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Pumpkin-Olive Oil Bread recipe from The Vanilla Bean Baking Book

Published Date
Author Aimee

by Aimee

This week has been unusually busy for me and I’m five days away from a big deadline with my next book, so I am taking a break from recipe development.

That is sometimes how the business of blogging goes: freelance work and publishing projects ebb and flow, occasionally taking precedence over blog posts.

However, I can promise that I have big plans for the holidays and you are sure to love what is coming. New recipes, round-ups, cookbook recommendations, and perhaps even a giveaway or two are all in the works – just as soon as I make that pesky deadline.

To break up the long work days, Clara and I play in the kitchen together on an occasional baking project, like this lightly-spiced pumpkin olive-oil bread. Today’s recipe comes from a new cookbook I am thrilled to tell you about…

Pumpkin Olive Oil Bread || Simple Bites

On a recent chilly fall day, I roasted the last of the pumpkins and we gathered ingredients on the counter for a cake. I was inspired by a new cookbook that has just been published from one of my favourite reads, the award-winning The Vanilla Bean Blog. Sarah is a supremely talented baker and her first cookbook is absolutely stunning.

The Vanilla Bean Baking Book: Recipes for Irresistible Everyday Favorites and Reinvented Classics is filled with recipes for today’s baker, simple and modern, yet laced with nostalgia. It is quite exquisite, both in tone and beauty, for Sarah is also a gifted writer and photographer.

We’re Facebook friends, so I can honestly say that she has been testing these recipe for the past two years. It’s been torture to watch, but finally her book, arrived in my kitchen and we wasted no time cracking the cover.

Pumpkin Olive Oil Bread || Simple Bites

I’ve bookmarked many, many recipes to try, but this Pumpkin-Olive Oil Bread was first on the list for obvious reasons. We baked it off in mini loaf pans, and while it filled the house with an honest-to-goodness pumpkin-spice scent, we mixed up hot cocoa to accompany the bread.

After-school snack was particularly special that day – and several days since, as the recipe makes a generous amount. And how delicious! This loaf will certainly be replacing our favourite zucchini bread for the winter months as a lunchbox staple and accompaniment to afternoon tea.

Pumpkin-Olive Oil Bread || Simple Bites

Pumpkin-Olive Oil Bread
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Prep time:
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Total time:
Serves/Yield: 2 loaves
Ingredients
  • 3 cups (426g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¾ teaspoon ginger
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 ½ cup (297g) granulated sugar
  • 1 ½ cup (297g) brown sugar
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • One 15-ounce can (425g) unsweetened pumpkin puree
  • 1 ½ cups (171g) pecans, toasted and chopped
Instructions
  1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower middle position. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease two 8 by 4-inch loaf pans and line each with a parchment paper sling.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the eggs on medium high until pale yellow and doubled in size, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the granulated and brown sugars, and beat on medium for two minutes. Add the olive oil, melted butter, vanilla, and pumpkin, and mix together on low speed until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the flour mixture. Mix on low until combined and no lumps in the batter remain. Add the pecans and mix on low until just combined.
  4. Divide the batter equally into the prepared pans and bake 50-60 minutes, until a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If at any point the tops are browning too quickly, lay a piece of aluminum foil over them.
  5. Move the bread to a wire rack, and let the bread cool in the pans for 20 minutes. Using the parchment sling, lift the loaves out of the pan, peel off the paper, and let the bread finish cooling on the wire rack.
3.5.3226

Do ask for Sarah’s cookbook in your local independent bookstore or add it to your Christmas list.

And at the time of writing this, the book is discounted on both Amazon and Indigo…

Congratulations on a beautiful baking book, Sarah. I’m certain this sweet bread is just the first recipe of many that we will come to love as we bake our way from cover to cover.

(My apologies to readers with an email subscription, as you will have gotten a different version of this post. But I’m delighted to include the recipe in this updated post.)

Pumpkin-Olive Oil Bread recipe from The Vanilla Bean Baking Book

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