Vegan Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

Today was one of those rare, wonderful days, where I was kid-free (the little guy was spending the day with his nana), and I had no reason to leave the house, no errands to run and nothing I had to get done. I found myself in a rather domestic mood, and all I felt like doing was cooking, baking, cleaning...and staying in my pjs all day. I can happily say I accomplished all of these things today.

For the baking, I was just about to make a sandwich bread I've been wanting to try when I decided to completely change gears. Not wanting to wait for yeast to rise and craving something a little on the sweet side, I began looking for a pumpkin quick bread. I found one that had great reviews, but while vegan, wasn't exactly healthy.

I played around, cleaning it up a little, and making changes like swapping out the shredded coconut for dried cranberries (majorly reducing the sugar, since the cranberries are plenty sweet). I also used extra pumpkin in place of some of the oil. The end result was a yummy, fall-flavored bread that you'd never guess was vegan. It was really moist and for our tastes, perfectly sweetened. Definitely a perfect treat for a perfect kind of day.

Vegan Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

adapted from allrecipes.com

makes 1 loaf

1 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch of cloves

1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup canola oil

1/3 cup coconut milk (or almond)

1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking soda, salt and spices. In a smaller bowl, combine pumpkin, oil and milk. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, and stir until incorporated. Fold in cranberries and walnuts.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for an hour, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Remove from oven, cover tightly with foil and allow to steam for 10 minutes. Remove foil and turn onto rack to cool completely.