Basic Pumpkin Bread

I feel like by calling this basic I am insulting it but what I mean is, this is a delicious no frills pumpkin bread that is easily adaptable should you wish to add any kind of browned butter, chocolate chip, cranberry frills. I've made this a few times and each time I felt like I was adding too many frills, at one point you wouldn't have known there was pumpkin in it (largely due to too much treacle) so I stripped it back and there it was, a super simple but delicious loaf perfect for afternoon coffee. I like a strong ginger flavour so I put 1.5 teaspoons in but you can adjust the spices to your taste.

I am still adjusting to being a working mother. Some days I find it incredibly hard to wear all these metaphorical hats - mother, employee, blogger, gym goer and also my Sophie hat because I am still me and I like to think that hat still deserves some attention. I work part time but it's still 4 days a week. I have only had a couple of Monday's since I went back to work and I feel like they have been more stressful than they should. This is my one day where it's just me and Matilda so I need to take these Monday's back to basics and relax so that she has as good a start to the the week as any (almost) 1 year old can have and I don't feel frazzled before I even get to work on Tuesday morning.

This was what I had been thinking about just before I made this bread. Stop overcomplicating life/recipes. The reason my last few recipes had failed was because I had made them too complicated. Next week's recipe is even more basic than this...two clues: 4 ingredients and no bake! Plus I have a giveaway next week too. I hope your week is off too a smooth start. I'll be sneaking a slice of this into work for my 3pm sugar craving.

Basic Pumpkin Bread

200g unsalted butter

40g treacle

100g light brown sugar

150g pumpkin puree

3 large eggs

250g plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1-1.5 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line a loaf tin and set aside.
2. Whisk the flour, bicarbonate of soda, and spices in a medium bowl.
3. Melt the butter over a medium heat. Pour into a large bowl and whisk in the pumpkin, treacle and sugar. Add the eggs, whisk until just combined and then fold in the dry ingredients until all the flour has gone.
4. Pour into your loaf tin and bake on the middle shelf for 45 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean.
5. Leave to cool for at least 20 minutes before turning out.