Diced Butternut Square on a Cutting Board with a Knife

Healthy Squash Bread

Healthy Squash Bread doesn't exactly sound like an appealing name for a recipe, but trust me, this is delicious. I watched our friend, Louisa Shafia, make this bread during a video shoot recently and she gave me the idea to experiment a bit with it. You can use canned, pureed pumpkin if you don't want to bother with fresh squash, but it does taste much better! This recipe is really easy. You'll make it all the time once you get it right.

Ingredients

  • Shortening, spray, or butter, for greasing the bread loaf pan (your choice based on your dairy tolerances)

  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat/white flour blend (you can use all white)

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice or ground cloves

  • 1 cup brown rice syrup

  • 1 cup cooked, pureed winter squash such as Red Kuri, Acorn, Butternut, Pumpkin or Kabocha

  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

  • 2 eggs, organic if available

  • 1/4 cup water

  • 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF.  Butter a bread loaf pan.

Mix your dry ingredients into one bowl and thoroughly stir, even sift if you are feeling ambitious. 

In a separate bowl, take your cooked squash and either whisk by hand or use a hand mixer to puree and fluff it up. Then add the rice syrup and EVOO and thoroughly blend. 

Separately, whisk the eggs together, then add to the squash and mix well. Add water and then gradually add the dry ingredients, but blend by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula, not the mixer, as you do not want to over mix. Add the nuts and stir again.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake until cooked through, 70 minutes in my oven. You can stick a fork or a toothpick in the center to test, but when you press the middle with your fingers, it should spring back, not indent.

Allow the bread to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn it out onto a cooling rack and allow it to cool more. Slice when you're hungry and top with apple spread or honey – or nothing at all! To store, wrap in foil. You can freeze this, too!