Grain-free, Paleo pumpkin bread with collagen protein (dessert or breakfast!)

Grain-free, Paleo pumpkin bread with collagen protein (dessert or breakfast!)

• 11.25.2016

First, I will keep the Black Friday stuff REAL short today and tell you my top three sales this weekend, where I have been doing some shopping from the comfort of my couch!!

1. World Market (I ordered cute gifts, jewelry, these adorable Santa mugs, and some decor stuff all 40-50% off--TODAY ONLY)
2. Express (everything 50% off including my favorite jeans of all time! plus free shipping with no minimum)
3. LOFT (everything 50% off, shopping for elegant sweaters and accessories as I multi-task writing this post!)
4. One more... the Instant Pot is on Black Friday sale on Amazon for the best price I've seen it. If you've been wanting one, go check it out now!

Alright, moving on. I am really excited about this pumpkin bread recipe because A) it's seasonal, and we all love pumpkin everything, B) my idea of adding collagen protein powder worked really well and didn't mess up the texture or anything, and C) it's grain-free, gluten-free, and naturally sweetened, so you can feel good about eating it instead of all of the holiday crap you're probably surrounded by this time of year.

In previous years at Thanksgiving I've made a grain-free pumpkin pie to bring to the family dinner, but I don't really love pumpkin pie all that much and husband will eat the gluten-containing stuff every once in a while so it was really just for me, anyway. I'd been wanting to make a Paleo pumpkin bread this season so I made this instead of the pie--double duty!

I was definitely inspired by the banana bread recipe on Civilized Caveman Cooking, I think his most popular recipe ever, because it uses a little almond butter instead of expensive, harder-to-find almond flour and a little coconut flour (too much makes desserts dry). I made some changes to use pumpkin instead of banana, and I don't use baking soda since I hate the taste, so I've figured out a modification.

Paleo pumpkin bread with collagen protein

Ingredients:

• 1 c. canned pumpkin
• 1/2 c. maple syrup OR 2/3 c. coconut palm sugar
• 4 eggs 
• 1/3 c. almond butter (or sunflower butter for nut-free)
• 4 tbsp butter or coconut oil, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 1/3 c. coconut flour 
• 1/3 c. unflavored gelatin/collagen protein (small or big) 
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (try my recipe here!)
• 1.5 tsp baking powder 
• Sprinkle sea salt
• Optional: 1/4 c. chopped walnuts, pecans, or other topping of choice

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Combine wet ingredients (pumpkin through vanilla) in stand mixer or bowl and mix well.
3. Combine dry ingredients (except optional topping) in a separate bowl and combine; then add to wet mixture.
4. Grease a loaf pan with butter or coconut oil. Add batter and bake for 1 hour or until a fork comes out clean.

How easy was that?!! This is my kind of baking!

Serve with grassfed butter if you like, but hot out of the oven, this was so spicy and delicious we ate it plain. Then at dinner we ate it with whipped cream like my mother-in-law always makes for the pumpkin pie! What a treat!

Shop the ingredients here!