More Pumpkin

Pumpkin Bread
3 cups sugar
1 cup cooking oil
4 eggs
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2/3 cup water
1 15-oz can pumpkin

1. Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of two 9x5x3-inch or three 8x4x2-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.
2. In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Alternately add flour mixture and water to sugar mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Beat in pumpkin. Spoon batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake in a 350F oven for 55 to 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.

Makes 2 loaves.

Mmmm... pumpkin bread. Okay, I don't actually remember eating pumpkin bread before but I love pumpkin and I love sweet breads so we can assume I'll like pumpkin bread. This is a recipe I found in my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. BH&G, you've been so good to me.

The ingredients:

The leaves fell off the trees right outside our kitchen window so instead of having 10-20 minutes of direct sunlight in my kitchen a day, I have hours. It's wonderful. This is my only explanation for the overabundance of pictures with this post... I was just loving the lighting.

The dry ingredients.

The oil, sugar and eggs. The sugar and oil looked so pretty in the sunlight.

Adding the dry ingredients to the sugar.

Mmmm... pumpkin.

Pumpkin swirl.

Finished batter.

I halved the recipe but I didn't really know what to do about the loaf pan. I'm thinking that my loaf pan (the only one I have) is a 8x4x2-inch pan. I didn't actually measure the pan (the pan just tells me it's a 1.5 lb) but judging by how full the pan ended up being, that's my best guess.

Luckily the too-small pan wasn't a disaster. I was a little worried when I checked on it at 55 minutes and the edges were done but the center was huge and very soggy. I kept checking on it every 5 minutes after that and pulled it out after 75 minutes.

The finished product: this bread is good. I mean really good. It's super moist and sweet and oh so wonderful. This recipe gets a gold star from me.