Butternut Squash Breakfast Bread

This quick bread is chock full of healthy oats, dried fruits, mixed in a butternut squash batter. Hints of cinnamon and cloves gives makes this quick bread a fall favorite for breakfast or anytime.

Is butternut squash a root vegetable? Of course it’s not. But all morning I was thinking it was as I must have been experiencing a senior moment. My plan today was to make my root vegetable dish for the collab I’m in this month. But for some odd reason I had in my head that I should make this Butternut Squash Breakfast Bread in addition to the Baby Beet Tarte Tatin from River Cottage Veg cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Well, I didn’t have time to make the beet tatin, but this quick bread made it into our day this morning, and I gotta tell you I’m glad it did! It was so good!!

Of course you don’t have to just have this for breakfast. I’m calling it a breakfast bread because it has oats, raisins, chopped dried apricots, and chopped walnuts in it. Reminds me a little of a trail mix that is mixed into a quick bread. Subtle flavors of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, are mixed with puréed butternut squash, and it has the right amount of sweetness.

So, I’ll have to save the beet tatin for another day. I hope you all had a super Sunday!

Butternut Squash Breakfast Bread

1 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup quick oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup sugar

1 rounded cup of puréed butternut squash

2 large eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped dried apricots

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 10 x 5 1/2 loaf pan with cooking spray. (This was a vintage Pyrex loaf pan. Use what ever you have that is close to size, but not larger.) In a medium-sized bowl, combine flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, combine eggs, oil, and puréed squash. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix well. Next, add the walnuts, raisins, and apricots. Pour batter in prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Enjoy!