Mums and Babies

Pumpkin Bread

A classic recipe in every family. Our grandmothers inherited it to our mothers, and our mothers did the same with us.

Easy to prepare, good for every occasion, from Thanksgiving and Christmas to simple friends reunions in a Sunday afternoon. It only takes 15 minutes to prepare and one more hour to cook, so you have a nice tea companion in a blink.

This is a large quantity, but you can prepare in small pans or as muffins and give those as a gift or souvenirs wrapped up in colored cellophane. Be careful with cooking time if you use small pans or muffins containers.  You can use coffee cans as well to bake the breads in.

Ingredients

• 3 cups canned pumpkin puree
• 1 ½ cups vegetable oil
• 4 cups white sugar
• 6 eggs
• 4 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cloves.

Preparation

1.        Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 9×5 incheas loaf pans. If you want a very crispy and sweet exterior stir some brown sugar over the pans so the sugar sticks to the pan. You can add a spice of your choice to the sugar if you like.

2.       In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, oil, sugar and the eggs. Add the eggs one at a time.  Separately combine the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Manage the quantities of the species if you prefer one instead of the other. Stir into the pumpkin mixture and mix all together until well blended. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.

3.       Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to one hour, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The top of the loaf should spring back when lightly pressed.

4.      Let the loaves cool before taking them out of the pans.

You can innovate this recipe by adding different ingredients to give the bread a distinct flavor like peanuts, walnuts, chocolate chips, pecans or raisins. Just keep in mind to preserve the proportions between the wet and the dry ingredients.

It freezes extremely well. You can keep them in the freezer up to three months.

Looking for more Christmas Recipes? check out this delicious Christmas Cake recipe.