Delicious and easy Pumpkin Bread

I decided to officially welcome in the fall by making some homemade pumpkin bread!

I love pretty much all things pumpkin! The taste…the smell….mmm…it’s all good! In fact, while baking this, I fired up my scentsy warmer which is currently rocking the scent "pumpkin roll" whilst I made said pumpkin bread. Is that weird?

I have used various recipes over the years to make pumpkin bread, but last night I decided to just pull out my tried and true Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook!



This cookbook (The bridal edition) was a wedding gift to me from a sweet friend and I just love it and refer to it constantly! Most of the recipes are can’t go wrong classics and it also has a lot handy reference guides. Like how long to cook certain cuts of meat and things like that. Things that our mothers and grandmothers probably just “know” but I certainly didn’t when I first got married and started trying to cook dinner on the regular!

Anyways, I kind of went off on a side tangent there, but the point is, it’s a great cookbook and makes a great wedding gift!

Now, back to the matter at hand, pumpkin bread. I’m going to include a few “Notes to the Novice Baker” (NTNB) in pink in case there are any of you who are new to baking. These are just things that I didn’t know when I was first cooking. I tried to make pumpkin bread from scratch when I was very first married and it was a total flop. My husband called it pumpkin mush! haha

Pumpkin Bread (makes 2 loaves)

NTNB: This recipe makes 2 loaves of bread, so you may want to half it or you can always enjoy one and share one! Most recipes will make a lot so you can utilize an entire can of pumpkin.

Ingredients

3 cups sugar

1 cup cooking oil

4 eggs

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 ½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

2/3 cup water

1 15 ounce can pumpkin (NTNB: Make sure and get pure pumpkin puree and not “pumpkin pie filling”)

Directions

1.      Grease the bottom and ½ inch up sides of two 9x5x3 inch, three 8x4x2 inch, or four 7-1/2x3 1/2x2 inch loaf pans; set aside. In a very large mixing bowl beat sugar and oil with an electric mixer on medium speed.  Add eggs and beat well; set aside.

NTNB: I don’t have a big fancy stand mixer! I have a little handheld one and it works just fine, so don’t ever think that you can’t make a recipe because you don’t have one of those! It’s a great workout for those arms!

2.      In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add flour mixture and water alternately to sugar mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Beat in pumpkin.  Spook batter in prepared pans.

3.      Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 55-65 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near centers comes out clean.  Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans.  Cool completely on wire racks.  Wrap and store overnight before slicing. 

Enjoy!