Pumpkin Bread with Brown Butter and Bourbon

When my husband Daniel was a child, his mom made pumpkin bread for the holidays every year. He’s often reminisced about it, waxing poetic about how simple and delicious it was -- no nuts, no chocolate chips, just a smooth, moist loaf cake imbued with autumnal spices. At some point he had an index card with the recipe written on it, but it disappeared, and his mother no longer remembers how she made it.

For years, I've been meaning to try and approximate the recipe. Food and love and memory…right up my alley.

Finally, a little too late for Christmas, I made the cake, and I can tell you that although the ingredients scream Thanksgiving, it's a lovely cake that I'd welcome on my plate anytime of the year (okay maybe not in the summer, but anytime when the weather is cold).

A confession: since I made this the weekend of New Year’s, after all the cooking from the weeks before, I took the easy route and used canned pumpkin puree. I did however pick up an organic brand and it was actually better than the standard Libby’s—it was brighter and fresher-tasting.

Any chance to use brown butter is a chance I’ll take, but after all the holiday baking my fridge was a bit low on butter. So I used a half cup of brown butter, and a half cup of olive oil. But any liquid fat will do—you need one cup and could use all olive oil, or canola oil, or all melted butter, or all brown butter.

And about all that yummy butter. Let’s not deceive ourselves. This recipe is for Pumpkin “Bread” but it’s really a cake. A delicious, loaf-shaped cake that would also make perfect “muffins” (aka, cupcakes…with perhaps some yummy cream-cheese frosting). Pumpkin is full of fiber and good nutrition, true, but here it's used in what is best described as a dessert. Or at least a sweet afternoon snack with a nice cup of strong tea.

According to Daniel, his mom used to cut the sugar back every year when she made the bread, and it was always good, so feel free to cut back on some of the sugar if you like.

And as for Daniel, he adored it. And as I watched him cut himself a thick slice, smear it with salty, soft butter, and take his first bite, I felt a warm surge of happiness. I knew I could never replicate his mother’s Pumpkin Bread (even if I did have the recipe), but creating a version for him was my way of including his past in our family’s future. I’ll certainly be making this again.

Pumpkin Bread with Brown Butter and Bourbon

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup bourbon (or water or apple cider)
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree, homemade or canned (a 15 ounce can)
4 eggs
1/2 cup olive or other oil (canola for example)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1. Preheat oven to 350º F, and arrange a rack in the center. Grease the inside of two 8-inch loaf pans with butter.
2. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the frothy white milk solids sink to the bottom of the pan and turn a fragrant, nutty brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Brown butter can burn quickly, so watch it carefully. Another tip: when the frantic sound of bubbling begins to die down, that is when you know your brown butter is almost ready, so use your ears as well as your eyes and nose for this one.
3. In a glass liquid measuring cup, combine bourbon and vanilla and add water until you reach the 2/3 cup mark. In a large bowl, whisk together bourbon, vanilla, water, pumpkin puree, eggs, and olive oil. With a spatula, scrape all the brown butter from the skillet into the pumpkin mixture and stir to combine.
4. In another large bowl, whisk together, all purpose flour, brown sugar, whole-wheat flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom. Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
5. Divide batter into the two greased loaf pans. Set pans onto a rimmed baking sheet and place in oven. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
6. Allow bread to cool completely before removing from pan.

NOTE: I also made this exact recipe with applesauce instead of pumpkin puree, and used all brown butter and no oil, and left out the spices and doubled the vanilla and it was lovely. In case you happen to have lots of applesauce in the fridge as I did this week.

Comments

[Daniel]

It's worth mentioning that this pumpkin bread is actually much better than my mom's. And she'd be the first to admit it!

[Culinary School: Three Semesters of Life, Learning, and Loss of Blood]

I never got a chance to make any sweet breads at culinary school, but with the holidays just past, they were on my mind. Okay, no school recipes, so time for a search and, why, this recipes looks gorgeous - fragrant, moist, tempting. Time for a grocery store run!

[gluttonforlife]

This sounds great. It bears mentioning that I make a similar one with gluten-free flour and it's pretty successful. Coconut oil also works well with the butter.

[Kzookitchen]

You had me at Pumpkin Bread. I died at Bourbon. I've got to make this. It sounds absolutely delicious. Thank you!

[Vicki]

Do you think I could use bananas instead of pumpkin? I have a freezer full of overly ripe bananas that I froze instead of tossing and need to do something with them.

[Melissa]

gluttonforlife - I thought about using coconut oil, I'll bet it would have been excellent!

Vicki - yes! I think this would be great with bananas. If you try it, please let me know.

[Alyce Morgan]

Thanks for this. Any kind of pumpkin bread is good any time in our house; I'm always trying new ones. I also froze cranberries so I can make cranberry bread or spicy sauce later. BTW, Daniel's grandmother made incredible peanut butter fudge that I've never been able to replicate. The pieces were small and it wasn't thick...nor was it cloyingly sweet, oddly enough. On a day when you're short of recipes to figure out-ha!-, try that one and share.

[Vicki]

Hi Melissa, I made this with some very ripe bananas from my freezer instead of pumpkin and also used dark rum instead of bourbon since that was what I had on hand. I took some to my 87 year old Mom and she said it was the best bread she's ever eaten!

[freelance writer]

I never got a chance to make any sweet breads at culinary school, but with the holidays just past, they were on my mind. The pieces were small and it wasn't thick...nor was it cloyingly sweet, oddly enough.

[CookiePie]

Love this! I just made pumpkin bread for my daughter... it's so, so sweet that your husband remembers his mom's so well (and that you're lovingly preparing it for him now!). The brown butter idea is inspired -- I'll have to try that! Thanks for sharing.

[Dramatic Pancake]

I love cakes like this that I can refer to as bread and thus justify eating for breakfast! :) I have a bit of a pumpkin bread obsession and can't tell you how many variations I've baked looking for the perfect one. This recipe sounds incredible and I'm excited to give it a try. Also: made your spicy, garlicky cashew chicken for dinner last night and it was a huge hit!

[Melissa]

Vicki - I've got bananas ripening on the counter now! Will try it with the rum, thanks for sharing and glad it was a hit with your mom.

Alyce - I want that PB fudge recipe!! Daniel doesn't remember it at all...

[Mae]

I like all you posts, they are all very informative and useful. This one is not the exception! Thank you very much for your work and keep up!

[Eileen]

Favorite quote: "I knew I could never replicate his mother’s Pumpkin Bread (even if I did have the recipe), but creating a version for him was my way of including his past in our family’s future." I've tried many times to replicate food memories from my husband's childhood & felt like a failure that it was never quite the same. It took me quite a while to realize that I didn't have the power to transport him back to his childhood, but yes, we can express love & memory through food, and even though it tastes slightly different, there is beauty in this gift.