Fat Friday: Pumpkin Butterscotch Nutella Bread

Today is a first on Fat Friday - I'm doing a recipe I've never tried before. It'll be brand new for all of us but before the skepticism sets in let me point something out to you -

Pumpkin + Butterscotch + Nutella

Is there anything that could possibly go wrong? Seriously? You should trust me. Of course I've said that before and look where it got you. Probably into therapy. Or a liquor store.

So, ready to try this new recipe with me? Here's what you need and let's keep our fingers crossed!

2 c. flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. ginger

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. nutmeg

1/2 c. butter - softened

3/4 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 c. pumpkin, not pie filling

1/2 c. butterscotch chips

2-3 T. nutella

Put 1/2 c. butter and 3/4 c. sugar in your mixer bowl. Cream them for several minutes.

Don't let the pictures of extra ingredients confuse you - I'm doubling the recipe. I'm still struggling with my large capacity mixer and it's inability to handle small quantities. That means if I don't like this recipe, I'll have 2 loaves. Woo hoo.

Add 2 eggs to the creamed butter and sugar, one at a time. Can I offer you a hint? Break your eggs into a separate bowl and pour them into the mixer one by one. It seems like I always get egg shell in them and have to fish it out. You know the best way to do that, right? Use the larger shell to fish out the smaller piece. The sharp edge of the shell seems to cut through the viscous white and makes it easier to grab the tiny piece.

These are small, farm-fresh eggs given to me by the Harmons last week. Two of these eggs equals one regular egg. If it looks like I'm using a lot of eggs it's because I am.

Here's another reason to break your eggs into a separate bowl -

See the bloody part? The egg isn't contaminated or anything - it has something to do with where the hen is in her reproductive cycle. But contaminated or not, I still don't want it in my pumpkin bread so I tossed it.

This concludes our home economics lesson for the day. Back to the recipe.

With the mixer running, add the eggs, one at a time until they're all incorporated. You'll probably have to scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times.

Now add 1 cup of pumpkin - make sure it's not pumpkin pie filling. Mix it thoroughly into the egg mixture.

Whisk all the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg - together in a separate bowl. Then, with the mixer running, add it to the pumpkin mixture.

Finally, fold in the butterscotch chips. If you have a pumpkin bread recipe that you love, feel free to use it and add 1/2 c. butterscotch chips.

Now comes the fun part. You'll need nutella. Oh my sweet Lord, nutella is clearly one of Your most fabulous creations.

You can see I have 2 different sizes. The smaller jar I bought a couple of weeks ago, knowing I was going to try this bread.

This is why I had to buy another jar. I opted for the larger size this time. HEY - quit judging me - I have self-control issues. So sue me.

Here's how you use the nutella (does anybody else hear a choir of angels singing every time I write that word? Just wondering.)

Spread half the batter in a greased 9x5 loaf pan. Put 2 or 3 big blobs of nutella (about a heaping tablespoon each) on top of the batter.

The nutella blob - it's controlling my hand - can't . . . resist . . . . being pulled . . . into nutella's gravitational field . . . must . . . hang on . . .

Scientific observation #1: nutella blob greatly reduced in size. Needs further study.

If your self control is greater than mine, here's what it should look like.

I used an offset spatula to spread it around. As you can see, I wasn't real concerned with what it looked like. I think the original recipe, which I found on Tasty Kitchen by cakeduchess, called for layering 1/3 batter - 2 T. nutella - 1/3 batter - 2 T. nutella - remaining batter, then swirling with a knife so you get that beautiful marbling inside the loaf. I was too busy licking nutella off the spoon to worry about that.

Maybe next time.

Bake it for 50 - 60 minutes at 350F. Again, a change from the original recipe. That called for baking it 30 minutes. When I baked it, I checked it at 30 minutes and the toothpick came out clean. But the loaf was a bit flat. I didn't think anything of it since the toothpick was clean so took it out of the oven. Here's what it looked like after cooling and cutting -

Cooked edges with a runny, batter middle. Gross. I had to start over and do it again. Maybe my brain was on nutella/sugar overload and stopped functioning because I KNEW BETTER. When I didn't see a pretty rounded loaf I should have known something wasn't right despite the clean toothpick. Sheesh.

Second time - success! I LOVE this bread. It's very moist and dense with fabulous flavor. I especially love that the nutella ribbon in the middle didn't soak into the bread, but stayed intact. Yumminess.

Make it for your family and they'll worship the ground you walk on.

Or maybe that's just the nutella talking.