Bottle Gourd Whole Wheat Bread

This is the season for bottle gourd and there are plenty available in the market. I picked up a huge one and then struggled to finish it. I used some to make parathas (will post that recipe soon), dal, sambar and then a Bread !!  This recipe can easily be made into muffins too.

The bread was quite sticky because of the moisture content in the bottle gourd and probably because I added too much of it -1 cup of grated bottle gourd for 1 cup flour. This definitely needs to be reduced. It is not very sweet either.

I baked 3 mini loaf tins and Ovie gobbled one whole loaf in one sitting. When she knew it was made out of a green vegetable, she said "that's why it tasted yucky". But over the next two days, she finished the other loaf too. I guess that should say enough about the taste of the bread!!


Wet Ingredients
Egg: 1 large
Canola/ vegetable oil: 1/4 cup
Jaggery / Honey: 1/3 cup
Sugar: 1/3 cup
Vanilla Extract: 1/2 tsp

Dry Ingredients

Whole wheat flour: 1 cup
Salt: a pinch
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Cinnamon powder: 1 tsp

Grated Bottle Gourd: 3/4 to 1 cup
Chocolate chips: 1/2 cup
Chopped nuts: 1/2 cup

• Pre-heat oven to 180 degree Celsius. 
• Whisk all the wet ingredients together in a bowl.
• In another bowl combine all the dry ingredients.
• Add the dry to the wet mixture and mix it very gently. 
• Squeeze out excess liquid from the grated bottle gourd and add to the mixture. Do not over mix it.
• Add the chocolate chips and nuts. 
• Pour into greased loaf tin / muffin tray. 
• Bake at 180 deg for 20-25 minutes or until cooked inside. Since I used silicon loaf tray, I reduced the baking time to 15 minutes. If using muffin tray reduce time to 15-20 minutes.
• Insert a toothpick and check. If it comes out clean then its done. 
• Let it cool on a wire rack before you de-mould it.