Food & Drink

Pumpkin & Ginger Tea Bread

Recipes from Suzanne James | www.suzannejames.co.uk

It is easy to end up with an awful lot of pumpkin at this time of year. If you have done ‘soup’ and ‘pie’ so many times you are in need of a change then this is a great option. It is a surprisingly wonderful moist cake bread which is best served thickly sliced and buttered with a cup of tea. It is also great for lunchboxes.

Ingredients

• 175g butter, melted • 140g clear honey • 1 large egg, beaten • 250g raw peeled pumpkin, or butternut squash, coarsely grated (about 500g/1lb 2oz before peeling and seeding) • 1 grated English apple • 100g light muscovado sugar • 350g self-raising flour • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon (or ginger) • 2 tbsp Demerara sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 1800C/gas 4/fan 1600C. Butter and line the base and two long sides of a 1.5kg loaf tin with a strip of baking paper. Mix the butter, honey and egg and stir in the grated apple and the pumpkin or squash. Finally mix in the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Pour into the prepared tin and sprinkle the top with the Demerara sugar. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until risen and golden brown. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack. Serve thickly sliced and buttered. Enjoy!

In Season This Month

Fruit, Nuts & Fungi - Apples, blackberries, chestnuts, elderberries, figs, grapes, pears, quince, tomatoes, walnuts. Lots of lovely mushrooms; chanterelles, chestnuts, horse mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, parasol mushrooms, puffballs, giant shaggy ink caps and summer truffles Vegetables & Herbs - Beetroot, borlotti beans, broccoli, cabbages, carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, chard, courgettes, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, onions, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins & squash, rocket, salsify, scorzonera, spinach, turnips Meat & Game - Duck, wild goose, grouse, guinea fowl, hare, mallard, partridge, pheasant, rabbit, venison, wood pigeon Fish & Shellfish - Cod, crab, eels, lobster, mackerel, mussels, oysters, prawns, scallops, sea bass, sprats, squid, brown and rainbow trout Going out of season - Aubergine, beetroot, butternut squash, chicory, cobnut, damsons, elderberries, fennel, fig, globe artichoke, lamb, mackerel, pear, plums, radish, raspberry, rocket, sweetcorn, watercress