Blog archive: November 2008

An extraordinary French documentary about the dangers of chemical pesticides to the health of our children. Contains interviews with farmers, parents and children living in France.

Autumn makes everything pumpkin, Hallowe’en doubly so… This year, I perfected a Quick Pumpkin Bread technique thanks to canned organic steamed pumpkin puree. This stuff is 100% pure pumpkin, and while it cuts out the joys of cooking pumpkin bread from scratch, it also makes it a lot easier to bake pumpkin bread and still have time to make pumpkin soup.

Here’s my recipe for extremely delicious pumpkin bread in under 10 minutes (plus baking time)

You will need:

5 cups flour
4 cups baker’s sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons salt
15 oz canned pumpkin
3 sticks unsalted butter, cubed
1 1/4 cups cold water
6 eggs, beaten

Set the oven to 325 degrees, and oil four regular loaf pans.

Sieve the flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl, then add the other dry ingredients. Add the pumpkin and mix well. In a pan, melt the butter over a medium heat, then add to the bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon, adding the water and then the eggs. Work quickly – the mixture doesn’t need to be mixed very thoroughly. If there are lumps, don’t worry. Pour the batter evenly between the four pans and bake for 1 hout and 20 minutes. Insert a toothpick, and if it doesn’t come out totally clean, bake the bread for another 10 minutes. Leave in the pans to cool, or eat it hot.