Holiday Pumpkin gingerbread

If you're like me you think fruitcake is an excellent way to ruin perfectly good fruit and sometimes nuts. This Pumpkin gingerbread is moist, delicious and would make a wonderful addition to your Christmas or Chanukah meal. I like to serve this bread at the beginning of dinner with a nice soup or salad and use 1/2 a cup of sugar, but you can definitely serve it for dessert and use 3/4 cup for a sweeter bread. The bread is very easy to make so do ahead and make a double batch. Give one as a gift or put it in the freezer for another time.  If you want to make this more like a fruit cake add golden raisins, or chopped apricots to the batter. Oh ya and the bread is pretty healthy too because you're using whole wheat instead of white flour. You'll never buy fruit cake again!


INGREDIENTS:

DRY:
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (pastry or stone ground)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
2 pieces of grated candied ginger (optional)

WET: 
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 – 3/4 cup cane or demerara sugar {depending on how sweet you like
2 tbs sunflower oil (or veg oil) {you can also use melted butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
* crushed nuts or whole pumpkin seeds (optional) for the top of the bread - I used chopped almonds, but you can use anything!

BAKE: Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan with PAM cooking spray. Whisk dry ingredients, and wet ingredients separately, then fold the wet into the dry – do not over “mix”. Bake for 50-55 mins. *Test batter with a tooth pick to make sure it comes out dry. Leave the bread in the loaf pan for 10 mins after removing from the oven, then let cool for another 10-15 mins before you dig in.