Cheaper and Healthier Home-Made Recipe for Williams-Sonoma’s Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Quick Bread

Everyone loves Williams-Sonoma's Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Quick Bread. I mean, what says fall more than the smell of pumpkin bread coming from your kitchen?

A couple of years ago I formulated a recipe to mimic the famed mix and it ended up being cheaper, healthier, and more delicious than the original!

Pumpkin Bread

A bag of Williams-Sonoma's Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Quick Bread mix will cost you $12. My homemade version is only $4.64!

Pumpkin Bread

Side-by-side the loaves look the same and they taste nearly identical. Now, there is the SLIGHTEST texture variation (I'm not going to lie to you). It is so slight that you will only be able to tell if you make both (the store bought and home-made), slice them and eat them side-by-side.

You have to realize that the Williams-Sonoma version has been formulated to be a dry mix that can sit on shelves for two years (the bag that I bought expires in 2015). If you look at the ingredients of the mix, it uses dried pumpkin and buttermilk powder. There is a slight texture variation in the home-made version because the recipe uses pumpkin puree and fresh buttermilk which makes for a moister bread (which is why there is no need for butter).

Taste Test

I know I am biased, I mean I don't have a blindfolded panel of expert judges (although Jacobs tried them both and couldn't tell the difference), but I really think that the homemade version tastes better. BETTER! It is soft and perfectly spiced with a robust pumpkin flavor. Ok, now I'm getting carried away ...

So, without further ado (drum roll please), here is the home-made, from scratch recipe for Williams-Sonoma's Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Quick Bread. I should charge you $12.

Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Quick Bread

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cups white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 cup pecans (finely chopped)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 1/2 x 4 1/2 in loaf pan (or four mini loaf pans).

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, buttermilk, sugar and brown sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, ginger and nutmeg. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Add pecans and mix until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven (if baking mini loaves, bake for about 25 minutes). Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Eat it warm with a little bit of apple butter—Heaven.

Pumpkin Bread

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