Gluten-free spiced pumpkin loaf is one of my family’s autumn favorites with warming spices of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Pumpkin Puree makes this loaf super moist. I would say it is a prefectly transitional cake from Autumn to Winter when we indulge in more festive treats.
Where I live -in London – most autumn and winter weekends are rainy and dark. We always crave something that is warming and comforting to have with a cup of Turkish tea in the afternoons. This delicious, moist, and spicy gluten-free loaf is much lighter and moist than most cakes and is free of refined sugars and not too sweet. I use mainly buckwheat flour and add some Tapioca Flour to inject some sponginess into gluten-free baking, both are from Bob’s Red Mill and are available on Amazon or your local health store.
For some texture and extra flavour I add pecan and chocolate chunks on top. I use pure 100% chocolate from Montezuma’s – You don’t have to use pure chocolate, I am just so obsessed with dark chocolate! However it really melts so well when heated unlike the baking chocolate chunks/chip that has lower chocolate content and more solid fillers.
Serves 6 -8 slices Prep Time:10 mins Cooking time: 25-30 mins
Equipment: 1lb loaf tin
Dry Ingredients
- 200 g buckwheat flour
- 25 g tapioca flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp coconut sugar/muscovado sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ cup chocolate chunks (optional)
Wet Ingredients
- 250 g pumpkin puree
- 2 eggs – at room temperature
- 100 butter/coconut oil (melted)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 3 tbsp milk
Topping
- 8-10 pecan nut halves
- 2 tbsp chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC
- Combine all dry ingredients (except choc-chunks) in a large mixing bowl by sifting and then mixing well.
- Combine all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, mix together well.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mix with a spatula to ensure a homogenous mix
- Fill the parchment-lined loaf tin with the mixture which should be quite thick. Use an angled spatula to flatten the top.
- Top the batter with choc-chunks and pecan nuts.
- Bake for 20-25 mins. To test the doneness, use a toothpick, which should come out slightly moist but not wet.
- Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before serving.
