Certain family recipes instantly remind me of particular seasons…my mom’s mouth-watering pumpkin bread is the first thing I can’t wait to bake (and eat for practically every meal) when fall is in the air.

More than in the air, fall is officially in the kitchen.

My mom’s original recipe is delish – I mean, how could it not be since it’s a baked good packed with sugar, flour, and processed items. Being a modern mama who limits gluten and dairy due to having endometriosis and other autoimmune issues, I wanted to modernize the recipe by making it as clean as I could. With that, here’s my take on June Bug’s (my mom) infamous pumpkin bread:

Ingredients (makes two loaves):

• 2/3 cup unsweetened, organic apple sauce
• 1/3 cup organic, semi-melted coconut oil (consistency of butter)
• 2 tablespoons softened coconut butter
• 2 cups organic, fair trade coconut palm sugar
• 1/2 cup gluten free flour [if you want to use protein powder, you can use here instead of GF flour]
• 3 1/3 cup brown rice flour, other GF flour, or whole wheat flour
• 3 TBSP organic 100% pure maple syrup
• 4 eggs or 1 cup egg-whites. If you’re vegan and want to leave out eggs, you can substitute with applesauce (1/4 cup per egg), flax eggs, or your other “eggless” substitute
• 2/3 cup organic, fresh-squeezed orange juice
• 2 1/3 cups organic pumpkin puree
• 1/2 TSP baking powder
• 2 TSP baking soda
• 1 TSP salt
• 1 TSP cinnamon
• 1 TSP ground cloves
• Coconut oil cooking spray
• 1/3 Enjoy Life cup dark chocolate chip chunks
• 2 loaf pans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a large bowl, combined apple sauce, coconut oil, coconut sugar, flours, and syrup until thoroughly mixed.
3. Beat in eggs, one at a time, mixing until batter is smooth (besides mini chunks of coconut oil).
4. Add orange juice + pumpkin puree and mix well.
5. Sift dry ingredients together in a medium-sized, separate bowl
6. Add pumpkin mix to dry mix, stirring well until thoroughly combined.
7. Spray loaf pans with coconut oil spray
8. Distribute 1/2 of batter into one pan
9. Optional: mix in 1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks into half of batter
10. Add remaining batter into second loaf pan
11. Place loaf pans on top oven rack and bake at 350 for approximately one hour or until a cake tester (i.e.: a toothpick) comes out clean. I’ve found that some ovens I use take a little over an hour, but batter should be nice and moist when cooked, not dry.
12. Cool in pans for 10-20 minutes, then place on racks to cool.

—

Since this recipe makes two loaves, I always gift one loaf to a friend, or freeze the second to preserve freshness.

WARNING: I’d be surprised if this was still in your house a few days after baking 😉 Consider yourself warned!

From my family to yours, I hope you enjoy this special recipe!

XO,

Shelley