Pumpkin, Sage, Brown Butter Loaf Cakes

As I mentioned, I have a new eCookbook. Since the orange yogurt cake and fig olive oil cake both came out so well I decided to try another recipe. Pumpkin, sage, brown butter loaf cakes seemed sufficiently autumnal for the end of September and I love any recipe that has "butter" right in the name.

There is something very dignified about these cakes that I can't put my finger on. Perhaps it's the sophisticated flavor profile or maybe it's how perfectly these miniature loaves came out. It could possibly be the lack of glaze. I'm not sure. But whatever it was it made me feel as though these cakes (possibly sliced nicely) would be fit for a proper, English afternoon tea at a fancy hotel--you know, like the ones in the US that do traditional afternoon tea but with a distinctively American take on sweets.




Regardless of where these could possibly be served, I was eating them on my sofa in sweat pants and they were go-ood! I always love pumpkin quick breads/loaf cakes (as evidenced by my repeated baking --albeit not repeated posting--of the Baked pumpkin chocolate loaf) but surprisingly this chocolate free one may be my favorite (alright, I probably like the dark chocolate one equally, but not more, and for me that's saying a lot). The texture was perfect, not overly moist but not dry, dense and a bit springy, not at all damp--almost pound cake like. The taste was amazing. The depth and slight nuttyness of the brown butter was the perfect complement for the pumpkin and the subtle flavor of sage was hard to pinpoint but added an extra dimension--and a slightly savory quality--to the flavor. Have I mentioned that they were good?!