Brighten up your taste with this bread

• I love pumpkin pie and I love cranberries. I put dried cranberries in my salads, I have made cranberry pies. I even eat cranberry sauce when it is not holiday time.
• So when I stumbled across this recipe for a pumpkin bread with cranberries, I was elated.
• But when I first made this bread, the original recipe actually had too many cranberries for my taste - a full cup. I didn't think it was possible, but it was almost too tart...and the savory pumpkin was not sweet enough to offset the berries.
• I made it again with raisins once, but I like the cranberries better. I cut the amount of cranberries by two-thirds. It makes a great snack with cream cheese or alone.
• Pumpkin Cranberry Bread 
• 1/4 cup of raw pumpkin seeds
• 2 tablespoons  of sunflower seeds
• 1-1/2 cups  of whole-wheat pastry flour
• 2/3 cup of stevia (or other sugar substitute)
• 1-1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice
• 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
• 3/4 cup of canned pumpkin purée
• Juice and zest of 1/2 orange
• 1/4 cup of water
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil, plus additional for oiling pan
• 1/3 cup of dried cranberries
• 3 tablespoons of crystallized ginger, finely chopped

• Preheat the oven to 375º. Put pumpkin and sunflower seeds in a loaf pan and toast for 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer seeds to a small bowl. When the pan is cool, lightly oil it with olive oil.
• In a large bowl, mix together the flour, the stevia, the pumpkin pie spice, the baking powder, the baking soda, and the salt. Add the pumpkin purée, the orange juice and the zest, the water, and the oil, and stir gently to combine everything.
• Stir in the cranberries, the ginger, and 2/3 of the toasted seeds. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle with remaining seeds on top and press them in.
• Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Vegetarian