Easy and Healthy Pumpkin Bread recipe, made with whole grain flour, chia seeds, maple syrup, walnuts, beer and malt. Delicious, vegan and packed with nutrients!
This healthy pumpkin bread with walnuts, chia seeds and beer is not your usual pumpkin bread. But it doesn’t make it less delicious! This pumpkin bread happens to be vegan too! It fits to both sweet and savory toppings (think cheese!) and it has tons of flavor itself. It’s not overly sweet like most of pumpkin bread recipes, so you can eat it for breakfast or make a sandwich with it.
The texture of this healthy pumpkin bread is similar to my favorite easy no-knead beer bread, wholemeal brown bread or spelt bread – crusty surface with a lovely prickliness from draff or malt and a little crunch from walnuts. If you like European-style artisan breads, you know what I’m talking about.
This bread contains beer, however I still call it healthy. Beer has many nutritious benefits (if consumed moderately), anticancer and anti-aging properties, it improves digestion and bone health and reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases. It has a high protein content and the same antioxidant content as wine. For this healthy pumpkin bread we only need 1/4 cup or 60 ml of beer.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know our big news: we are becoming parents in two months! I couldn’t be more excited about that and I’m looking forward to jump right into parenting.
I’ve been eating healthy and avoiding alcohol during my whole pregnancy, so alcohol-free beer became my go-to party drink for the last 7 months. Although, ongoing debates on alcohol consumption during pregnancy are taking place, there is still no definite answer on which amount of alcohol is safe.
I’m one of those who believes that an occasional glass of wine or beer is fine, as opposed to eating pizza 5 times a week. Every particular case of pregnancy is unique though, so if you are taking antidepressants, for instance, alcohol is a strict “no”. If you are pregnant (have been pregnant), please share your experience! I’d love to know.
How to Make Healthy Pumpkin Bread with Walnuts
To start with, let me introduce you to the list of ingredients: whole wheat flour, salt, yeast, maple syrup, beer, pumpkin puree, draff, chia seeds, pumpkin spice mix (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves) and walnuts.
If you don’t know what draff is or where to find it, you can substitute it for malt. Thanks to Amazon, you can buy it online! Besides, you can experiment with different kind of malt, such as caramel malt, Belgian aromatic malt, white wheat malt, red wheat malt, black malt, amber malt, chocolate malt, etc. You might even want to get yourself a home brewing starter kit, to try brewing fancy craft beer by yourself!
If you don’t have after-brewing draff, use the malt soaked over night and boiled in water for 40 minutes. Let it cool, drain it and it’s ready for use.
Once it’s done, there is not much left to do. Just combine all the ingredients and let the dough sit for 1 hour in a warm place. Preheat the oven to to 200 °C or 400 °F. Transfer the dough to a rectangular loaf pan and bake for about 40-50 minutes. Insert a wooden toothpick in the middle of the loaf to check whether it’s done. If it comes out dry, your healthy pumpkin bread is ready! Let it cool and enjoy.
Check the recipe below for the details:
Healthy Pumpkin Bread with Walnuts
Ingredients
- 200 grams or 7 oz draff or soaked malt
- 4 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 42 g or 1.5 oz fresh yeast (alternatively, two 7 grams packages or 1 ½ tablespoons instant dry yeast)
- 5 tablespoons maple syrup
- 60 ml or ¼ cup beer
- 250 grams or 1 1/8 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin spice mix (1 tsp cinnamon, ¼ tsp nutmeg, ¼ tsp ginger, 1/8 tsp cloves)
- 30 grams or 1/4 cup walnuts chopped
Instructions
- PREPARE YOUR DRAFF: If you use the home brewing dry malt (see the notes above), soak it overnight and boil in water for 40 minutes. Let it cool, drain it and it's ready for use.
- MAKE THE DOUGH: Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and let rest for 1 hour in a warm place. Preheat the oven to 200 °C or 400 °F. Transfer the dough to a rectangular loaf pan and let sit for 10 more minutes.
- BAKE THE BREAD: Bake for around 40-50 minutes. Insert a wooden toothpick in the middle of the loaf to check whether it's done. If it comes out dry, your healthy pumpkin bread is ready! Let it cool and enjoy.
Notes
Nutrition
P.S. Here is my pumpkin yeast bread in a jar recipe.
What is your favorite pumpkin bread recipe? Leave a comment below!
Cheers,
Elena
Ruth Nicholson
Monday 15th of July 2019
Your recipe mentions chia seed, but I don't seed chia seeds in the ingredients list. How many chia seeds do you add and at what point do you add them? Thanks. Ruth Nicholson
Elena Szeliga
Monday 15th of July 2019
Hi Ruth, that's a great question! I missed chia seeds in the ingredient list. Thanks for pointing that out! I used 2 tablespoons for this recipe and I added them together with all the ingredients. The idea behind this is to soak up the extra liquid from the dough, so you might want to add more if you see that your dough is too sticky. Hope that helps! I'd love to know how your bread turn out! I would appreciate your feedback.