Pumpkin cornbread – Breakfast at Clique-any’s

One of my favorite healthy baking cookbooks is Uprisings: The Whole Grain Bakers’ Book. You’re probably wondering why, since I always substitute sprouted spelt flour for everything anyway, but the real reason is because these treats are creatively sweetened. In fact, this cookbook has made me think even beyond itself. Most of the recipes are sweetened either with honey or maple syrup, which I’ll do, but I like to venture out into other territories as well. Sucanat, agave syrup and different fruits are all sweetening options I think about when baking these days.

Like making this pumpkin cornbread, for instance. The recipe my pumpkin cornbread was based on used a whopping 2/3 cup of brown sugar. To me, that’s gross on so many levels. First of all, I can’t stand a sicky-sweet baked good. Cornbread should be mostly savory, in my opinion, and that much sugar would seem out of place. Did I mention how offended my liver would be, at being asked to process all of that sugar? I’m apologizing to the livers of the world, or at least to anyone who has eaten that pumpkin cornbread.

Pumpkin is pretty sweet on its own (or at least my fresh-from-the-farm puree that I made today was), so like banana bread, I didn’t want to overdo it with the added sweeteners and make it unappealing. I want the real flavors of the ingredients to come through and not be masked by an unwelcome sweetness.

A tweak here and there and I’ve created the corbread that’s perfect for my family. We ate it with chili last night, and again for breakfast this morning, slathered with apple butter or organic butter and dipped in maple syrup (depending on who you are at the McDuffee residence).

Pumpkin Cornbread

Print This Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup sprouted spelt flour (or whole-grain flour of your choice)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup cornmeal
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or freshly cooked and processed)
2 tablespoons Sucanat
1/3 cup rice bran oil (or melted butter)
2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses

Mix wet in one bowl, dry in another then mix until just moistened. Pour batter into a greased 10-inch pie pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until springy.

You might think with all the cinnamon and netmeg that this cornbread wouldn’t go very well with chili, but somehow it worked. And trust me, I am not a nutmeg fan….