, whisk all the glaze ingredients together (adding heavy cream as needed if you want it thinner) and then drizzle over your pumpkin bread.
7. Wait at least 1 hour and more if you can for the loaf to completely cool and the glaze to set up. Cut big slices, grab your favorite coffee and your favorite person and then enjoy!
