Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin bread is one of my favorite fall and winter recipes. It's a quick bread that's easy to mix together and is very moist--it gets better after each day!

I remember both my Grandmother and Mother making this quite often. They usually add chopped walnuts or pecans to their bread but I leave mine plain. I've had pumpkin bread with a variety of additions, including nuts and dried cranberries.

Those versions are good, but I prefer the Pumpkin bread in all it's pumpkin glory:

Sweet, baby Mufasa wanted to see what I had made...

*Don't worry, I didn't let him near it!

Anyway, this bread is super easy to make, easy to store, and easy to freeze. You really can't mess it up.

And it's great to make for homemade gifts!

Pumpkin Bread
from my Mom, Grandma and Lynda's Recipe Box

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
3 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 cup canola oil
2/3 cup water
4 eggs, beaten
1 can of pumpkin puree or 1 3/4 cups fresh pumpkin puree

Directions:

Sift dry ingredients; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk wet ingredients together and fold in dry ingredients. Grease and flour two loaf pans and distribute the batter evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool loaves for ten minutes. Run a knife along edges of bread to loosen, invert onto a wire rack and cool completely. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and store in a container or Ziploc bag. Bread stays fresh up to a week and freezes well.