Pumpkin bread

This recipe comes from my former neighbor, Jan. My family is pretty small and my extended family lives across the country, so my family and our neighbors (also a small family) would have Thanksgiving dinner together. That's where I was introduced to this absolutely delicious pumpkin bread. Fast forward to the present, the biology department is having a pumpkin recipe bake-off this week and I'm thinking this is going to be my entry.

Ingredients: pretty simple. If you bake a lot and have a well stocked pantry, you shouldn't need too much besides the canned pumpkin.

First, eggs, sugar and oil get mixed until fluffy.

Then in goes canned pumpkin and water. The recipe calls for 2 cups pumpkin. I find the regular sized can works fine. If you look at the nutritional label and do the math, I think the can has 1 3/4 cups in it. Trust me, it works fine.

The flour and spices get mixed together separately. You can see the specks of delicious! And it smells like fall.

Everything gets mixed together and gets put into a loaf pan that's been greased and floured. The recipe makes 2 loaves, but I only have one loaf pan. I split the recipe in half (it works nicely since everything splits easily) and it worked perfectly.

After an hour (plus some extra time) it's done! Be sure that the bread is fully baked. I find that the very middle sometimes takes a while to firm up. You can leave it as is (as I usually do) or make a simple powdered sugar glaze.

This recipe is pretty awesome and super easy. I've never had it fail on me (well, technically it failed once but that was my own fault, I accidentally used baking powder instead of baking soda...). It also rises beautifully and you'll have a very attractive loaf. I've found that a lot of quick breads sometimes don't have a lot of lift and turn out a little "dumpy". Not this one, it'll be picture perfect.


Pumpkin bread
Makes 2 loaves

4 eggs
3 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 cups canned pumpkin
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour pans.
2. Beat eggs, sugar and oil until fluffy.
3. Add pumpkin and water.
4. Sift together flour and spices and gradually add to above.
5. Beat until well blended. Add nuts.
6. Pour into prepared pans. Bake 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Freezes well.