Buttercup Squash Bread

Inspired both by a Buttercup Squash we were gifted and Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio, The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, I created a variation on his Quick Bread to create probably the best squash bread and squash muffins I’ve ever had.  We made this for my daughter’s birthday dessert and topped with whipped cream cheese.  She’s starting to show interest in cooking and helping so I had her alongside to combine and mix the pre-measured ingredients.  

The breakdown I’m going to give you is Ruhlman’s ratios tripled (I had a surplus of fresh, roasted Buttercup to use) which translates to about 3 loaves of bread  or about 30 muffins (we divided up to make 2 loaves and about 12 muffins)

24 ounces of flour (I altered amounts here as an experiment. I like to mix my flours so I used about 11 oz white, 12 oz whole wheat, and added in 3 Tb of local Buckwheat flour)

12 ounces of sugar (to cut down I added just 4 ounces and was satisfied with sweetness)

3 tsp salt (I opted for no salt)

6 tsp baking powder

18 ounces of milk (if you were not going to add pumpkin and just wanted plain quick bread, you would increase to 24 ounces milk for this triple recipe)

6 eggs

3 sticks melted butter

3 C roasted and cooled Buttercup meat – whisk couple times to break up clumps

Solid tsp of ground nutmeg (our addition)

2-4 Tb of chopped crystallized ginger (another addition) –  OH MAN

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine all dry ingredients in one bowl, and all wet in another. Whisk to combine.  Butter or spray tins/pans.  Bake about 30 min. for muffins and about 50 for loaf. Toothpick test for doneness.

I learned the hard way that the loaves must have time to COOL before removing from pans…otherwise you’ll have something in between a loaf and a muffin all over your counter.