Vegan Pumpkin Bread – The Best Fall Treat

Hi Everyone! It's about time I came out with a comforting fall baked treat. If you haven't checked out my latest few recipes featuring the beautiful pumpkin, you can find one of many here! If you've been here a while you already know that I prefer cooking over baking. This is simply because I feel there are many more creative liberties you can take while cooking, that you cannot while baking because it feels like way more of a precise science. For this reason, I tend to keep my baking recipes pretty simple and standard. And this delicious loaf of vegan pumpkin bread is no exception. It is the most delicious, fluffy, and mildly sweet dessert that you're going to want to have on repeat for the entire fall season this year.

Why you will love this vegan pumpkin bread

This recipe is the queen of compromises. But I am certainly not talking about flavors! I am talking about "healthy washing" claims such as "good," "bad," and "guilt free." I put these in quotes because I absolutely hate the idea of assigning moral value to food, as if we somehow become "bad" by eating high calorie treats. Enjoying food is all about balance. I know that I don't need to be eating cardboard tasting "brownie alternatives" or "a protein bar that tastes like dessert" in order to feel good about my choices.

For me, this bread is all about that balance. It is made with half white and half wheat flour. White flour gives a certain bounce that wheat flour simply can't achieve. But I wanted to create a more balanced nutritional profile, so I compromised by making the flour spread half and half. It still creates some bounce, but it's got a bit more fiber and nutrients retained. The flax egg adds some more fiber as well as some omega-3 ALAs. It also provides the necessary binding action for baking. I use Bob's Red Mill flax seed meal and have been loving it. The maple syrup replaces white sugar, while being on theme for the fall.

Our star ingredients

Flour mixture- In all my years of testing baked recipes, the combination that I have found to work really well, while not being just a refined flour bomb is a half and half situation. I have found that to be the most versatile replacement for a 100% refined flour ratio. Doing a 100% wheat flour substitution has been a general disaster as it doesn't come out light and fluffy and bouncy.

Pumpkin (seeds)- Of course we wouldn't have pumpkin bread without actual pumpkin puree. But we are also talking it a step further and mixing in some pumpkin seeds. Not only does it taste amazing, but we get to have some of the amazing nutritional benefits of pumpkin seeds, like protein, zinc and magnesium.

Dark chocolate chips- Need I say more? And if you are at all hesitant about mixing dark chocolate with pumpkin, I urge you to check out my chocolate pumpkin brownies. I can promise you it works! So you're getting a chocolatey pumpkin bread with the texture of pumpkin seeds to break it up.

How to make vegan pumpkin bread

It's really very simple- like I said I stick to the basics and make minor tweaks when it comes to baking. You just need 3 bowls. One bowl to first mix all the dry ingredients together and combine them well. The next, a small bowl to make your flax egg and set aside. And the third bowl to mix all the wet ingredients and combine well.

Then mix your flax egg into the wet ingredient mixture and combine well. Lastly, slowly whisk in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing in the chocolate chips and pumpkin seeds in the last step. Then sit back, and watch the oven for about an hour and watch it rise! Make sure you let it cool for a half hour before cutting into it or else it will break.