Oh, The Things You Can Do With Butternut Squash

Ok, get your mind out of the gutter! Puhleaze…. I’m talking about cooking here, nothing else… seriously…

It is squash season, and I don’t think I’ve ever met a squash I haven’t fallen head-over-heals in love with. I’ve got a bunch in the kitchen, some acorn, some delicata, a spaghetti squash and a few butternut. I love them all for different reasons.

We are trying a bit of gluten-free and dairy-free at our house these days, I really wanted to make a gluten-free zucchini bread, but the zucchini didn’t look so good at the grocery store, and I couldn’t make it to the farmers market, so I decided to use the butternut squash. I like that it’s sweet, and I thought the kids would just love it.

And they did, the above picture is of the last bite.  It went so fast and is so delicious I can’t even begin to tell you how good that makes me feel!  I don’t consider my self and “expert” baker/cook.  It’s something I love to do, but I feel that I just don’t know enough about the science of cooking to really, fully experiment successfully.  HA!  I did it.  I totally came up with the recipe, and it worked!

You should make it too.  If you don’t want to do gluten-free, you could totally use wheat flour, it would be yummy!

Butternut Squash Bread (Gluten-Free)

• 1-1/2 cups Butternut Squash shredded (I cut my squash in half, put face down in a casserole dish, fill with about a 1/4″ of water and put in the oven at 450ºF for about 20 minutes.  This softens it so you can peel it then run it through the shredder easily)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 cup gluten-free baking mix*
• 1-1/2 tsp xantham gum*
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Zest from 1 lemon

In one bowl, combine squash, vegetable oil, sugar and egg, mix until blended.

In another bowl sift together, flour, xantham gum, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and lemon zest.  Mix well.

Pour flour mixture into squash mixture, and stir together until well mixed and moist.

Pour mixture into greased loaf pan.

Cook at 325ºF for about 45-50 minutes until golden brown and fork comes out clean. (Make sure you check your time based on your pan.  This is not my forté, so stay close to the oven if you are not sure, burnt squash bread would be such a bummer! – in fact if anyone has a guide for cooking times based on pan sizes, i.e. – how to cook muffins instead of a loaf, please share!)

* You could totally use whole wheat flour for this as well, just eliminate the xantham gum.

I think what makes this bread is the lemon.  I’ll be making it with other veggies, but the lemon will always remain.

I had a bunch of shredded butternut squash left over, I made Elana’s Butternut Squash Latkes.

OH MY GOODNESS!  These were so delicious!  Another fabulous gluten-free recipe where you could sub in so many different veggies and get incredible results.  These absolutely melted in our mouths, went so quickly I couldn’t even get a shot on the plate!  We were eating them as they came off the stove.  This dish is so perfect for fall (any season actually), and we could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The mix of onion and squash was ideal, and we liked the cispier ones with burnt edges.  We ate them with apple sauce.  I’m thinking that this is the dish I’ll be making for the holiday family gatherings coming up, 1 little squash makes a lot of food.