Pumpkin Loaf

Today we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family. To say I’m exhausted would be an understatement. I spent all week doing cooking and baking for my Mom and Dad’s Christmas gift as well as tins of cookies and fudge to go with my niece and nephews gifts, plus I did dessert for our Christmas. I’m not one to do things small when it comes to cooking or baking. In fact when I make a Christmas meal just for the 4 of us I make more than what there was today for 17 people. I like variety for everyone and I like to have lots of leftovers(with boys in the house they don’t last long!). I baked 6 different things for dessert alone. So my busy week has sort of caught up with me, add to that one of my headaches which hit tonight, probably related to weather change and being in a house full of people didn’t help.

I have so much to share, recipes, outfits, and pics of the gifts I made for my niece and nephews. This week should be calmer so hopefully I will get to lots of posting! For now here is a recipe for Pumpkin Loaf. I made one for my Mom and Dad and one for us. I’ve been using this recipe for a couple of years now and it is absolutely delicious! I like it even better than Banana Bread! Most recipes I change a bit from the original I find, this one I didn’t change, it’s fantastic as is.

Pumpkin Spice Bread by jmelyn

2 cups Canned Pumpkin

3 cups Sugar

1 cup Water

1 cup Vegetable Oil(I use Canola, much better for you)

4 Eggs

3 1/3 cup All Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Soda

2 teaspoons Cinnamon

1 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon Ground Cloves

Heat oven to 350.

In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, water, vegetable oil and eggs. Beat until well mixed.

Measure the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, nutmeg and cloves into a separate bowl and stir until combined.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture, beating until smooth.

Grease two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans and dust with flour. Evenly divide the batter between the two pans. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 10-15 minutes, then remove from pans by inverting onto a rack and tapping the bottoms. Slice and serve plain, buttered, or with cream cheese.

Jolene