Pumpkin Oatmeal Bread with Tropical Flavors

 Fall is here again and although we don't have this season in the tropics where I grew up, I do like pumpkin bread. I decided to come up with a recipe that would have a lively flavor of the tropics....all the flavors I grew up tasting. I also added some oatmeal to the recipe, and used Kefir to cut back on the amount of oil/fat in the recipe. Kefir is a fermented milk with almost no sugar and low fat content. 

Unlike most pumpkin bread recipes, I used Butternut squash (easier to handle) and did not use a pumpkin puree. I find that can make the bread "mushy" at times. If you opt to use pumpkin, I prefer to use the tropical variety or "Calabaza". The bread will also come out more "orange". The recipe does have a lot of ingredients but we have a lot of flavors in the tropics to use! It's very moist and will keep for a few days in an airtight container, or wrapped and frozen for longer storage. 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup Old Fashioned, rolled oats

1 teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon allspice

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger root

1 teaspoon grated orange or lemon zest

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup Kefir (plain, unsweetened. You CAN also use ordinary yogurt (not Greek style) or even half and half depending on your need for "healthy")

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups coarsely shredded fresh pumpkin (not canned or pureed). Use the coarse shredder on your box grater or the coarse shredder disc on your food processor, not the fine grater.

Juice of 1 lime (you can also use lemon so that you can use the zest)

1/3 cup dried cranberries

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Coarsely shred the pumpkin or butternut squash. Add the lime juice, dried cranberries, and grated ginger, lemon or orange zest, and set aside.
3. Mix the flour, oats, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, vegetable oil, kefir, eggs, and vanilla, until pale in color. Fold in the shredded pumpkin, mix well, then gently fold in the dry ingredients all at once. Mix all until just combined. Do not take a lot of time with this step. Once the ingredients are all incorporated pour into a non- stick 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan. If your pan is not non- stick coat it with butter and flour, and also line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper.
5. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. At this point a knife inserted into the middle of the loaf should come out clean. Cool for 15 minutes and turn out onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing (as anxious as you will be to try it, do not try to slice before it is completely cooled).