Thirteen months old and a bottomless pit.
No joke, I cannot satiate this child. He wants to try everything, and then he wants some more of it.
And if I’m eating it, then he definitely wants a bite of that. I’ve stopped making him his own meals and just let him eat off my plate, which at times means that he eats more than I do.
Seriously. Bottomless pit.
Ironically, this has made me eat a little bit healthier these days too. I know that we’re going to share breakfast, so there have been fewer croissants and more groats with sweet potato and yogurt. More oatmeal with chopped apples and cinnamon. More eggs with kale and cheese (which he loves).
But when I feel like giving both of us a treat, I make pumpkin bread. The self-proclaimed seasonal food blogger in me cringes at the fact that I’m posting a pumpkin recipe in March, but Theo don’t care. He wants it, so I let him have it.
While most pumpkin bread call for a bunch of sugar and butter, I keep mine slightly healthier with maple syrup and olive oil. The bread is dense and not too sweet, and perfect for a baby’s tastes. I happily eat it too.
This bread comes together quickly (10 minutes hands on time) and bakes for 45-50 minutes. It’ll keep on your counter, covered, for up to four days. Just enough time to finish off the loaf.
- ¾ cup whole wheat flour
- 1¼ cup all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 egg, whisked
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1½ cups pure pumpkin puree, no sugars added
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a large bowl, combine whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, Kosher salt, nutmeg, cardamon, and cinnamon.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together olive oil, milk, vanilla extract, egg, maple syrup and pumpkin puree.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry, mixing until combined.
- Pour batter into a lightly oiled 9 x 4 loaf tin. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out dry. Cool for 10 minutes before popping it out of the loaf tin.
- Loaf can stay on counter, covered, for up to four days.
Looks so tasty! I still have homemade pumpkin purée in the freezer, so maybe a loaf is the solution??
writes AnnalieseMade this out of season this morning and it was a hit! May have added some chocolate chips to sweeten the deal for my 3- and 5-year-old :)
writes Erin