Acorn Pumpkin Bread
Recipe by Jed Wheeler
I developed this recipe based on an Irish potato bread recipe that I love. Cooked pumpkin has similar ratios of fiber, starch, and moisture to boiled potatoes and the ratios transferred over pretty cleanly. What I ended up with is a dense, moist and rich dessert that slices like bread and tastes like pie.
Ingredients:
8 cups dry roasted pumpkin
3 cups acorn flour
6 eggs
3 cups unbleached cane sugar
½ cup butter
2 tsp salt
Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger to taste.
Process:
Start with your pumpkins. Commercial pumpkins come in two varieties - for jack o lanterns and for eating. Though you can, of course, eat both; jack o lantern pumpkins are bred for size, color, and visual interest - and to last a long time once carved. They tend to be tougher and more bitter. Instead, you can use smaller eating pumpkins or butternut squash.
Take the squash and roast them whole for an hour at 375F. You can slice and clean the pumpkin first if you want to save the seeds, but roasting them whole steams them in their own moisture and helps break down the starches in. the pumpkin to bring out the natural sweetness.
Once the pumpkins are finished roasting, remove from heat, slice off the stems, and cut them in half horizontally to let the steam escape. While they cool, add the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix them thoroughly.
Once the pumpkin is cooled enough to touch, scoop out the seeds and remove the pumpkin skin. Add Pumpkin to a large mixing bowl and let the butter melt in the residual heat as you smash the pumpkin using a potato masher or a wooden spoon.
With the pumpkin and butter mashed together and uniform, add the dry ingredients and eggs. Mix until smooth before pouring it into buttered pans, and baking for 1 hour at 375F.
