Dave's Original Pumpkin Molasses Bread

This is one of Dave's own recipes, and I love the dark, rich flavor of molasses in this bread. It's a rich cake, and tastes amazing considering how low it is in saturated fat. I'd call it dense and buttery, although there is no butter in it.

makes 2 loaves


1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup molasses
2 cups canned pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
3 tsp pumpkin spice
1 cup semi-sweet French chocolate truffles, chopped coarsely* (optional)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Sift together the dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl and add to dry ingredients. Add chocolate and nuts. Bake in two greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pans. Bake for about 70 minutes or until a skewer through the center comes out clean.

*If you don't know where to find these, you can use your own favorite chocolate pieces

Dave's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake with Rum-Butter Sauce

Dave makes beautiful breads and cakes and all manner of baked goods. Lately he has been testing a lot of the King Arthur website recipes. This one can be found here. The Rum-Butter sauce is my addition from a recipe I've used for years.

Cake:

4 large eggs
2 cups puréed pumpkin (1-pound can)
1 cup (7 ounces) vegetable oil
1 cup (2 1/8 ounces) bran cereal
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups (14 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon EACH ground cloves and cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon EACH allspice and ginger (or substitute 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice for the preceding four spices)
1 cup (4 ounces) chopped walnuts
2 2/3 cups (16 ounces) chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube or Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, beat eggs till foamy. Stir in pumpkin, vegetable oil and bran cereal; combine well.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar and spices. Add to wet ingredients and mix gently, till just combined. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake in preheated 350°F oven for 70 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Rum-Butter Sauce:

1 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup salted butter
1 T corn starch
1/4 - 1/2 cup spiced rum
1/2 cup half and half

Combine first three ingredients in a sauce pan, then add the rum and half & half and stir until smooth. Heat over medium-high heat and cook until thick. Pour hot, over individual slices of cake.

Old Fashioned Root Beer Cookies

These ooey-gooey root beer cookies are rich and buttery rather than "cakey" like some versions I've had. Confession: that is because I made up the recipe myself and didn't want the cakey version. So there. My kids were dubious about something flavored like soda pop, but they quickly changed their minds when these came out of the oven.

Dough:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup raw (or brown) sugar
1 egg
1 tsp root beer extract (or root beer starter)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
Frosting (below)

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and continue to beat until fluffy. Combine dry ingredients and add to the butter mixture, beating until smooth. Roll into balls and place on ungreased baking sheet. Cook at 350ºF until just barely starting to crack (about 8 minutes). Don't overcook! Makes 12 large cookies. You can double or triple the batch for more.

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tsp root beer extract
1 - 3 Tblsp water (to texture)

Cool cookies before frosting them (of course).

*Note: 100% natural extracts can be purchased at Faerie's Finest.

Dave's Banana Bread

There always seems to be three over-ripe bananas at the tail end of a bunch at our house. Dave uses these leftover bananas to make this delicious banana bread.

2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour (white or whole wheat)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine bananas, butter, vanilla and eggs in a separate bowl. Beat the dry and wet ingredients together in the large bowl until smooth. Add nuts, if desired (I love walnuts in this bread). Bake in a prepared loaf pan at 325ºF for 1 hour, or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Serve hot, slice, with butter.