You know what time of year it is…Pumpkin Spice time!
Yes, October is right around the corner, and that means an insane array of “Pumpkin Spice” products to endure…what began as a seasonal flavored “Coffee Latte” has become THIS:
Trust me, it gets even worse…more on that in a moment, but first, I vowed to cook with an item I bought just to show how wacky this craze has become:
Yes, you are looking at my “collectors can” of Pumpkin Spice Spam, and I realized I had just the recipe to do it proud – thanks to Patricia Wells!
Ready? Let’s go!
A Patricia Wells Shout Out!
First, it’s important to note that my “Pumpkin Spice Spam and Tillanook Cheddar Cheese Bread” is thanks to Patricia Wells, the terrific Food Author (“Food Lovers Guide To Paris” the first of dozens) and Chef – my wife Alex and I took a cooking class with Patricia at her home in the South of France, and she taught us to make a “Manchego Cheese and Chorizo Loaf” – I took that recipe and adapted it obviously!
The first thing I did to prepare for this dish was to line up all of my ingredients in the shadow of Patricia’s book of recipes from our culinary adventure with her. More on that later, but as you can see, we are ready to cook!
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees!
As the oven begin to heat, gather all of your ingredients:
A terrific looking group, right?
I always remind everyone to read the entire recipe first, so you can prep any and all ingredients to avoid a slowdown during the preparation of the dish.
To that end, I opened up my can of Pumpkin Spice Spam – after saving it for a year! Here’s my first reaction: I immediately get the very recognizable smell of Pumpkin Spice filling the room, even more so when I took the Spam out of its can:
Well, that was satisfying, wasn’t it? Next up, I wanted to prep the Spam and the Cheese, so they were both ready to add to the batter when I got to that point in the process:
Pre-cutting my Spam and Tillamook Cheddar Cheese only took a minute, but I wanted them to be ready to go when it was time to combine everything. I cut them into about half inch cubes as Patricia suggests – the size is all up to you, but you don’t want them to overwhelm the loaf when you cut a slice.
Now, onto the batter: in a large bowl, combine 1-1/4 cups of all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Blend these together briefly, then add three eggs and combine it all, along with 1/3 cup olive oil.
Note: Patricia used 1/3 cup yogurt here as well, but you can use milk…I only used a little and it created a dense loaf, which you will see later.
Now, add your cubed Pumpkin Spice Spam and Tillamook Cheddar Cheese…try not to eat too many of them while prepping the dish, because it’s easy to do!
Mix all of the ingredients together, add more salt if you like, and at this point you can also add a variety of spices like Paprika or Oregano, or even green olives if you like…it’s basically a “meatloaf with dough!”
Grease a bread pan and pour the mixture in, and spread it around so it’s even across the surface.
Now, here’s where I hesitated – as you can see, the pan is only half full…while I was leaving some room for the loaf to rise, I also didn’t add a lot of baking powder to any of her recommended yogurt…just how disastrous a decision will that turn out to be? We will see!
Time to pop it in the oven for 25-30 minutes. A sensory note here: the bread smells very good as it bakes – the Pumpkin Spice aroma is quite satisfying – and not too much, just a nice “seasoning” in the air…
You will sense when it’s done, as the top begins to brown nicely and the edges bubble…I inserted a knife to get a sense of resistance and residue not he blade to ensure it was cooked through.
I took it out of the oven and removed it from the bread pan – so now it’s time to carve off a slice!
Here’s what I saw when I cut it open:
Cue The Cheesy Goodness!
There is nothing better than oozing cheese – adding some texture to the loaf – but let’s be honest: no matter how good it looks, how does it taste?
It was time to try it!
OK, let me begin by saying that I’m NOT a fan of Pumpkin Spice in general…pumpkin doesn’t do much for me and I don’t like cinnamon much, which is what this is…but guess what?
This tasted pretty good! And you know why? Because the Pumpkin Spice Spam is smooth and not overpowering at all – in fact, it’s a subtle taste that blends really well with the Cheddar Cheese – I really liked it!
As you can see, it’s a bit dense, so the addition of more milk or yogurt I think would have lightened it up a bit, but remember, it’s not a cake, it’s a bread, and in that regard I found it satisfying – maybe a poached egg over it tomorrow will be just what the Doctor ordered!
Of course, you don’t have to mash up strange food combos – luckily that’s most a thing of the past – but if you DID then this is the one to do:
Why not a “Surf ‘n’ Turf” Burger?
I made this for my “52 In 22” cooking challenge and it not only presents well, it’s delicious!
Click here for the recipe:
I’ve cooked with Patricia before, and will cook more of her great recipes going forward – remember this one?
Her provencal lamb over potatoes, onions and tomatoes is incredibly good – click here to see the entire recipe!
And here is the story of my Patricia Wells cooking adventure – which included my wife Alex harvesting fresh eggplant from her garden!
It was one of our favorite adventures forever!
See it all here:
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Categories: Bacon, Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Food, Food Pictures, Food Porn, Recipes, Wacky Food, World's Wildest Food
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
John, you are amazing. You are the only person I know who could combine the words Patricia Wells and Spam in one sentence. This is a great post!
HA! Thanks for the comment, we had such a great time with Patricia cooking, and the recipe works just fine with spam instead of the ham she calls for!
Can’t do spam!
Interesting. But I don’t thing one can get pumpkin spice spam here in the UK. At least I’ve never seen it.
I found it on Amazon…one of those items that is so specialized most of us will never find it at a store! Thanks for the comment, it did taste good because it’s used sparingly in the recipe as part of a glance of flavors!
Forgot Amazon now does groceries. Thanks for the tip.
You are the only person I know who experiments with spam, John. Go you ⭐️
I really enjoyed Bistro Cooking and love these French style loaves – which I make frequently (to go with champagne, of course), but spam? Why not, I guess. As an Aussie the whole pumpkin spiced thing passes us by as does pumpkin used in sweet dishes (other than scones, of course).
I understand many people didn’t like it, but a lot of Chefs have been adding Spam to dishes as a way to incorporate something from heir youth….fun to do – if done sparingly…..thanks for the comment!