Sweet Pumpkin Bread

(adapted from Nigella Lawson's Banana Bread recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess. I LOVE that book.)

300g cooked pumpkin, mashed
175g rice flour
60g slivered almonds
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp bicarb soda
100g pitted dates, chopped
2 large eggs
125g unsalted butter, melted
150g sugar
Loaf tin, buttered and lined with baking paper
½ tsp salt
Handful (or 2) of choc chips
handful of dessicated coconut

Preheat oven to 170°C. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well.

In a separate large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the mashed pumpkin.
Then with your wooden spoon, stir in the nuts, dates, coconut, choc chips and vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit. Scrape into the loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1,1/4 hours. When it’s ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish.
Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.
Makes 8-10 slices.

Enjoy it warming your heart, with love from me (and Nigella).
xx