Pumpkin Bread in July

I know it's the last day of July, but our apartment smelled an awful lot like Thanksgiving this afternoon. The other day Jason was cleaning out the freezer and discovered some pumpkin leftover from last year, and then yesterday after the brewing he boiled down leftover wort (basically sweet, dark-colored malt water with sugars and flavor extracted from barley) and turned it into syrup. A really thick syrup, kind of like molasses.

malt syrup

And with pumpkin and this new ingredient in the house, I had to try it out. So I took my favorite pumpkin bread recipe and modified it (see my recipe at end).

It's sadly addicting, but I've only had two pieces so far.

So I know most people don't have this stuff on hand, but I think using molasses or molasses and honey (or even just honey?) would be really good, too.

Malty Pumpkin Bread

• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup barley malt extract
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1-1/3 cups flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• If no spice in pumpkin puree, add cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, etc.

Mix liquid ingredients together, then add dry ingredients and stir everything in. Bake in a greased and floured bread pan on 350 for 45-50 minutes. (If you like things sweeter, up the syrup to 3/4 cups or use 1 cup of sugar.)