notafancykitchen

Dairy-free pumpkin bread: Test 1

I’ve been told to try a lactose-free diet for 6 weeks and now, one week in, it’s already the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I don’t eat a lot of dairy; I don’t like milk in cereal and I don’t enjoy tea or coffee. Cheese and ice-cream are my diary vices – I don’t eat a lot of them but I adore them and saying no is really hard.

Eating dairy-free isn’t just about cutting out milk, cheese, yoghurt and cream. I have to check ingredient lists for everything from processed sauces/soups to white bread and wraps. So I decided to try making my own bread.

I wasn’t sure exactly where to start so I tried a recipe I found online. I experimented with the pumpkin bread recipe I found on Taste.com.au. Most of my changes were adding seasonings I preferred, swapping out the dairy and throwing in a big handful of seeds.

Ingredients

  • 500g butternut pumpkin, peeled, chopped
  • 2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
  • 1 teaspoon curry powder
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 75g Nuttalex butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup almond milk
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 80g pepitas
  • 80g sunflower seeds

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease a 9cm-deep, 9cm x 19cm (base) loaf pan. Line base and 2 long ends with baking paper.

  2. Cook pumpkin in a saucepan of boiling, salted water for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender. Drain. Transfer to a large bowl. Using a fork, mash until smooth. Cool for 5 minutes.
  3. Add flour, oregano, sunflower seeds, pepitas, nuttalex, almond milk , curry powder and eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Using a spatula, level top.
  4. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in centre comes out clean (cover with foil if over-browning during cooking). Stand in pan for 5 minutes. Lift out onto a wire rack to cool.

Recipe review: The bread came out quite tasty. It didn’t rise as much as I would have liked, making the entire loaf quite heavy and dense. I think next time I’ll try a recipe that needs plain flour and yeast – I think the bread will be lighter if I can make a real dough and save the seeds for the top of the bread.

I didn’t take a decent picture for this test, I’ll share pictures with the next test.

 

Leave a comment