credit: Lauren Flemming / Courtesy of Kate Clause

Kate Clause's chai-spiced pumpkin bread

Putting pumpkin into a pie for Thanksgiving? That’s so... traditional.

Pumpkin pie is a non-negotiable staple of the dessert table in my family. It’s a comforting (if dull) Thanksgiving ritual. We delight in a predictable, classic Thanksgiving meal; each year, we do our best to imitate a real-life Norman Rockwell painting. We serve pumpkin pie after the plates for dinner are cleared, with a dash of Cool Whip and freshly brewed coffee. Then, we try not to fall asleep.

It wasn’t until a few years ago, when I found myself with an extra can of pumpkin lying around after the pie-making finished, that I thought to bake a new pumpkin-filled snack for the day of Thanksgiving. For the hours before the meal — when you’re mashing potatoes and chopping apples and tossing green beans into a casserole dish. This pumpkin bread’s profile is more complex than its pie counterpart in thanks to a heavy dose of concentrated, freshly brewed chai tea. I top it with a crunchy, sweet streusel including Oregon hazelnuts and walnuts. It’s a reprieve from classic pumpkin pie.

This recipe yields two loaves. Munch on one loaf during Thanksgiving prep, then serve the other during coffee or give it away as a hostess gift.

Chai-Spiced Pumpkin Streusel Bread

(Recipe from Kate Clause)

Ingredients

• 2 ½ cup organic (if you’ve got it) cane sugar
• ¼ cup powdered chai mix - optional
• 1 cup butter, unprocessed coconut oil or canola oil (I use ½ butter, ½ coconut)
• ⅔ cup hot water and 4 - 6 bags chai tea
• 4 eggs
• 15 oz. can pumpkin puree (about 2 cups)
• 3 ½ cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• ½ tsp. cloves
• ½ - 1 tsp. cardamom

Streusel Topping

• ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
• ½ cup nuts (any combination of walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts), chopped fine
• 2 Tb. flour
• 2 Tb. softened butter

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and steep the tea bags in hot water. Grease two bread pans with butter or oil.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil and eggs until fluffy and creamy. Stir in pumpkin and chai tea until smooth. In a smaller bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, spices and dry chai mix. Mix the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients, stirring until just combined.

Pour the batter into the bread pans and set aside.

For the streusel topping, mix together the softened butter, brown sugar, flour and chopped nuts in a small bowl. I typically use my hands to work everything together until the butter, flour and sugar have mixed into fine crumbs.

Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top of both loaves and bake for about 60 - 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into each bread’s center comes out clean. Let the loaves cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of each pan. Turn each loaf out onto a cooling rack. Once the bread is cooled, slice with a serrated knife and serve.  

To keep the bread for later, wrap each cooled loaf tightly in plastic wrap, then again in aluminum foil. Keep the bread in the fridge (or freezer) until ready to eat.