As soon as I see sugar pumpkins in the store I get excited to start baking with fresh pumpkin. And you know what? Using fresh pumpkin is actually a lot easier than you’d think.

To cook the pumpkin:

Cut the pumpkin in half from top to bottom and remove the stem. Scoop out all the insides. Place face down on a baking sheet with a 1/4″ of water and bake at 400 degrees for about 45 min to 1 hour-basically whenever you can easily put a fork through it. Let the pumpkin cool and remove the cooked pumpkin from the outer shell and put into a blender to puree. Now you’re ready to bake.

Pumpkin bread recipe (vegan and oil free) makes 1 loaf:

-2 1/2 cups of cooked pumpkin puree (see above)
-1 cup cane sugar
-1 TBSP of ground flax seed mixed with 3 TBSP of water-let sit until thickened
-1/2 cup almond milk
-1/2 teas vanilla extract
-2 cups of spelt flour
-1 1/2 teas baking soda
-1 1/2 teas baking powder
-1 1/2 teas cinnamon
-1/2 teas grated nutmeg

optional:-1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips, 1/2 cup of macadamia nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil 1 glass loaf pan (9 by 5).

Combine the pumpkin puree, sugar, flax seed mixture, almond milk, and vanilla in a medium bowl. In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and optional ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until just combined.

Pour into loaf pan and top with chocolate chips, nuts, or I used pumpkin seeds. Bake for 45 min-1 hour. When top springs back when pressed it’s ready to come out. The toothpick in the loaf won’t really work because this recipe is super, super moist. Let cool in the pan for a few minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Note: this recipe is super, super moist and sticky with so much pumpkin so you may think you should have cooked it longer but it’s fine and ready to eat.

Enjoy!