My 110th experiment: Calabasa quick bread

This is a not quite sweet version of the pumpkin bread in the KAF cookbook. I bake it on the same day for comparison.

Recipe: Calabasa squash quick bread (1 loaf)

Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 cup steamed calabasa squash, drained of water, and mushed
- 1 TB evaporated skim milk
- 1 TB low fat sour cream
- 1+1/3 cup KaF unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tp baking powder
- 1 tp baking soda
- 1/2 tp salt
- 1 tp ground nutmeg
- 2 tp ground cinnamon
- 1 tp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Procedure:
1. Beat 3 eggs with sugar until bubbly. Add oil, vanilla, sour cream. When thoroughly mixed, add cooked calabasa. Stir to for a uniform batter.
2. Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon.
3. Add dry ingredients to wet ones, a few TBs at a time. Mix well. Use the evaporated milk to adjust the moisture level.
4. Pour into a greased 4x8 loaf pan. Bake at 350F for about 1 hour or until the loaf passes the toothpick test.

Results:
12:41pm, the same whole calabasa:

12:45pm, calabasa with sprouted seeds inside:

6:25pm, most ingredients except sour cream:

6:37pm, 3 eggs to be lightly beaten with 1/4 cup of sugar:

6:39pm, sieved dry ingredients, and sources of wet ingredients:

6:45pm, beaten eggs and sugar:

6:46pm, mushed steamed calabasa:

6:49pm, wet ingredients and dry ingredients prepared separately:

6:52pm, folding dry ingredients into the batter:

6:55pm, final batter:

6:56pm, walnuts mixed into batter:

6:58pm, batter in pan:

6:58pm, batter height in pan:

6:58pm, baking started at 350F:

7:07pm, baked 8 minutes:

7:14pm, baked 15 minutes:

7:42pm, baked 44 minutes and passed toothpick test:

7:42pm, baked height:

8:06pm, height of loaf when cooling:

8:07pm, pan's bottom:

8:08pm, top of loaf:

8:08pm, side of loaf:

8:08pm, heel of loaf:

8:09pm, comparing tops and heights of the two loaves:

9:27pm, loaf's bottom when cooled:

Overnight, 11:50am, top:

Overnight, 11:50am, side:

11:50am, sliced with clean knife:

11:51am, neat slices:

11:52am, interior:

Observations:
1. I bake this same loaf immediately after I bake the KAF pumpkin bread. The KAF loaf smells awfully good when it's almost done. This loaf does not have the same sweet aroma during baking.
2. According to Alton Brown, it's best to beat the eggs first to make sure it's uniformly mixed. After mixing all the wet ingredients, the dry ingredients are to be folded in to prevent pockets of dry ingredients at the bottom.
3. I use a little sour cream to increase the acidity of the batter so that the baking soda will rise well.
4. This loaf comes off nicely, but it seems to be much softer and easier to fall apart than the KAF version.
5. The next day, this loaf yields very clean slices. Because it's not too sweet, the taste of pumpkin stands out along with cinnamon. Both moist and tender, it's superb to my palates.