Thanksgiving Day, a day to give thanks and eat yourself silly!
Isn’t it amazing that a whole nation decides to set apart a day in the year to give thanks for what they have? I suppose that is why America is called ‘God’s own country’. They know how to show gratitude and God continues to bless them. It excites me every time I think about it.
My family and I would definitely be giving thanks for what God has done. It is our first thanksgiving in the US and we are super excited. We have family members coming over and we would be having a MEAN spread!
Putting together a menu isn’t turning out to be as easy as I had anticipated.Over the next few posts, I would be sharing some ideas I have of dishes we might have on that day.
One thing is for sure though, I definitely want a Turducken. If you have never heard the word before, you are not alone… When I told the Engineer I wanted a Turducken, he thought it was ingenious of me to come up with the word. But the word actually exists. You can google it. It is a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. I can’t decide whether to buy one from the butcher or just make it myself. I would keep you posted on that.
The second thing I thought about was dessert. (To be honest, it was actually the first thing I thought of, but I mean, you need to have turkey for thanksgiving, right!). Anyway, I wanted something with pumpkin. I am not particularly fond of pumpkin or anything with pumpkin in it. I think the flavor can be overbearing and harsh atimes. Pumpkin however, is like a thanksgiving tradition so I wanted to make sure to incorporate it in the menu. I was definitely not going to make pumpkin pie. It is too in your face with all the spices and I don’t particularly like it.
I decided to make pumpkin bread instead. It is more like pumpkin cake but its flavors are very subtle and it is not very sweet. I loved this cake. It is a very moist cake and this is achieved because it uses oil instead of butter. This cake even tastes better the next day because the flavors have developed properly.
This cake would pair perfectly with Butter Pecan Ice cream. Ohhh, how I wish I had some of that ice cream right now. I would probably get some tomorrow…..purely for research purposes.
Canned Pumpkin is not something that is readily available in Nigeria. Infact, I don’t know any store that sells them (if you do, please let me know). Whole pumpkins are available at SPAR, Park n Shop and some other grocery stores. You can peel and boil/steam the pumpkins and puree it to get your pumpkin puree. Another alternative is to leave out the pumpkins, use apple puree and add an extra 1/2 cup (60grams) of flour to get a Spiced cake.
Enjoy!
This cake topped with some Butter Pecan Ice Cream………Priceless!!!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups or 190 grams flour
- 1 teaspoon or 4 grams baking soda
- ½ teaspoon or 2 gram baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 or 196 grams eggs
- 1 cup or 200 grams sugar
- ¼ cup or 52 grams brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ¾ cup or 150 grams pumpkin puree
- ¾ cup or 145 grams canola oil
Instructions
- Combine the flour, soda, powder, spices and salt in a bowl.
- Beat the eggs, sugars and vanilla together in an electric mixer on high speed for 30 seconds.
- Add the pumpkin and the oil and mix well.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix well.
- Pour into prepared loaf pan
- Bake 50 - 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool in pan 10 minutes, and then turn onto cooling rack to cool completely.
- Enjoy!
[…] for my favorite part…Dessert! Remember the Pumpkin Bread we made a few weeks ago? If you don’t you can find the recipe here. Well, I said it would […]