Name: Pumpkin Bread with Bay Leaf Syrup
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Ingredients: 2 1/4 cups (280 g) all purpose flour; 1 tsp baking powder; 1/2 tsp baking soda; 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt; 1 tsp ground cinnamon*; 1/2 tsp ground cardamom*; 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg*; 1/4 tsp ground cloves*; 1/4 tsp ground all spice*; 1/2 tsp ground ginger*; 1/2 cup (106 g) brown sugar; 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar; 3/4 cup (150 g) avocado oil*; 2 eggs; 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin; 2 tbsp demerara sugar, for sprinkling; 3 tbsp pumpkin seeds, for sprinkling; 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar; 1/4 cup (50 g) water; 3 dried bay leaves

An easy, moist pumpkin bread filled with warming spices and topped with an herbal bay leaf syrup and crunchy pumpkin seeds.

Does the world need another pumpkin bread recipe? Probably not. Am I going to give you one anyway? You bet your bottom dollar.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a pumpkin spice latte kinda gal, but a good loaf of pumpkin bread is something I can get behind. Like banana and zucchini bread, pumpkin bread is just good. It’s good in the morning with a cup of coffee, it’s good in the afternoon slathered with butter. It’s good fresh out of the oven, and it’s good 3 days later. It’s good in a house or with a mouse or here or there…you get the idea. It’s easy and satisfying and exactly how I want to celebrate the first few minutes of fall.

a very simple pumpkin bread

This pumpkin bread is fairly straight forward featuring a blending method technique and your usual cast of characters: flour, sugar, brown sugar, leavening agents, salt, spices, oil, eggs, and pumpkin. The addition of brown sugar gives a more caramelized flavor, while the oil, eggs, and pumpkin make this bread super moist. (And that’s a good word in this case!)

I’ve included a bunch of warming spices, but if you have a chai spice blend or hawaij spice blend laying around from our Dirty Chai Banana Bread or Hawaij Snickerdoodles, feel free to sub that instead. You could also use store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice.

Finally, the thing that makes pumpkin bread so dense and moist is oil. Oil is a liquid fat with no water content so it gives a softness and density to this cake that a creamed butter recipe wouldn’t. I used avocado oil, but you can substitute any neutral oil (like grapeseed or vegetable) in its place. Or, if you are like me and love that savory olive oil flavor in your desserts, a good, fragrant olive oil would work really nicely.

bay leaf simple syrup

You know I couldn’t just make a basic pumpkin bread and leave it at that.

We finish this loaf with a bay leaf simple syrup made by simmering sugar, water, and dried bay leaves. It’s herbal and grassy and complements the pumpkin flavor so well. It also sticks to the pumpkin seeds creating a crunchy outer shell that I’m 100% here for.

Yield

one 9x5" loaf

Author

Anna Ramiz

Prep time

10 Min

Cook time

1 Hour

Total time

1 H & 10 M

Pumpkin Bread with Bay Leaf Syrup

An easy, moist pumpkin bread filled with warming spices and topped with an herbal bay leaf syrup and crunchy pumpkin seeds.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups (280 g) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon*
1/2 tsp ground cardamom*
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg*
1/4 tsp ground cloves*
1/4 tsp ground all spice*
1/2 tsp ground ginger*
1/2 cup (106 g) brown sugar
1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
3/4 cup (150 g) avocado oil*
2 eggs
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
2 tbsp demerara sugar, for sprinkling
3 tbsp pumpkin seeds, for sprinkling

for the bay leaf syrup

1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (50 g) water
3 dried bay leaves

Instructions

to make the pumpkin bread

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Line a 9x5” loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, sugar, and avocado oil for 1-2 minutes, until mixture is lightened slightly. Add the eggs and whisk again until smooth and homogenized. Whisk in the pumpkin.
Add the dry ingredients to the batter and whisk until batter is smooth and no flour clumps remain. Pour the batter into your prepared baking pan and sprinkle the top with demerara sugar and pumpkin seeds.
Bake for 55-65 minutes, until a skewer or knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
When the bread is done, remove from oven and pour the bay leaf syrup over the top. Let cool completely in the pan.

to make the bay leaf syrup

Combine sugar, water, and bay leaves in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes, until fragrant and sugar has completely dissolved.

Notes:

You can substitute the spices for 1 3/4 tsp of my chai spice blend or hawaij spice blend.
If you don't have avocado oil, you can use another neutral oil like vegetable, sunflower, or grapeseed.

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I don’t know about you, but it has a been a week over here! Last week, I went to plug my external hard drive into my computer and it started making a very suspect clicking noise. It refused to show up on my computer and when I tell you that my heart dropped into my stomach, I am not exaggerating. I spent the next few hours unsuccessfully trying to get my computer to read my hard drive, followed by a few days of anxious hand-wringing and lots of tears. Friends, it’s gone. My pictures from the last three years. All of the typed copies of my recipes. Invoices and business information. It’s all gone. (I’m still planning on sending my hard drive away to a magical technologically-advanced person in hopes that they can recover all of my data, but that’s a pricey expense, so at least for now, it’s all gone.) It’s been a lot to wrap my head around and part of me feels a little like I’m starting over completely, which is a very scary thing. I’m very thankful that I run this here blog, where all of my recipes are saved on the internet. I’m also thankful that I have a plethora of notebooks full of scribbled recipes. I’m extra thankful that I’d already uploaded a bunch of images for the freelance projects I was working on and that I use a design website for a lot of my invoicing. All of that being said, losing all that you’ve created over the past three years is very emotionally-taxing and calls for cake.

So I’ve been trying to focus on things I can control, prying my eyes away from my computer and getting back to baking new things. These cute little bundt-muffins have been the perfect distraction this week. I set out to make little bundt cakes, but slightly over-filled my molds. When I took the cakes out of the oven, they had risen into perfect little muffin tops that I couldn’t bear to get rid of, so here we have bundt-muffins—the newest breakfast cake you didn’t know you needed. This cake recipe is also the most versatile I’ve ever made. In addition to 12 little bundt-muffins, it makes an entire loaf cake. Or you can make a bunch of bundt-muffins and no loaf cake. Or you can make two loaf cakes! Or you can make just plain muffins, no bundt. Or you can even try baking it in a 9x13 pan! SO MANY OPTIONS. Whatever combination brings you the most joy, I’m here for it.

A few practical notes: You can sub the grapefruit for any citrus you have on hand and the bay leaves for another hearty herb or flower. While I love the grapefruit-bay leaf flavor combo, a lemon rosemary pairing would be delightful, as would an orange-bay leaf or lime-coconut duo. As always with my recipes, I encourage you to play around a bit.

grapefruit, loaf cake, bundt, citrus, cake, baking

cakes and pies

Yield: Makes 12 miniature bundt-muffins + 1 loaf

Author: Anna Ramiz