Healthy Pumpkin Bread with Whole-Wheat
Searching for some healthy pumpkin recipes for autumn festivities, namely Thanksgiving? Heathy Pumpkin Bread is a perfect thing to bake and serve to friends with a tea or coffee, eat for breakfast, or snack on with drop-in guests. Blending cinnamon, nutmeg and clove with the sweetness of molasses in this pumpkin loaf makes it a champion. The spice blend produces a rich and warm flavour.
Molasses
Is it an “Empty Calorie”?
“Empty calories” give energy but offer slim to no nutritional benefits. Surprisingly, even agave, honey and maple syrup are empty calories. This is because they have minimal nutritional value relative to the sugar/calorie quantity. Blackstrap molasses and date sugar are the only two sugars not considered empty calories.
So, this healthy pumpkin bread uses molasses as a sweetener to boost nutritional value.
Date Sugar
Date sugar is made from whole, dried dates that are ground into sugar. The beauty of this gem is that it contains the fibre as well, which slows down sugar absorption into the bloodstream.
Blackstrap Molasses: The Most Nutritious
Molasses has powerful antioxidants relative to other sweeteners. In a study that tested various sweeteners, blackstrap molasses had the highest FRAP assay (antioxidant power). FRAP mmol measures the antioxidant level according to serving size (far right column on the graph).
Barley malt syrup, brown rice syrup, brown sugar, maple syrup and honey intermediate antioxidant capacity, in the order listed here.
Raw cane sugar snuck in between the minimal and intermediate groups.
Refined sugar, corn syrup, and agave nectar had minimal antioxidant power.
Medical News Today reported that molasses contains several nutrients and is fairly high in minerals. These include manganese, magnesium, copper, vitamin B-6, selenium, potassium, iron and calcium. Still, they encourage consumers to use it sparingly as sugar is sugar.
Miracle Myth?
Molasses was believed to be a secret for youthful behaviour and appearance (i.e. reducing hair graying). ScienceDirect suggests there may be a scientific basis for what was formerly thought to be a myth. The high antioxidant levels in molasses may prove it true! Interesting.
Molasses in Healthy Pumpkin Bread
Molasses is either the byproduct of boiling sugar cane down, or, it is condensed sugarcane juice off of the first boil. It has more sugar than blackstrap molasses, which comes from the third boil. Both fancy and blackstrap offer nutritional value, but they differ on sugar content. Feel free to use whichever one you prefer. If you want a more sweet taste, use fancy. For a more bitter and healthful variety, use blackstrap.
Pumpkin Health
For more information on pumpkin nutrition, check out our Easy and Delicious Pumpkin Pie post!
Back to Healthy Pumpkin Bread with Whole-Wheat… 🙂
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Combine wet ingredients and sugar together in a separate bowl and beat for 2 minutes using a mixer.
- Combine dry ingredients together and stir to mix.
- Add the dry and wet ingredients together and mix until well combined.
- Pour batter into a loaf pan for an impressive loaf that will rise inches above the pan, or into 2 pans for a more average size.
- If making into two loaves, bake in the oven for 60 minutes or until a toothpick cake test is clean.
- If making one large loaf, bake for approximately 80 minutes. The top will be cracking beautifully. The toothpick (which isn’t nearly long enough for an accurate reading, use a long skewer or a knife) test will be slightly muddy even at the end.
- Once removed from the oven, let the loaves rest in the loaf pans for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack until it fully cooled.
Bon appétit!