Figure Friendly Pumpkin Bread

Well, Pumpkin Palooza comes to an end today.  I hope you have enjoyed all the pumpkin goodness this week.

As I was deciding what recipe to share today, my mother's voice kept echoing in my head saying, "You have to make this Pumpkin Bread recipe! It is so good and would be great for the blog!"  She mentioned this bread several times in the past couple of weeks and even served it at my sister's baby shower last weekend so I thought I would be a good daughter and listen to my mother.

The original recipe comes from www.cooks.com.  The recipe looks amazing and I totally trust my mom that it tastes awesome too, but the recipe includes lots of oil and sugar so I thought I would tweak it and create a lighter version.  Instead of adding 1 cup of oil, I substituted 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce and for the 3 cups of sugar, substituted 2 1/2 cups honey.  Using honey in place of sugar will make the batter wetter so you can add an extra 1/4 cup flour.  I am not sure if it is necessary, but I added the extra flour and the bread turned out wonderful.  I also substituted unbleached flour for all-purpose flour.  After baking the bread, I lightly drizzled the top of the loaves with pure maple syrup.  This added a touch of sweetness and made the bread glisten.  All these adjustments are included in the figure friendly version at the end of the post.

The original recipe contains 210 calories and 8.2 grams of fat per serving and the figure friendly version contains 160 calories and 2.2 grams of fat per serving. I am sure you can do the math, but the lighter version saves you 50 calories and 6 grams of fat per serving. This recipe can be lightened further by leaving out the nuts making it 144 calories and .7 grams of fat per serving. So with a little tweaking many recipes can be lightened without sacrificing flavor or your waist line.

Buon Appetito!

Pumpkin Bread

source: www.cooks.com

prep: 15 minutes

bake: 1 hour (depending on size of loaf)

yield: 2 large or 4 small loaves (36 servings)

calories: 210

fat: 8.2

4 eggs


2/3 cup water


1 cup oil


1 can pumpkin pie filling


3 1/2 cups flour


3 cups sugar


2 tsp. baking soda


1 1/2 tsp. salt


1 tsp. cinnamon


1 tsp. nutmeg


1/4 tsp. cloves

¾ cup walnuts

Allspice and pumpkin pie spice sprinkled on top 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Beat eggs; add oil, water and pie filling. 
3. Combine dry ingredients, and add to egg mixture.
4. Bake in greased and floured bread pans.
5. Bake at 350°F for 1 hour.

Figure Friendly Pumpkin Bread

prep: 15 minutes

bake: 1 hour (depending on size of loaves)

yields: 2 large or 4 small loaves (36 servings)

calories: 160

fat: 2.2

4 eggs


2/3 cup water


1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 can pumpkin pie filling


3 3/4 cups unbleached flour


2 1/4 cups honey

2 tsp. baking soda


1 1/2 tsp. salt


1 tsp. cinnamon


1 tsp. nutmeg


1/4 tsp. cloves

3/4 cup walnuts or pecans

All spice and pumpkin pie spice sprinkled on top, if desired

Pure Maple Syrup to drizzle on top after baking, if desired

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Beat eggs; add oil, water, pie filling, and honey. 
3. Combine dry ingredients, and add to egg mixture.
4. Bake in greased and floured bread pans.
5. Bake at 350°F for 1 hour.