One Bowl Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

Happy September, friends! This is one of my favorite months of the year. I love that the crisp, cool mornings blend into jacketless afternoons. I love watching the leaves begin to change. I love how clear the sky is after months of hazy humidity. And I really love pumpkin season!

Last year, I held the first ever Wholefully Pumpkin Week, where I brought you seven straight days of great pumpkin recipes (you can see all my pumpkin recipes here). I did it mostly because I was so excited to start cooking with pumpkin that I had too many fun recipe ideas to narrow it down! So I didn’t, and shared them all. I never expect it to be so crazy popular! Combined, those seven recipes have been shared on social media almost 100,000 times. Y’all love your pumpkin!

I almost couldn’t wait to dive into pumpkin week again this year, but on principle, figured I should at least wait until we hit September, and it wasn’t 96º outside anymore before drowning you in pumpkin puree.

But now that we’re here? It’s on. For the next week, you’ll be getting a daily pumpkin recipe—and not to toot my own horn, but…*toot* *toot*. These suckers are delicious! And I’m SO excited because this year, my dear friend (and blogging queen) Melissa of Bless This Mess is joining in on the pumpkin fun. Head over to her blog each day this week to see a pumpkinful recipe!

And what if you aren’t a pumpkin fan? Well, I still love you, but come back next week when I’ve gotten all the pumpkin out of my system, k?

The first recipe in Pumpkin Week 2016 is a food that is dripping with nostalgia for me. There was a little coffee shop in the student union at my university, and it wasn’t very often that I walked through the union, but when I did, I tried to scrape together my pennies and buy myself a chai latte and a slice of the best. pumpkin. bread. ever.

To me, when I take a bite of pumpkin bread, I think of leaves tumbling down on my alma mater’s campus (one of the most beautiful in the nation) while I walk to drawing class in my fake Ugg boots and listen to Modest Mouse on my giant click wheel iPod. My feet were so much more comfortable in 2002.

For me, the perfect pumpkin bread is dense, heavy, moist, sweet, and distinctly pumpkin spiced. It has to taste basically like you took the best banana bread you’ve ever had mixed with the best pumpkin pie you’ve ever had (minus the banana).

Quick breads like this can go one of two directions—they can be sweet-like a dessert (sometimes frosting is even appropriate) or, you can healthify the ingredients and turn a quick bread into something that works for breakfasts, snacks, or desserts. And that’s what I’ve done here. This pumpkin bread uses 100% whole grain flour. It is sweetened using all-natural maple syrup. This isn’t quite the sugar bomb pumpkin bread that I remember from my college days, but it is equally amazing!

This recipe makes for awesome holiday gifts, too (if you’re starting to think about that kind of thing already). I like to bake these up into mini loaves—you can get pans that do 4-8 of them at a time—and then wrap them up in a clear plastic bag and tie a pretty bow on it. Perfect little gift that everyone loves!

You can used either canned or homemade pumpkin puree in this recipe. By using homemade pumpkin puree, you won’t quite get the vibrant orange color you see here. Canned pumpkin puree is actually made using a bright orange squash—actual pumpkin puree is much lighter (almost yellow) in color. It’ll still be delicious, just not festively orange!

Enjoy this recipe, and get excited for tomorrow—we’re going savory! Happy Pumpkin Week, friends.

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One Bowl Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

Yield: 12 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Dense, rich, and moist, this Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread comes together in one bowl—no need to dirty lots of dishes!

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Ingredients

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour (I recommend Bob's Red Mill Ivory Wheat)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil or melted butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 8" x 4" loaf pan with parchment paper, set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
3. Add the pumpkin puree, eggs, Greek yogurt, maple syrup, and coconut oil or butter. Stir until just moistened—do not overmix or the bread will be tough. The mixture should be thick.
4. Spread into the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes, or until the top is brown and cracked, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out cleanly.
5. Let cool completely before slicing.

Notes

You can sub in 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, if you prefer.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 serving
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 178Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 34mgSodium: 218mgCarbohydrates: 26gFiber: 3gSugar: 9gProtein: 5g

At Wholefully, we believe that good nutrition is about much more than just the numbers on the nutrition facts panel. Please use the above information as only a small part of what helps you decide what foods are nourishing for you.