Happy Halloween!

Well, I had a nice low-key Halloween this year. We stayed in and ate vegan chili dogs and watched old scary movies. It was fun.

   

Vegan chili dog

Carob covered walnuts

We had a couple of treats too: pumpkin bread and carob covered walnuts. I thought I’d share the recipe for the former below, and as for the latter, it couldn’t be simpler: Just melt carob or chocolate, stir in some nuts, then just dump the whole thing onto wax paper and spread out and separate with your fingers. Then let harden for about 15 minutes. It’s quite a bit faster and easier than trying to dip the nuts individually and tastes just as good.

Pumpkin spice bread

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Dry ingredients:

1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour

½ cup oat bran

1 cup sugar or sweetener

1 tbsp chia seeds or ground flax seeds (optional)

2 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

Spices:

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp ginger

½ tsp dried orange zest

½ tsp cardamom

¼ tsp coriander

¼ tsp allspice

Wet ingredients:

1 ½ cup pumpkin puree (one 15 oz should cover it)

1/3 cup oil

¾ cup soymilk

2 tsp vanilla

½ tsp maple extract

2 tbsp finely chopped crystallized ginger (optional)

a handful of dried cranberries (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together all dry ingredients, including spices. In a separate bowl, stir wet ingredients together. Combine two mixes, taking care not to over-mix. Add cranberries and ginger if using.

Spray a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour batter into pan and bake for about 55 minutes, until a toothpick comes out fairly clean.

Variations: 

You could change the add-ins, replacing the cranberries and ginger with raisins, nuts or chocolate chips.

Coconut might be interesting too.

You could also use another pureed fruit or vegetable in place of the pumpkin, such as mashed sweet potatoes or bananas or apple or pear sauce.

Pumpkin bread slices