It's the Great Pumpkin . . . Bread!

I love love pumpkin bread.  It's one of my favorite things about fall.  My mom makes the best pumpkin bread but up here I don't have her recipe.  I could ask her for it . . . but then she'd have to go through the black hole, I mean her recipe file, where you're never quite certain what's going to come out and what will remain hidden.  It's quite likely to find the recipe for pumpkin bread in July when you're desperately searching for the recipe for firecracker cake, which will remain hidden until December, when only 2 of the 6 recipes for Christmas cookies will ever be found.  Anyway, I know that her recipe calls for oil and other than that I think it must be similar to the recipe that I found in the Joy of Cooking that I've been using this fall.

When I was looking for a recipe, I knew that I wanted the bread to be moist and spicy and, most importantly, pumpkin-y!  I've had some failed results with quick breads that don't deliver on flavor and I really didn't want to waste my awesome pumpkin on so-so bread.  So, I settled on the Joy of Cooking version and I quite like it.  In keeping with the oil idea, I used shortening rather than butter (the recipe gives options for both).  The bread is moist and delicious, I love it!

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 c shortening or butter

1 c white sugar

1/3 c brown sugar

2 eggs 

1 c pumpkin puree

1/3 c milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Dry ingredients:

1 1/2 c all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan (the recipe makes one loaf or 4 mini loaves).
2. Stir together your dry ingredients and set aside.
3. Cream together shortening (or butter) and sugars until fluffy.
4. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by pumpkin puree & vanilla.
5. Add your dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk.
6. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about an hour, or until a tester comes out clean.