High Protein Pumpkin Sage Bread

This High Protein Pumpkin Sage Bread gets its protein from vital wheat gluten, but is surprisingly soft and tender. It personally reminds me of focaccia bread! It’s great for a sandwich, just eating as a snack or dipping in some seasoned olive oil.

Most of the recipes you’ll see with vital wheat gluten are for mock meats like seitan, but I find that it works really well in bread-y and dessert recipes. Vital wheat gluten is much cheaper than protein powder, which is one of the reasons I like to use it in recipes. But it also has a really neutral flavor and recipe results don’t vary much brand to brand, so I can avoid asking people to buy expensive protein powders that they’ll only use for my recipe!

If you’re looking for more unconventional vital wheat gluten recipes, I would highly recommend that you check out my High Protein Chocolate Seitan, High Protein Banana Bread and High Protein Pizza Dough recipes!

Stuff You’ll Need

• Vital Wheat Gluten – you can find vital wheat gluten at most grocery stores. It’s shelf-stable so you can also buy it online. I like the brands Bob’s Red Mill and Anthony’s best.
• Pumpkin Puree – pumpkin puree is different from pumpkin pie filling so make sure you get pumpkin puree, otherwise the bread will be overly sweet.
• Flour – I use AP Flour (all-purpose)

• Nutritional Yeast – this is used in a lot of vegan recipes to add a cheesy and savory flavor, and it’s also very high in protein. You can find it at most grocery stores, and since it’s shelf-stable, you can also purchase it online. They make fortified and non-fortified versions of it. The fortified version is packed with B vitamins.
• Brown Sugar – I used light brown sugar. Using a sugar alternative like monk fruit will change the texture. The sugar makes the High Protein Pumpkin Sage Bread more tender and helps give it structure to rise properly. Using a low/no calorie alternative may result in a more dense, chewy bread.
• Olive Oil – helps the bread retain moisture and keeps it tender and soft.
• Baking Powder – this is our leavening agent and is really important for the texture and rising of the bread.
• Apple Cider Vinegar – some additional leavening.
• Salt

• Rubbed Sage, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Oregano, Pumpkin Pie Spice – I chose these seasonings because this bread is supposed to taste like Fall! If there are any of these that you really don’t like, feel free to omit them!

How to Make It & Pictures

• Pre-heat the oven to 300 F (149 C). I know this seems like a low temperate, but cooking this low and slow keeps the top and edges from burning and ensures that the inside cooks all the way!
• In a medium bowl, mix together all of your ingredients except for the vital wheat gluten. Over-mixing the vital wheat gluten can result in a chewy texture so that’s why it’s added last.
• Weigh out the vital wheat gluten and add it to the mixture. Vital wheat gluten is very dense, which means that using just measuring cups can result in a very different bread. It’s important that we have the right wet to dry ingredient ratio, so that it’s soft, tender and not dry.
• Mix in the vital wheat gluten as minimally as possible to avoid over-mixing.

• Once the vital wheat gluten is fully incorporated, add the dough to a parchment-paper lined loaf pan.
• The High Protein Pumpkin Sage dough is pretty thick, so you should use a spatula to smooth out the top for even baking.

• Bake for 50 – 55 minutes.
• The bread should be able to pass the toothpick test (where you stick a toothpick in the middle and it comes out clean).

• Store in an air-tight container at room temperature.

Silly Little Haiku

I could live on bread

Bread with protein is the best

Vital wheat gluten