No Forks Allowed: Pumpkin Spoon Bread

Rachel Johnson

Pumpkin spoon bread
Pumpkin spoon bread

To be real, your first solid food experience almost assuredly started with a spoon accompanied by "choo choo here comes the train!". The train was clearly carrying cargo of mashed peas or strained banana (by the way, you can totally catch some BA baby food tips from deputy editor Scott DeSimon). Spoons have served as a favorite utensil from age 4-6 months-and so when a dish, especially a bread, requires a spoon to serve it, you know it's got to be better than mushy carrots. In any form, eating food with a spoon just always seems the right way to do it. This Pumpkin Spoon Bread definitely deserves the eaten-with-a-spoon approval. No need to go all out with roasting your own-use canned pumpkin purée. It takes way too much time and often produces inconsistent results. Borrowing true harvest flavors, this spoon bread is the perfect addition to your brunch table. And go ahead and grab the spoons because baby, it's that good.

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PUMPKIN SPOON BREAD
Recipe by Joseph Lenn

Ingredients:
2½ cups whole milk
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 cup canned pure pumpkin purée
3 large eggs, separated
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
½ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg


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Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°. Bring milk, butter, and salt to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat, gradually whisk in cornmeal, and simmer, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk in purée. Whisk egg yolks, chives, thyme, cinnamon, cayenne, ginger, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Whisk in cornmeal mixture; set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites in a medium bowl until soft peaks form. Whisk ¼ of egg whites into batter, then gently fold in remaining egg whites. Pour batter into a 9x5" loaf pan. Bake until spoon bread is set and begins to pull away from sides of pan, 30-40 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

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