Here we are in early October and the change of seasons is undeniable. The mornings are cooler … and darker … and the leaves are all beginning to change. Our CSA boxes are overflowing with a number of winter squash varieties and apples we’d never tried before. Life is good.
Time to fill the kitchen with the warm scents of fall … cinnamon, cloves, baking bread. After seeing so many blog recipes lately for pumpkin breads or other baked pumpkin goodies, I wondered if we could make something similar, but substitute acorn squash instead. After all, when you have eight of them on your counter, you need to get creative!
I turned to one of my favorite new cookbooks this year, Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole Grain Flours by Kim Boyce. If you are at all interested in expanding your baking skills to use alternative flours, I would highly recommend checking out this cookbook. She has a great recipe for Banana Cereal Muffins that I turned to for guidance in developing this recipe. In particular, the recipe includes whole grain rye flour which is remarkably softer, sweeter and more subtle than you might imagine. Nothing like what we’re accustomed to with dense loaves of pumpernickel or commercial rye breads.
The recipe also relies predominantly on overripe bananas and unsulphured molasses for its sweetness. A kiss of brown sugar rounds things out, but you could likely substitute honey or pure maple syrup.
In making the bread pictured here, I used acorn squash. I’m sure you could easily substitute with a number of other winter squashes like butternut, carnival, buttercup or pumpkin. And I probably went a little overboard with the apple bits in this one, but goodness, I love those little guys packed into each slice.
Recipe Wrap-up
Ingredients:
- 1 cup whole grain rye flour
- 1 cup unbleached bread flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp coarse salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 3 ripe bananas
- 1 cup baked acorn squash
- 1-2 cups diced tart apples
- 2 Tbsp unsulphured molasses
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
Instructions:
- The squash can be left whole for baking — just cut a few slits into the sides of the squash and place in a glass baking dish or on a baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour at 375F or until the skin can be readily pierced with a fork. Allow to cool, then split open, remove the seeds and strings and scoop the meat from the shell.
- Combine the dry ingredients (first 7 above) in a large mixing bowl.
- Mash the bananas in a separate bowl. Add the remaining ingredients to the bananas and mix thoroughly.
- Carefully add the wet ingredients to the dry mix. Stir just until everything is combined and the flours have become moistened.
- Butter a 5×9″ loaf pan. Add the bread mixture to the loaf pan and bake at 350F for approximately 1 hour, or until a knife inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then transfer from the loaf pan to a wire rack to finish cooling.
What are some of your favorite quick breads that use our autumn harvest?
Shared with: Fresh Bites Friday, Foodie Friday, Weekend Potluck, Weekend Bloggy Reading, Natural Living Monday, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Hearth and Soul, Fat Tuesday, Fresh Foods Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, Whole Foods Wednesday, Eat Make Grow, Tastetastic Thursdays, Mom’s Test Meal Mondays
Yum. I will have to give this a try!
madge | the vegetarian casserole queen recently posted..Party Ranch Dip
This looks so delicious. Cannot wait to make this. Thanks for sharing it. Come and visit us. We are having a wonderful giveaway this week that I think you would love.
Yum! I love everything about fall and this is like fall all wrapped up in a bread. Can’t wait to give this a try!
Andrea recently posted..Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
The name for this bread is perfect! Acorn squash and apples along with molasses which I just love – these ingredients have got to yield a wonderful tasting bread! It certainly looks wonderful!
mjskit recently posted..Pear Apple Cobbler – A Twist on an Old Favorite
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holy cow dude! you’ve used squash, apples and bananas and made them into bread??? you have my heart
good job on using stellar seasonal ingredients to make carby deliciousness. haha
thank you for sharing your post with us at the Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up! I hope to see you again this week with more incredible seasonal and whole/real fresh food ideas
xo, kristy
kristy @ gastronomical sovereignty recently posted..Localism: Crap.
Thanks Kristy … your comments always give me a grin.
Congratulations! You have been featured on Natural Living Mondays! Thanks so much for participating. I cant wait to see what you have going on this week!
http://www.naturallivingmamma.com/2012/10/14/natural-living-mondays-5/
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Wow Amanda! That’s great and thank you! I enjoy checking in with your blog hop.
What a delicious looking bread, and the recipe sounds delicious. I’ve got 4 butternut squash sitting on the side waiting to be used, so your timing is perfect. Love the bits of apple throughout the loaf! I’m going to feature your lovely bread in my Hearth and Soul post tomorrow.
April @ The 21st Century Housewife recently posted..A Glimpse of Our Home
Thank you so much April! I hope you enjoy the bread.
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The bread looks wonderful but it sounds AMAZING
You have all these ingredients – banana, apples and squash – I wish I could taste it now