Until I started growing my own pumpkins, I never really conceived of using pumpkin purée for anything other than pumpkin pie. Yet pumpkins are  a great source of vitamins, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids, and they are incredibly easy to grow (especially my favorite, the New England Pie Pumpkin). In fact, from one 4′ x 4′ trellis, I can grow enough pumpkins to provide my family of four with purée all winter long. That’s a lot of pumpkin. So, to keep my family eating this nutritious vegetable all year long without tiring of the same old menu, I look for new and tasty ways to use it.

Recently, I came across this winning recipe for Pumpkin Nutella Bread on Food52 and I thought to myself, well who wouldn’t like this. I am normally indifferent to sweet breads, but this one caught my attention immediately. So, I gave it whirl and the results were delectable.  This gave me an opportunity to treat my kids to a sweet that also contained a serving of vegetables, and despite their initial skepticism to trying new foods, they ate it right up.

Pumpkin Nutella Bread Recipe

4 eggs

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 cup melted coconut oil (I only had canola and olive oil on hand so I did half and half)

1 tsp vanilla

16 oz. pumpkin purée

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (the original recipe calls for ground ginger, but I didn’t have this on hand)

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together flour, baking soda and powder, and remaining spices. Stir into pumpkin mixture. Remove two cups of batter and place in a small bowl. Beat Nutella into the batter in small bowl until smooth.

Grease and flour two bread pans and spoon half of the pumpkin batter, and then half of the chocolate batter into the pans. Swirl with a knife. Repeat layers with remaining pumpkin and chocolate batters. Swirl again. Bake for about an hour. Check bread after 30 minutes and cover loosely if necessary to prevent too much browning.

Note: If you are a batter junkie like myself, don’t forget to lick the bowl. It’s a nice precursor for the gastric euphoria that is soon to follow.