Pumpkin Bread

Today, I made pumpkin bread and apple crisp.  Can you tell I'm in a fall mood?  Actually, we are having a family dinner at our house tomorrow and I'm preparing a feast of fall food for everyone. In reality, I'm sort of bribing my family with food.  I've sent Nick and Lauren articles from the health experts on covid precautions now that the weather has turned cold and I'm not sure they are going to want to come over after that.  They are saying to avoid large inside gatherings.  Well, we must be inside because of the rain. So, they are saying if you're inside, it should be a well ventilated area like the garage with the garage door open.  Really?  Who wants to be in the garage?!  So, I decided I could actually have my family over if we opened both the French doors and have the ceiling fan on.  That is like having a garage door open but Brrrrrrr!  See why I'm bribing my family with food?  The next question, how large is a large gathering?  The experts say only one other group from outside your household.  Well, there are two different households, Nick and Lauren are both from outside our household and there are a total of seven of us with the grandkids so is that large?  It's not totally complying but pretty close.  Like I said during the summer when we did most things outside, we're doing the best we can.   Bruce tested negative for covid yesterday after a week in quarantine because of traveling to Iowa for his dad's funeral so once again, we are having a huge sigh of relief.   I feel like we've had two close calls of exposure and I don't want to take anymore chances.   If we have to wear our down jackets and be all bundled up this winter in order to get together with our kids, we'll do it!  In the meantime, I'm going to keep making tempting foods to bribe them to come over and we'll just keep our coats on.  

This recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen because I like how she makes really large loaves and she uses a lot of spices.  Baking this bread makes the whole house smell magnificent.  

I doubled the recipe and made one loaf with walnuts and one plain.  She sprinkles the top with  cinnamon sugar but I like sprinkling the top with walnuts or pumpkin seeds.   This photo is from my other pumpkin bread recipe that is more hardy with  dates and nuts.  It just depends on what you feel like. 

Since the grandkids are coming over tomorrow, I wanted to make just a plain loaf so this is my favorite recipe for that. 

Make 2 loaves                                                      
4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

3  tsp. baking powder                                                    

1-1/2 tsp. baking soda                                               

1-1/2 tsp. fine sea salt or table salt                              

1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon                                                      

1/2 tsp. nutmeg                                                            

1/2 tsp. ginger                                                               

1/4 tsp. ground cloves 

1  29-ounce can pumpkin puree (3-1/2 cups)  

3-1/3 cups granulated sugar

1 cup ( 2 sticks) melted unsalted butter, cooled         
6 large eggs    

1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)                                                             

                                        

1.  Adjust oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat to 350 degree F.  Line two 6-cup loaf pans with parchment paper.  I like doing this instead of spraying with nonstick spray or messing with greasing the pan.  It's super easy to remove the loaf from the pan. 

2.  Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together in a large bowl. 

3.  In another large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, sugar, melted butter, and eggs until smooth. 

4.  Gently fold the pumpkin mixture into the flour  mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined.  Fold in the nuts, if using. 

5. Scrape into prepared pan and smooth the top.

(Optional: Sprinkle top with walnuts or pumpkin seeds, as desired.)

6.  Bake bread for 75 minutes, turning the loaf once during the baking time for even coloring,  until a tester poked into all parts of loaf come out batter-free.

7.  You can cool it in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove it or cool it completely in the pan.