Spelt Pumpkin Bread with Bourbon Soaked Raisins

As soon as the crisp chill of fall air can be felt and also can be smelled, inhaled, breathed deeply infused with the scent of crushed dryed leaves and fallen pine cones, as soon as I step out my front door and find myself swaddled by a cool autumn breeze, that's when my brain recalls fondly the warm, earthy orange hue of pumpkin.

Pumpkin is one of my favorite vegetables, and so I attempt to incorporate it as often as possible into my fall and winter diet. Let's face it, as a locavore I will be eating pumpkin from now through the first frost and beyond as I freeze quarts of starchy puree. If you're not a pumpkin fan, let me try to sell you on this recipe.

Spelt pumpkin bread with bourbon soaked raisins would be an indistinguishable pumpkin source to anyone who did not know to taste keenly for the familiar bite of the overgrown squash. You could easily pass it off as spice bread, but if you're like me, you'd know that the moistness, the density, the heavy wet crumb of the bread is only made by one thing: pumpkin, period. Bananas don't make bread like this, nor does zucchini or applesauce or anything else you might try. Pumpkin quick bread has the best consistency, not to mention its spices are reminiscent of a pumpkin pie and a slice will keep you from breakfast to lunch with a hearty dose of heart healthy spelt.

My recipe calls for pumpkin puree. Obviously, I would use a fresh pie pumpkin. Making pumpkin puree is simple, and one pie pumpkin will make enough for two recipes of this bread, or for other pumpkin recipes you're toying with trying. I heat my oven to 400 degrees. Then, I cut out the top and scoop the seeds and seedy pulp out of my pumpkin. I set the entire pumpkin on a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet. I roast the pumpkin for about 30 minutes, or until the pumpkin flesh is soft and wilted. Then, allow the pumpkin to cool and scoop the soft pumpkin flesh out from the skin and mash it. Pumpkin puree!

I am embarking, beginning just this week, on writing a cookbook. I want this cookbook to be a collection of not just what I eat, but how I eat. It should be a gospel, of sorts, of my food philosophy, the sustenance and the soul food. This recipe will be included, for sure, with subtitutions and ideas on how to make it your own. That's the key to me, creativity and interest in the kitchen. Without those things, we are a hopeless nation of fast-food addicts. I hope many more recipes are to come for the Queen Honeybea cookbook. Enjoy this one, and remember to buy local and eat well.

Spelt Pumpkin Bread with Bourbon soaked Raisins

¼ cup golden raisins
¼ cup organic dark raisins
2 TBS. whiskey or bourbon

12 oz. pumpkin puree , 1 ½ cups
½ cup pure maple syrup
¼ cup raw sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg white
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 TBS. apple cider vinegar

1 cup organic white spelt flour
½ cup whole wheat spelt flour
2 tsps. baking soda
½ tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9 inch metal loaf pan and set aside.

2. In a small sauce pan, over medium-high heat, combine both kinds of raisins with the whiskey or bourbon. Bring this mixture to a boil, simmer for one minute, then remove the pan from the heat, cover it and set it aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together with a whisk the pumpkin puree, maple syrup, egg and egg white. Slowly drizzle the olive oil in as you beat with the whisk to incorporate it completely and slowly. Continue until all the oil is worked into the wet mixture. With a spatula, fold in the vanilla and apple cider vinegar. Set aside.

4. In a smaller mixing bowl combine the white spelt flour, the whole wheat spelt flour, the baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. With the spatula, fold all but 2 TBS. of this mixture into the wet mixture to make a lumpy, just barely moistened batter.

5. Use the lid of the sauce pan with the raisins to drain the excess bourbon directly into the batter by keeping the raisins in the pot. Toss the soaked raisins with the reserved 2 TBS. of flour mixture, then fold them and the excess bourbon gently into the batter.

6. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or nearly clean, and the center of the loaf seems set.

7. Remove it from the oven and tip the hot loaf pan onto its side to cool for 10 minutes. Then run a knife around the edges of the bread and remove it from the pan. Cool completely.

Serve the bread completely cooled the next day, when the flavors have married.