Chickpea Flour Pumpkin Bread with Bacon Grease

I had a can of pumpkin burning a hole in my cabinet. And I had this bacon grease from a time when friends came over and made bacon and I saved the grease but then never used it – like always. So… here we are.

First, I found this recipe from bakepedia and then I consulted with my friend Hannah who has a way better sense about flavors than I do – whether it would be genius or gross to use bacon grease instead of coconut oil. She was pro!

So here’s what happened:

Mix together:
– 1 1/2c chickpea flour
– 2 1/2tsp pumpkin pie spice (I only had cinnamon and ginger, but whatever)
– 1tsp baking soda
– 1/2tsp baking powder
– 1/2tsp salt (I used less because the bacon grease was a little salty)

Mix in a separate bowl:
– 2 eggs
– 1 can pumpkin
– 3/4c sugar (I did a little less)
– 1/2c melted coconut oil (I used bacon grease for most of this – needed a couple tablespoons of coconut to get to the full half cup)

Mix the wet into the dry, without overmixing

Pour into greased, lined bread pan

Sprinkle the top with pepitas (I only had sunflower seeds, but these were great. I also sprinkled some of the crispy salty bacon residue bits)

Bake at 350*f for 55-60 minutes

Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then transfer out to cool more. Then serve!

The result – a little underwhelming. I mean, it was good, but bacon grease doesn’t actually have that much flavor so it tasted pretty normal… aside from an interesting spicy element that I think must have been from whatever originally seasoned the bacon? Unclear. I’d actually like to go further in bacon direction and try this again.

The other annoying thing about this bread was that when I took it out of the oven it was beautifully risen (see the photo) but then as it cooled it sunk. Any thoughts on how to prevent this?