Pumpkin & Apple Bread (with a sticky topping)

This was actually the second recipe I came up with while experimenting with pumpkin over the last week.  I must admit to having never cooked with pumpkin before, aside from soups, but as my little girls have been getting excited about Halloween and they are readily available in the shops at this time of year, I thought why not.  

While pumpkins are obviously the norm these days for making Halloween lanterns, here in Scotland we have traditionally used turnips, known here as “neeps”, to make them.  However, as I was in the mood for baking and didn’t think turnip flavoured cakes would be too tasty, I opted to use this relative newcomer to northern Scottish Halloween festivities – the pumpkin.

Ingredients

300g Wholemeal Flour

100g Soft Dark Brown Sugar

2 Teaspoons Bicarbonate of Soda

1 ½ Teaspoons Cinnamon

½ Teaspoon Grated Nutmeg

¼ Teaspoon Ground Cloves

50ml Ground Nut Oil (or other flavourless oil)

340g Pureed Pumpkin

115g Pureed Apple

2 Eggs

For the topping:

1 Handful of Roasted Pumpkin Seeds*

50g butter

50g caster Sugar

1 Tablespoon of Plain Flour

1Tablespoon of Milk

1 Apple – Cored, Peels, Quartered & Thinly Sliced

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 ^oC (160 ^oC Fan) and grease and/or line a 900g/2lb loaf tin.

Add the flour sugar, Bicarbonate of Soda and Spices to a large bowl and mix together. 

In a separate bowl, mix together the pureed fruit, eggs and oil and then add to the dry ingredients – be sure not to over mix.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 55 minutes.

You don’t need to add a topping, but this is very tasty!

In a small pan, melt the butter and gently sauté the apples.  Add the rest of the ingredients and melt together slowly.  Bring to the boil and remove from the heat.

Heat up your grill and simply pour the mixture over the cake (you may want to arrange the apple pieces).  Place the cake under the grill until the topping begins to bubble – remove from the heat and leave to cool.

*I used the method posted the other week by my friend Boulder Locavore from Recipe Swap  - only I added a shake of cinnamon instead of salt, herbs or savoury spices.