Finally we can say that fall has arrived in New England. This year the weather has been highly unusual with us seeing really high temperatures even in September. I bet that confused the trees and they forgot that their leaves needed to change color 🙂 I had been quite disappointed until now since the lovely and spectacular foliage that we usually are so blessed to witness, was not to be seen.
But that was until last week and now this week suddenly we started seeing colors everywhere. All of a sudden, driving the kids around town for their activities seems so pleasurable! I will occasionally also stop the car and take pictures, which results in the kids letting out sighs and protests 🙂 But I don’t care – I have got to get those pics!
After fall photography, fall baking was next on my list. My neighbor gave us a giant pumpkin that they grew in their backyard! It was so huge that I had to ask my husband’s help to cut into 4 pieces which then I roasted in the oven to get the puree. I also reserved the seeds as I normally do and toasted them too. Read my post on how to roast a pumpkin and on how to toast the seeds here.
I usually bake a pumpkin bread which is always loved by the kids. This year I wanted to try and make a healthier version and so I searched for paleo versions of pumpkin bread. I found a recipe that looked good from ‘DoyouevenPaleo’ – Paleo Pumpkin Banana bread. I liked that since I had a very ripe banana that I wanted to use 🙂 But that recipe had almond flour and since I did not have that, I wanted to try making it using coconut flour. So I modified the recipe and tried it using coconut flour also adding some coconut oil to ensure the cake came out moist and not dry. I added some walnuts for crunch factor since my husband loves nuts. But you can easily omit that and make this a nut free cake. Since I am writing this post, you can see that my experiment was a success! The kids and my husband said it was delicious. Since it has eggs, I did not try it – I am wary of reintroducing eggs. Perhaps next year! Anyways, glad the recipe turned out good. So now I can make this regularly for the kids since I have about 6 packs of pumpkin puree in the freezer!
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed
- 4 large eggs
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1½ cup coconut flour
- ½ cup tapioca flour
- 2 tbsp melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tsp pumpkin spice
- ½ tsp allspice
- ½ cup walnuts (optional)
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the pumpkin puree, mashed banana, eggs, maple syrup, and mix until smooth using an electric mixer (or you can use a stand mixer). Add the coconut flour, tapioca flour, coconut oil, baking soda, salt, and spices. Mix using mixer to blend well together. Add the walnuts and mix gently.
- Line a 9" x 5" loaf pan with parchment paper and pour in the batter. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
any alternative for coconut and Tapioca flour? — cannot get it in INDIA
would certainly like to try it!
Hi Maria, you can try using almond flour, which you can make at home by soaking almonds in hot water for an hour, removing the skins and then wiping them with cloth to remove water and then letting them dry for a couple of hours in the sun. Then dry grind using a mixer/food processor to get almond flour. You can also make coconut flour at home. See my post where I explain how to make homemade coconut flour : https://cook2nourish.com/2017/05/make-home-made-coconut-milk-coconut-flour-coconut-yoghurt.html. Hope this helps!