Flourless Pumpkin Bread With Bonus Smoothie Recipe

During the COVID-19 pandemic I've moved back in with my parents for two reasons - I was living alone and wanted to be with someone I knew if I was only allowed out of the house for an hour a day, and work's been a bit slow, so I'm saving on rent! Mum loves to try different types of bread, but she tends to avoid those made with traditional flour as they don't quite agree with her. So I thought I'd try to find a flourless pumpkin bread recipe to try.

All of the recipes I found online used canned pumpkin which isn't something that's really readily available in Australia, so I took a recipe and changed it up to make sure I could make it! The bonus was, with the leftover pumpkin, I could make a smoothie that I hadn't made in AGES!

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For this recipe you'll need:

• 2 cups oats (can be either traditional/old-fashioned or quick cooking)
• Half a butternut pumpkin (you can probably use any pumpkin you like)*
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil*
• 1/2 cup of maple syrup
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon*
• A good shake of nutmeg*
• A good shake of ginger*
• A good shake of allspice*
• A good shake of clove*

* You can substitute the pumpkin and olive oil for a can of pure pumpkin (15oz/425g)

* You can substitute the spices for 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice

Equipment you'll need:

• Baking tray
• Baking paper/parchment
• 23 x 12cm (9 x 5 in) loaf pan
• Measuring cup
• Large knife
• Chopping board
• Teaspoon
• Tablespoon
• Large
• Blender

If you want to make the bonus recipe, you'll also need:

• 4 heaped tablespoons pumpkin puree from the original recipe
• About 3/4 cup of milk (your choice: regular, almond, coconut, soy, etc)
• A handful of fresh spinach leaves
• 1-2 tablespoons of raw cacao powder (or substitute cocoa)
• 1-2 tablespoons of peanut butter

Gather everything together as outlined in the intro above.

Preheat your oven to 200 Celsius / 390 Fahrenheit and prepare your baking tray with a sheet of baking paper.

As I mentioned, canned pumpkin is not readily available in Australia, so I've had to improvise. If you have access to canned pumpkin and prefer to use it, you can skip these 'Pumpkin' steps and move straight to preparing the loaf tin.

Grab your pumpkin and scoop out the seeds.

Place it on a chopping board and using your large knife cut it into four pieces. Place these pieces on the baking tray and drizzle with olive oil.

Rub in the olive oil on all exposed sides of the pumpkin (but not the skin).

Then place your pumpkin with one of the exposed sides down and place into the oven for about 45 minutes, turning halfway.

You should be able to easily insert a fork into the pumpkin when it's done.

As you roast the pumpkin it will get darker as seen in the pictures. Once it's done, take it out of the oven and let it completely cool (this may take some time, so turn off your oven in between).

Once it's cooled, turn your pieces over, so you can access the skin. The skin should just peel away like you see in the photos. Peel all the skin off your pumpkin until you're left with just the orange flesh.

Then slice it up into smaller chunks.

Place all of your pieces into the blender and blend on a medium to high setting. It may take some time to make sure you get all the bits. If your blender comes with a tamper, then make sure you use that to push all the pieces towards the blades. It's done when you have a smooth pumpkin puree.

Scoop/pour out the puree into a large bowl.

Now we're good to make the batter!

Preparing tins was always a bit difficult until I discovered this hack.

If you've got a rectangular or square tin, measure out your baking paper so it spans the tin.

Get a pair of scissors and place two cuts at each end towards each of the 4 corners of the tin. Cut in far enough that it reaches the actual corner (but doesn't go too much further).

Place the baking paper on the benchtop and fold in the flaps you've created (see picture).

Then fold the longer sides up and place back into the tin, pushing the base all the way to the base of the tin. The sides should now fold easily in and it should look fairly neat, all ready for the batter to be poured!

Before beginning this step, preheat your oven to 170 Celsius / 350 Fahrenheit.

Now that the pumpkin is done, measure out 2 cups of puree and place it in the blender you just used. If you're using the canned pumpkin, place the contents of one can into a blender.

Add the remaining ingredients: Oats, maple syrup, eggs, baking soda and spices.

Blend it on a high setting until it's all smooth and combined.

Pour the batter into your prepared tin.

Place it in the oven.

Because the batter is so dense, it will take a while to bake, but the bread will brown on top really quickly.

After about 25-30 minutes, take out the loaf and cover the top with foil. Place it back in the oven for another 25-30 minutes (total 50 minutes to an hour).

Check that the loaf is cooked through by inserting a skewer, it's done if it comes out clean. If the skewer still has wet batter sticking to it, place it back in the oven for a little longer and try again.

Once it's done, place it on a cooling rack to cool down.

Cut a slice and enjoy. We tried ours with some butter. I think it could also be good with some cream cheese icing/frosting. But it's also nice just on it's own.

But what to drink with it...? Well apart from your obvious coffee or tea, you could get pumpkin'd out with my little bonus recipe for a Snickers inspired pumpkin smoothie. Check out the step below.

What to do with the leftover pumpkin puree? Well you could make another loaf if you're so inclined. But what about a drink to go with it? Or a healthy dessert, snack or breakfast?

Smoothies are very personal - everyone has preferences and the beauty of a smoothie is it's forgiving! If you don't feel like too much chocolate, reduce the cacao powder. If you feel like a thicker smoothie, use less milk. It really is up to you. Therefore, this recipe is used as a guide, but feel free to mix it up to enjoy it your way!

Place into a blender:

• About 4 heaped tablespoons of pumpkin puree
• 1-2 tablespoons of raw cacao powder (you can substitute cocoa if that's all you've got)
• Fill the blender jug up to the 1 and 1/4 cup line on your blender with milk (about 3/4 - 1 cup of milk)
• Add 1-2 tablespoons of peanut butter
• A generous handful of fresh spinach leaves

Close the lid and blend on high for 15-30 seconds. Pour (or scoop depending on the thickness) into a glass and enjoy!