Tag: Pumpkin bread

It’s The Great Pumpkin Bread, Charlie Brown!

It’s The Great Pumpkin Bread, Charlie Brown!

Who else besides me groans at the first sign of the fall season.  You walk outside, take in the fall air, admire the color of the leaves on the trees, the golden orange rays of sunlight that filter through…

When you notice

All around, everywhere you look…PUMPKIN, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin soup, pumpkin yogurt, pumpkin ice cream, yes, ALL THINGS PUMPKIN. There is no escape.

Consequently, aside from the mandatory Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, I have developed a slight aversion to pumpkin.  This year, still cautious, we needed only one pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.  So, what to do with the remaining pumpkin puree (Libby’s of course).  I took a family poll, and it was a unanimous vote (except for me, lol) for pumpkin bread.  Despite having numerous pumpkin bread recipes on 3Jamigos, I decided to do a search. The first recipe that popped up was Pumpkin Bread from Once Upon a Chef.  Her family’s favorite, the recipe was given to her by her grandmother who had clipped it out of a magazine eons ago.  With a 5-star rating and over two thousand ratings, this was a no-brainer.

The recipe reminded me of my Best Damn Banana Bread, instead of oil, the recipes call for butter.  Hmmm, good start. The butter is combined first with sugar, it’s a lot of sugar, and the mixture will be crumbly not creamy so don’t keep beating it until the cows come home.  Add eggs one at a time and combine thoroughly.  Beat until mixture is light and fluffy.  Add the pumpkin puree.  The mixture might look curdled or separated, but that’s ok.

BTW, the recipe calls for 16 ounces of pumpkin, std cans are 15 ounces 🤷🏻‍♀️. Don’t sweat the one ounce. If you happen to have some applesauce you need to use up, throw in a heaping tablespoon. I had some yummy apple butter so I threw that in. You’ll be fine skipping it. Don’t open another can of pumpkin purée!
At low speed, add the flour.  Mix just until combined.  The batter will lose that grainy look. This is a pretty thick batter so you will need to scoop rather than pour it into your loaf pans.  Divide between 2 8×4 loaf pans.

I mulled over adding a streusel topping but since this was the first time I was making it, I deferred.  I’ve included a simple topping for those of us who cannot leave well enough alone.

Made another batch to take to work. Added the sugar topping from Midwest Made. Adds a bit of crunch.

This bread is delicious!  It has a nice crumb, cake-like, not as tight as pumpkin bread made with oil.  A nice balance of spices although I’m already tweaking it in my mind (less clove, add ginger) but totally good as is.  One note, sift the dry ingredients together.  I didn’t, and a few bites had too much clove.

I had forgotten how much I like pumpkin bread and how easy it is to make.  This recipe is definitely going in the rotation!

Best Damn Pumpkin Bread

Moist and delicious, best damn pumpkin bread recipe
Course Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine American
Keyword Pumpkin Bread, quick bread
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings 24 servings
Calories 166kcal

Equipment

  • 2-8x4 loaf pans

Ingredients

Da Dry Stuff

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground clove or 3/4 tsp clove and 1/4 tsp ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg can substitute mace

Da Butter-Sugar

  • 1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened 3/4 cup
  • 2 cups sugar

Da Wet Stuff

  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 15-1/2 oz can 100% pure pumpkin

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 325°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Generously grease two 8 x 4-inch loaf pans with butter and dust with flour, or use a baking spray with flour in it, such as Pam with Flour or Baker's Joy.
  • Sift flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a medium bowl. Set aside.
  • Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until just blended. It will be grainy not creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until very light and fluffy, a few minutes. Beat in the pumpkin. The mixture might look grainy and curdled at this point -- not to worry, flour to the rescue in the next step.
  • Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined. Do not overmix.
  • Turn the batter into the prepared pans, dividing evenly, and bake for 65 – 75 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Start checking at 55 min. Let the loaves cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

This bread freezes well.  Eat one now and save another for a rainy day or surprise guests!  Wrap well, you know the drill, and store for up to 3 months.
Gotta have a topping? Check the ones out for these:
Or this simple sugar topping from Midwest Made: 
  • Place 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar in a small bowl. Dampen your fingertips with water and work them into the sugar until it just begins to look like snow-if you pinch some, it should just barely hold together. Sprinkle the dampened sugar over the batter, aiming to get it clumped up together in spots. If you want, add a 1/2-1 tsp of cinnamon.
  • Right before baking, sprinkle the batter in loaf pans with the nuts and finish with cinnamon sugar.  Adds a bit of crunch.
It is delicious when toasted! 
Pumpkin Apple Bread-Here, There, Everywhere

Pumpkin Apple Bread-Here, There, Everywhere

Everywhere I turn I am reminded that Fall is upon us.  Shorter days, cooler nights, falling leaves blanketing the ground….and pumpkin in EVERYTHING!  Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bars, cake, cookies, cheesecake, pancakes…augh!  It is endless.  But as much as the pumpkin onslaught has tempered my enthusiasm for all things pumpkin I still find myself wanting to pull out my loaf pans and bake some pumpkin bread.  Today was the perfect day to do so.  With rain in the forecast, it was time to hunker down at home in my jammies and bake.  I pulled out a favorite recipe, Rebecca’s Apple and Pumpkin Bread from Gourmet magazine’s You Asked For It column. Moist and flavorful, spiced with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, chunks of apples peppered throughout plus a crunchy cinnamon-sugar topping. It is a slice of yumminess.  Perfect with a steaming cup of tea or coffee, especially on a wet, chilly day.

dsc04717

TWEAKS

I add chopped toasted pecans to the streusel topping to add some crunch and substitute brown sugar for part of the sugar in the topping.  If you like the contrast of tart and sweet, use Granny Smiths or Pippins. I have used Golden Delicious, Fuji, and Mutsu apples with great results.  Really, any apple that doesn’t break down works well.  At times I use mace instead of nutmeg for a milder, subtle flavor and I add ginger to up the spice.  The recipe makes two loaves of bread, one for now and one you can wrap and freeze for another day.  Enjoy!

Apple Pumpkin Bread

Delicious, moist, spiced pumpkin bread with apples added.
Course Breads
Cuisine American
Keyword apple, crumb topping, Pumpkin Bread
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour

Ingredients

For topping

  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 5 tablespoons granulated sugar I use 3 T granulated sugar + 2 T brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter softened
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans

For bread

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg or mace
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 15-oz can solid-pack pumpkin (original recipe calls for 16 ounce, add 1/4 cup applesauce if desired)
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 2-1/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs lightly beaten
  • 2 apples peeled, cored, and chopped (2 cups) I use Pippen and Fuji, your choice

Instructions

  • For topping: Blend together flour, sugar, cinnamon, and butter in a small bowl with your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add nuts. Set aside.
  • For bread: Put a rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 X 5 inch loaf pans. Set aside.
  • Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg or mace, cloves, ginger and allspice into a medium bowl.
  • Whisk together pumpkin oil, sugar, and eggs in a large bowl.
  • Add flour mixture, stirring until well combined.
  • Fold in apples.
  • Divide batter between buttered loaf pans. Sprinkle half of topping evenly over each loaf.
  • Bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of bread comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool loaves in pans on a rack for 45 minutes, then turn out onto rack and cool completely, about 1 hour.
  • Yield: two loaves.
Pumpkin Bread, A Darty for Lucky

Pumpkin Bread, A Darty for Lucky

I bet you are wondering about 2 things right now.  What is a “darty” and what’s with the picture of pumpkin bread and dog biscuits? Am I right?

The answers begin with our dog Sammy receiving an invitation to a darty, a doggy birthday party for his buddy Lucky.  Yes, even our dog has a social life.  We decided only homemade doggy treats would do for Lucky.  Sammy’s favorite, which we made for our 12 days of Christmas cookies, are these doggy-licious pumpkin peanut butter treats  I found on the blog Use Real Butter.  For this batch, I  had some applesauce so I added a scoop of it to the dough just to sweeten the deal.

What to do with the extra pumpkin puree and applesauce…Pumpkin Bread of course.  It was a no-brainer, despite the fact that we are on the cusp of summer not fall, it would be a shame to let the extra go to waste.

I do have a favorite pumpkin bread recipe but I remembered I had purchased a jar of pumpkin pie spice from King Arthur Flour.  So instead of using my favorite recipe, I searched and found a new version on the blog  My Baking Addiction that uses pumpkin pie spice.  Game on…

This bread is easy to make and delicious I will be baking loaves year around.  It is moist not gummy and just sweet enough, perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.  The spice mix adds that familiar cinnamon and clove but doesn’t overpower the pumpkin.  The flavors develop so it is even better the second day.  Toasted with a smear of cream cheese or a pat of butter? Delish.  Yummy enough to stand in line for a slice..but behind me, please.

Two for the Time of One

The recipe makes 2 loaves so freeze the second loaf for a rainy day.  As with many quick bread recipes, it lends itself well to additions and substitutions, I couldn’t resist tweaking it.  I added a cup of chopped apples, reduced the oil to 3/4 cup, and replaced the remaining 1/4 cup with applesauce.  To finish the bread I added chopped pecans to the top of the batter and liberally sprinkled the top with cinnamon sugar. In place of apples, raisins, and nuts or chocolate chips would be crazy good.

DSC04186

That’s it for now, oh wait…more mail for Sammy. Ah, the life.

Pumpkin Bread with Apples

Traditional fall treat, Pumpkin Bread with Apples and Streusel Topping. Delicious!
Course quick breads
Cuisine American
Keyword Pumpkin Bread
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup vegetable oil or 3/4 cup oil & 1/4 cup applesauce
  • 2/3 cup water
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 cup diced apples granny smith or pippin or fuji which is less tart

Topping:

  • 1/2-1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
  • cinnamon sugar 1T granulated sugar + 2 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  • Grease and flour two loaf pans. 8.5x 4 although with additions use 1 8.5x4 and 1 9.5x5 pan
  • Combine dry ingredients flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a bowl and set aside
  • In a large bowl add pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, applesauce, water, vanilla and sugar. Whisk until well combined. This can be done by hand or in a mixer.  Fold in dry ingredient mix.  
  • Add diced apples and half of nuts.
  • Divide batter between loaf pans. Top with remaining nuts and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
  • Bake 50-60 minutes. Loaves are done when cake tester comes out clean.
  • Cool and remove from pans.
  • Enjoy!

DSC04155

Birthday party for Lucky!