orange pekoe, presidential elections, and pumpkin bread

I should be sleeping. But there must have been caffeine in that cup of Orange Pekoe that I drank at Women for Missions tonight. 

The tabs are open at the top of my screen for Fox News & The New York Times. But we'll know soon enough the fate of our nation. For now, I'm choosing to pray for those preaching the gospel in our nation and for those who need to respond to that truth. 

And while I pray, I'm baking up another loaf of the Harvest Pumpkin Bread that I took to WFM ... because my husband said he would not be disappointed if we had it again for breakfast. ;)  

Here's the (no eggs, no dairy) recipe: 

1/2 cup applesauce (natural, no sugar added)
1 cup almondmilk (unsweetened vanilla)
1 cup pumpkin (scraped from the real deal and cooked down with brown & white sugars and selected pumpkin pie spices--more than any recipe ever calls for)  

1/2 cup vegetable oil  

3 cups flour + 4 tsp baking powder + 1 tsp salt
2/3 to 1 cup sugar  

2 Tbs cinnamon (or more)

Note: I didn't add any extra spices in the batter b/c I'd put so much into the pumpkin when I was cooking it, but if you use the pumpkin from the can, be sure to kick in some pumpkin pie spice, or a combo of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, mace, and plenty of ginger. You know what you like. So use that! ;) 

1/3 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup raisins

I lined my bread pan with wax paper, sprayed it with a bit of oil. Baked at 350F for a little under an hour so that it was done but still moist. And slid this bread straight from the pan to a plate sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. A few roasted pumpkin seeds and some extra raisins for presentation. And voila! 

Bon appetit! I think you're going to love the way this hearty, (mostly) healthy harvest pumpkin bread turn out.

And regardless of the election results, rest assured, our God reigns!

Here's to a good night's sleep for all of us... 

Grace, 
michelle