I discovered a totally amazing cooking page a while back called Feeding a Loon. Kris and Wesley are a really sweet pair of guys who love to cook together in their kitchen.
I find them incredibly entertaining and could watch their You Tube videos for hours. (I would love to have their kitchen instead of my 12 in-square space to work in!)
They posted this incredible sounding pumpkin bread a week or so ago and as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to bake it myself.
The Loon just made it sound so incredibly good with his oohs and aahs. If you have never watched one of their videos you need to. Why these guys don't have their own cooking show is a mystery to me!
The recipe uses Butterscotch chips, which are not an easy ingredient to find here in the UK, but I did have a few precious bags in my freezer and I cracked one open just for this.
I hoard North American ingredients such as this like gold because they are so hard to come by. If I ever end up using them, it's because I am baking something that I think will be totally amazing.
I would be so mad at myself if I wasted this precious commodity on something blah. I am ever so glad I took a chance and baked these however.
They ended up being totally amazing! I was so pleased. Look at the scrumminess of those butterscotch chips!
I buy my Butterscotch chips here. When you see the cost of them, you will understand why I treat them like gold. Other than that I rely on the good nature of friends to send them to me.
With the price of postage these days you can bet that doesn't happen very often, but I am very grateful when it does! I do think that fudge baking bits that are readily available here in the UK would work just as well.
Tinned pumpkin is much more readily available here in the UK now. I got mine at Ocado, but you will find it in a lot of grocery stores these days.
When I first moved over here to the UK it was as scarce as Hen's teeth!!
I did make some changes to the recipe which I felt improved it somewhat. I used Vanilla paste instead of vanilla extract. I wanted a real vanilla oomph to go along with that butterscotch flavour of the chips.
Kris and Wesley use only nutmeg in their loaves. I decided to add some other spices. I cut down the amount of nutmeg and added cinnamon, cloves, allspice and ginger. Oh boy . . .
You should have smelled this when it was baking. I was sitting on the sofa oohing and aahing about how delicious it was smelling! My house smelled like a little bit of heaven on earth if I don't say so myself.
Mine took slightly longer to bake than theirs did. About a quarter of an hour longer. I also thought it was browning a bit too quickly in my oven so I threw a sheet of tin foil loosely over top. Everyone's oven is slightly different.
That's why it pays to keep an eye on things when they are baking. Don't be afraid to test and if you don't think something is done, pop it back in for a bit longer.
Rather that than have a loaf that is partially raw in the middle. Been there, done that . . . not good.
Just look at those little tunnels of butterscotch . . .
Don't they look amazing? Mmmm . . . Mmmm . . . Mmmm . . .
I'm with the Loon on this one. It is amazingly tasty.
The hardest part of this is waiting for it to cool enough to glaze, and then waiting for the glaze to set! Oh I am sure you are going to absolutely fall in love with this!
Yield: Makes 2 (9X5) loaves
Butterscotch Pumpkin Bread
This is the most amazing pumpkin bread I have ever baked. Makes one to keep and one to free or give away!
ingredients:
- 145g white vegetable fat (Crisco, Trex or White Flora) (2/3 cup)
- 509g cup caster sugar (2 2/3 cup)
- 4 large free range eggs
- 1 (425g) tin of pumpkin puree (not pie filling) (15oz tin)
- 1/2 TBS pure Vanilla paste
- 156ml water (2/3 cup)
- 470g plain flour (3 1/3 cups)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground allspice
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 354g butterscotch chips (1 1/2 cups)
For the glaze:
- 130g icing sugar, sifted (1 cup)
- 2 TBS melted butter
- 1 TBS whole milk
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
instructions:
How to cook Butterscotch Pumpkin Bread
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter two (9 X 5 inch) loaf tins and then line with baking paper, leaving an overhang so that you can lift it out when done.
- Cream the shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy in a very large bowl. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the pumpkin, water and vanilla paste.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and spices. Stir into the creamed mixture, then stir in the butterscotch chips. Divide the batter equally between both loaf tins, levelling off the top.
- Bake for 1 hour to 1 1/4 hour until risen and a toothpick inserted in the centre of the loaves comes out clean. Check when it is about 3/4 done and if you think it is getting too brown, cover loosely with a sheet of foil.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for half an hour in the pan on a wire rack, then lift out of the tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. This will take several hours.
- Once the loaves are completely cold, whisk together the glaze ingredients to give you a smooth drizzle icing. Drizzle decoratively over the loaves. Leave to set completely before serving.
- Serve cut into thick slices. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
This would make the perfect Neighbour gift for Christmas. In fact I gave the second loaf that I baked to my next door neighbour on the day. She fell in love also.
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Just wondering you could suggest a substitute for the solid vegetable shortening?
ReplyDeleteYou can use butter or even coconut oil. I am not sure how this will mess with the integrity of the bread however. I did find this which explains a bit about the differences. I hope this helps! https://www.thespruceeats.com/substitute-shortening-for-butter-995116#:~:text=For%20most%20recipes%2C%20you%20can%20substitute%20butter%20for,fat%2C%20butter%20is%20only%20about%2080%20percent%20fat.
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