In The Kitchen With Kat-Pumpkin Oat Bread

So yep, around these parts there are more than a few pumpkins lying about.

Okay, there's also lots of vats of fermenting drink, squash, tomatoes, and about a gazillion other homestead harvest artifacts spread around the house, but to me that's just the delightful signs of the season.

And with all that pumpkin present, you had to know that there was going to be a pumpkin bread post at some point. If there wasn't I feel like it would have squashed someone's dreams.

Okay, I quit now, I let it gourd.

AHH!

Anyway, I had some pumpkin puree (imagine that lol!) in my fridge and my fam loves quick breads for breakfast.

I know, I know, quick breads are basically cake, so who wouldn't love them for breakfast, but I do tend to add ingredients and sub out certain things to try and make it a bit healthier.

However, as my son is doing three basketball practices a day, and my daughter not only has high school, but also is training to be a medical professional and is FFA president, I feel like they might need the extra calories!

Plus, I put chopped nuts into the bread, which is the secret to my husband's happiness when it comes to baked goods, so already I was on my way to a family fondness win with this recipe.

To start off the pumpkin oat bread rodeo, I first talked a bit of trash talk to this lazy creature who took it upon himself to attack my leg like a freshly roasted ear of elote while I tried to drink my coffee this morning after going out in to the Arctic cold to feed the animals. How dare he look so comfortable!

Then, I put all my dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. I sifted the flour, baking soda, and salt in first, then whisked in the oats.

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Next, I got out my stand mixer and beat the eggs, pumpkin, sugars, milk, oil, and vanilla extract together really well.

After that I mixed in the dry ingredients until just blended. Because who likes tough quick bread? I mean, if you like jerky-textured, flat quick bread that's cool. I just don't.

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And so, with that fluffy, non-leathery texture goal in mind, I gently folded the chopped walnuts in, put half of the batter with just nuts in a greased loaf pan, and then stirred in some chocolate chips into the other half of the batter before plopping it into the other greased loaf pan I had prepared. (This recipe makes two loaves).

And yes, my house is like a lot of other houses where some people like one thing and others don't. The kids and I are chocolate monsters, so my hubs is a bit burnt out on chocolate (and pizza), two things that the kids and I would eat everyday.

Thus, since I am capable of being somewhat nice on occasion, I made a loaf with just walnuts and a loaf with walnuts and chocolate chips. It really wasn't that hard. Plus, I even messed it up a bit, so that was the me being true to myself part of this recipe😉 (I didn't estimate half the batter correctly and had to add just a bit of the chocolate chip kind to the supposedly non-chocolate kind, the hubs won't mind lol).

And after baking the loaves for an hour, I was super elated with how gorgeous they both turned out. Beautifully brown and cooked completely through. WIN!

But enough blathering. Here is the recipe, I hope you enjoy a still warm slice of tastiness just as much as my family all did😊

Pumpkin Oat Bread

3 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
2 scant cups of pumpkin puree (you want just shy of two cups, so a standard 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree or almost two cups of homemade)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups of packed brown sugar
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

Grease two 9X5X3 loaf pans and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a mixing bowl, sift flour, salt, spices, and baking soda together. Then whisk oats into flour mixture.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugars, pumpkin, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla until well combined.

Mix in dry ingredients until just blended together. DON'T OVERMIX!

Fold in a cup of chopped walnuts and a cup of chocolate chips.

Split the batter between your two prepared pans and place in preheated oven to bake for 60-65 minutes. The loafs are done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool loaves ten minutes in their pans before removing and placing them on a rack to cool further.

Slice and enjoy!

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And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's super spicy, fr fr no cap iPhone.