This month I took part in a recipe exchange and a bunch of amazing recipes landed in my inbox – including this one.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup coconut sugar *
1 cup pumpkin puree **
2 large eggs, room temperature ***
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup buttermilk

Optional: 1 cup of oats + 1 cup of chocolate chips

* I modified original suggestion of 1/2 cup brown sugar + 1/2 cup sugar

** You can feed the remaining pumpkin puree to a baby!

*** Oops! Mine were not room temperature – but it was OK

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.
• In a medium bowl mix the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla. Mix to combine.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt.
• Add 1/3 of the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture, gently fold in, and add in 1/3 of the buttermilk. Continue working in thirds until all of the flour mixture and the buttermilk is incorporated in the batter. Mix in oats and chocolate chips.
• Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 1 hour before removing and slicing.

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Who can resist pumpkin anything this time of year? Especially when you add chocolate chips to it… as I do with about anything I bake. Thank you Emily for sharing this recipe!

If you are in the mood for more things pumpkin – these pumpkin cookies seem to be a hit.

I am continuing my detective work on how different types of sugars are made and if there is one better than the rest. Here is what I discovered with refined white sugar.  Now for –

Brown Sugar:

A little part of me always thought I was doing myself a favor baking with brown sugar rather than white.  I’m not alone, this NY Times article echoes that same sentiment.  But in reality brown sugar is pretty much just white sugar mixed with molasses.

Molasses is a by product of the sugar cane juice, and has vitamins and minerals like potassium, calcium, magnesium, and vitamin A.  I was excited when I read that, until I realized it is really just a smidge of nutritents in the grand scheme of things.

This is no real surprise.  Sugar isn’t kale.  But now I know how it is processed, and I’m most interested finding out how my food is made.