Thursday, November 19, 2015

Pumpkin~The Other Squash


Being that I am the only person in our home that really enjoys squash I had to put my thinking cap on when it came to this month's Improv Cooking Challenge ingredients of Squash and Sage. Now, I may or may not have, fooled my guys into eating something on more than one occasion, but could I pull it off with squash? Hmm... Then a light bulb turned on in my head. I'll use pumpkin. It's a squash, even though they don't think of it that way.  And my guys eat pumpkin...
All. Fall. Long. 
There is lots of pumpkin, AKA squash goodness happening at Casa Solîs during this time of year; pies, cookies, breads and the list goes on. So how about working that into a sage and pumpkin bread? I think it could work. What if I add some browned butter, walnuts and a streusel topping? Nutty, a little savory, and sweet.
I must say I was plenteously surprised at the way it turned out and I think I may have made a few converts to eating squash (pumpkin), even if they don't think of it as a squash. ☺ Here is what I did~

Brown Butter Pumpkin And Sage Quick Bread

3/4 cup of unsalted butter
2 tbls. sage
1-1/2 cups all-purose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. salt
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature

For the stuesel topping~
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1tsp. cinnamon
2 tbls. butter melted
2/3 cup finely chopped walnuts

Grease and flour a large loaf pan and set aside. Set oven to 350. Melt your butter in a saucepan over medium heat stirring constantly until it starts to foam. continue stirring until it becomes all golden brown and you can see brown bits at the bottom of saucepan. remove the butter to a bowl and allow to cool while you get everything else together. whisk together your dry ingredients. In another bowl mix together your pumpkin, eggs, cooled brown butter. incorperate with dry ingredients just until combined. Pour batter into your greased and floured pan. Smooth the top and evenly place your stuesel topping. Bake in the center of your oven on a baking sheet for about 40-45 minutes. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out. Enjoy warm with some butter. We ate ours with a little whipped maple butter. I made it using some Vermont Maple syrup I was given by a sweet friend who recently vacationed there.



This is a modified version of a recipe I found @Martha Stewart's webpage.


<!-- end InLinkz script --

4 comments:

  1. I never knew, until this challenge, that browned butter & sage were so delicious together! YUM!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great bread, Cammie! I'm glad you found something that your family would enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too. Have only men it is often a struggle. A couple of them are very, as they call it discriminating eaters. I would say, they are just plain picky. Ha!

      Delete