Healthier Pumpkin Treats

As much as I love my Pumpkin Cupcake recipe, my jeans can only take so much. So how's a gal to get her fix during this glorious season of pumpkins pastries? I found a recipe from Cooking Light that sounded great, but 2 cups of sugar? How “light” is that? Plus, I thought I could health-ify it a bit more by substituting some wholesome whole wheat flour instead of plain old white. The result was pretty tasty, though not quite as dessert-like as a lot of pumpkin breads. It would be stellar with vanilla ice cream, though.

Unfortunately, our camera died this weekend so I didn’t get a picture (but – woohoo! New Sony Cybershot come to mama!). I’ll warn you that the tops didn’t come out quite as glossy as I expected, but they were quite dense and moist on the inside.

In the meantime:

Donkey Dragon says "Happy Howl-oween!"

Pumpkin Bread and/or Muffins
Makes 1 loaf and 6 muffins, or 2 small loaves.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup Splenda
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
• 1/2 cup raisins
• Cooking spray

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Combine flour and next 9 ingredients (through nutmeg) in a large bowl.
• In a separate bowl, combine canola oil, eggs, and pumpkin in a medium bowl; stir with a whisk until smooth. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in raisins.
• Spoon batter into pans (I made one loaf and six muffins, but the original recipe is for 2 loaves) coated with cooking spray.
• Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean (20-30 minutes for muffins).
• Cool and slice