Butternut Squash Bread

So after we moved I decided to sign up for Bountiful Basket, if you’ve never heard of it, it’s a food co-op that distributes fresh and organic produce once a week.  You sign up and every Monday afternoon you login to, pick your basket and if you want any of the others options offered for that week and pay.  Price starts at $15 and goes up if you have other options.  I paid $40 for a laundry basket full of organic fruits and veggies, along with five loafs of homemade bread.  In our basket we  had two Butternut Squash… Squashes?  I didn’t know what to do with it because I didn’t know what it tasted like.  EXPERIMENT TIME!!  *Evil laughter*  I figured, I rather I try something and end up tossing it cause it tasted terrible and learn from this, than have it go bad in my fridge, make a mess and have to throw it away. 

I cut it open and the first thing that popped in my head was that it smelled, had the same color, and seeds as a pumpkin.  Ding!  *Light bulb goes off* I’ll make bread or attempt to make bread with it.

So after I cut it in half and scrapped out the seeds I placed the cut-side down, on a lightly greased baking sheet. Baked in a preheated 375°F oven until soft, so about 50 minutes. Once it cooled I scraped all the gooey-ness (technical term) into my food processer and made baby food… er… puree.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 cup squash puree
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white

Make it:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly oil and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.
2. Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, allspice and cloves in a medium bowl until combined.
3. Beat squash puree, sugar, honey and oil in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Beat in egg and egg white. Turn off the mixer, add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until combined. Scrape into the prepared loaf pan.
4. Bake the bread until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool for 30 minutes more. Serve warm.