At playgroup last Friday, Emma chowed down on some banana bread that the host had offered as snacks for the kids.  I’ve tried making muffins and breads for her before, slaved over a hot oven to make her a tasty treat, only to have her take one bite and not be thrilled with my efforts.  Since she liked that banana bread so much, I went through my very-worn, slightly destroyed copy of The Joy of Vegan Baking to find a recipe for something that used ingredients that I already had on hand and that would appeal to an almost-three-year old.  The recipe for Pumpkin Bread intrigued me because it is made with applesauce instead of oil.  Better still is that I had everything that the recipe called for sitting in my pantry, so how could I resist?!

The recipe makes two loaves or two 8 inch rounds.  I don’t have two loaf pans, but my two cake pans did the trick just fine.  I forgot to add pecans to the recipe, so I piled them up on top and pushed them down into the batter before baking.  I have to say this bread is amazing!  It’s moist and flavorful without being super oily or fatty tasting.  While Matt and I LOVED it, Emma was still only lukewarm about it even though she was so excited about me making it.  I think it may have had too many spices in it for her (cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves), since she is definitely a kid who likes everything plain.  I do have some bananas that are starting to get some spots and I figure I’ll let those get nice and spotty to make bread with instead of freezing them for smoothies.

One thing I did do was sub half whole wheat pastry flour for half of the all-purpose called for in the recipe.  I’m trying a different brand of whole wheat pastry flour that has a finer grain to it and I found that it didn’t alter the texture of the bread at all.  If you find that your whole wheat pastry flour has a tendency to make your baked goods somewhat gritty in texture, I found this one in the bulk bin section at Whole Foods.  I have no idea what brand it is, but I really like it and will make my banana bread with all whole wheat pastry flour.