Recipe: Pumpkin Millet Loaf

2 eggs, beaten

½ cup (120ml) vegetable oil

1 cup (240ml) buttermilk

¾ cup (180ml) brown sugar

½ tsp vanilla

1½ cup pumpkin puree (not pie filling)

½ cup rolled oats

½ cup millet

¼ cup pumpkin seeds

1 cup unbleached flour

¾ cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp sea salt

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp nutmeg

(optional ½ cup coconut flakes)

1.     Pre-heat oven to 350*F. Grease a loaf pan and a circular baking pan and set aside.

2.     Combine eggs, oil, buttermilk, sugar, vanilla and pumpkin in a large bowl and mix together. I find it works best if you add each ingredient, mix it in and then add the next. That way you won’t have any large lumps of brown sugar! Next stir in the oats.

3.     Toast millet in a hot dry skilled until lightly browned and fragrant. Toast the pumpkin seeds too. Then add the millet and pumpkin seeds to the bowl.

4.     In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients together.

5.     Add the dry mix to the wet mix and gently stir to combine. Do not over mix, or the dough will be tough and dry.

6.     Fill your baking pans ¾ of the way with batter. Sprinkle the tops with pumpkin seeds and bake both of the pans for 18 minutes. It is best to check every 10 min and as my oven is hotter in the back, I tend to rotate the pans every 10 min. The shallow round pan should be finished after 18 min, but double check by inserting a toothpick (or fork) and if it comes out clean it is finished. The loaf pan will need to cook longer as it is deeper, around 36 min. Just keep checking in to make sure you don’t over cook it.

*This recipe was adapted from the Rebar Cookbook, thanks to Poppy for sharing.