Full transparency: not all of my cooking turns out as planned. Mostly it does, but here's a saga of the Pumpkin and Golden Raisin Bread that Didn't. Made pretty much the way I make banana bread, I've done this with sweet potato, apples,various other things, successfully. Turns out pumpkin, even drained well, is a different sort of hanimal.
So I noticed that the batter was a bit wet, but confidently thought it would firm up in baking, and now I think I'd have been better advised to add flour, though you don't usually make big changes in the middle of baking. Put it in the oven. Then noticed I'd omitted the melted butter, still sitting on the counter. Pulled the tin out of the oven, beat in the butter after the fact, but now find that's a bit late in the process.
So then I baked it for the usual time. Still totally uncooked. Baked for another 20 minutes. Now the tester, my little aluminum spud nail, came out clean. So I brought it out and cooled and tried it. Hm. More like pudding than bread.
Tried a slice. Not something you'd offer a person. So last night I put it back in a hot oven and baked it another 20 minutes. Now firmer, but a bit rubbery. Oh.
So this morning I toasted a slice, added cranberry jam, and called it Breakfast Bread. Or something. It's edible if you don't realize what it was aiming to be in the first place. I wonder how many recipes are born that way.
Maybe I'll invent the TwiceBaked (biscotti) Postponed Butter Pumpkin Golden Raisin Breakfast Bread Slices. I'll be famous. And good cooks will try it and think, gawd, I could do better than this. Yeah, so could I!
Things can only go uphill from here.
