Thursday, November 15, 2007

Kabocha (or Pumpkin) Spice Bread

[Pumpkinbreadbaked+001edited.JPG]
Kabocha squash or Japanese pumpkin is very popular in the Japanese cuisine. I use kabocha to cook everything pumpkin, like pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, soup, muffins etc. And... Tis the season for pumpkin spice bread!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup kabocha puree (or canned unsweetened pumpkin)
1 large egg

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour an 8 1/2- x 4 1/2-inch (21 x 11 x 6 cm) loafpan. Sift together first 6 ingredients; stir in salt.

2. Combine sugar, oil, and kabocha puree/canned pumpkin in a large bowl; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add egg, beating until well blended. Gradually add dry ingredients, beating at low speed until blended. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour 5 minutes or until loaf is golden and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes; remove from pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.



From our home to yours:
- The dark green skin is very hard and not easy to carve but the pulp is lightly sweet. So, you need to be careful when handling the knife to cut up a kabocha.

- I cooked the kabocha without strings and seeds in the microwave for 20 minutes, an easy and fast way to make a pumpkin puree from scratch.

- This recipe works both with canned pumpkin and kabocha squash puree.

- A different twist to this cake is the cocoa powder added to the batter.


Thank you Kelli for this wonderful Giving thanks week!

If you want to share and visit other blogs with recipes, menus, pictures, poems, and stories, please go to Kelli's blog for more details.

This recipe was adapted from Cottage Living magazine - November 2006

9 comments:

Anh said...

So delicious! I never cook kabocha this way.

Jenn said...

So yummy!! I've been making quite a bit of pumpkin bread so far! way more than usual for some reason!... ;-)

Jenn

Nunnie's Attic said...

I love pumpkin. Bread, pie, cookies, cake - it doesn't matter. But I have to say, I probably wouldn't do the fresh pumpkin thing. And although I love toasted pumpkin seeds - I'm lazy. The can is easier to open. But I could dive into that bread of yours!

Love,
Julie

TBC said...

The pumpkin spice bread looks lovely, Cris. I had not heard of Kabocha squash before. Blogging teaches u so much.:)
Just checked out your pumpkin pie too... looks gorgeous. I would top mine with good amounts of chocolate fudge... yum!

Thistlemoon said...

Oh yeah! I love pumpkin everything! This looks delicious Cris!

JANET said...

Looks so good and a lot like that sweet potato cake I make. I will have to try the pumpkin.

Mansi said...

This looks just like Banana Bread Cris! perfect for thanksgiving!

Anonymous said...

yummy...yummy Happy Thanksgiving

East Meets West Kitchen said...

LOL! We are thinking alike again, as I just made some pumpkin bread too! :)
Your bread looks Great!