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I call this "pumpkin-spiced" bread because it's the spices and not the pumpkin that make one think it's pumpkin: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. I've never used ground cloves. I just bought some for the first time, and I was blown away by how awesome it smells. I need to find more things to put it in.

This is my first in the Experimental Bread series, a series of breads meant to be eaten alone or with butter. This is opposed to the Daily Bread series which can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Since the E series is meant to have crazy flavors and we're also going to have a D series loaf, I figured the E series loaves should be small. So this first one is only half a full-sized D series loaf.

• ½ c. warm water
• ¼ c. pumpkin
• 1 tsp. molasses
• 1 tsp. yeast
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ c. all-purpose flour
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• ½ tsp. ginger
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground cloves
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tbsp. pumpkin seeds

Scaled-down, it's pretty difficult to mix the wet and dry ingredients. It didn't look like the flour would ever get taken into the dough. But after a lot of squishing the ball with my spoon, I managed to get it all in.

I baked it for 35 minutes at 350°F, which was just about perfect. I didn't let it cool very much because I wanted to taste it. OH MY GOD, I used too much nutmeg. That spice can definitely be cut in half. I can't really tell if the other three should be reduced because of how overpowering the nutmeg is. It's numbing my tongue. The bread is somewhat tolerable toasted with some butter.

Though, I have to say, I'm glad this is the only real problem. The bread is certainly bread-like in texture and not like a muffin or a biscuit. It's not too wet or too dry. I'll just try this again, but with half the nutmeg. Or maybe I'll just leave it out altogether.