Pumpkin Bread

This is very yummy—makes 3 standard bread loaves, figure 16 slices each. It's even better when you put streusel on it. Pictured are two non-standard loaf pans, the one on the right huge, because my standard Pyrex® loaf pans were engaged (out of the picture to the right) making sandwich bread that day.

Ingredients

The loaf

d r y   i n g r e d i e n t s -------------
3½ cups all-purpose flour
3 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp allspice
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
w e t   i n g r e d i e n t s -------------
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 can canned pumpkin (15 oz)
¾ cup canola oil
⅔ cup water
½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts

The streusel

3 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 tbsp white sugar
6 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts
¼ stick butter, softened

    Nutrition

—minus any streusel, for one approximately ½" slice:

  • 122 calories
  • 4g fat
  • 18mg cholesterol
  • 85mg sodium
  • 20g carbohydrates (12g sugar, 1g fiber)
  • 2 g protein

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. In a bowl, whisk together "wet" ingredients: eggs, pumpkin, oil and water.

3. Wisk dry ingredients together in one bowl. This includes the sugar which, formally speaking, isn't a dry ingredient, but for the steps in this recipe, it must be considered so. If you forget it and add it in the end, the batter will be overmixed and the dessert good only for throwing in the trash!

4. Now fold in dry ingredients in, the nuts at the end, just until moistened.

5. Pour into a well greased 9×5" loaf pan. Add streusel if desired (otherwise, skip and continue instructions).

6. Streusel: Cream butter and sugar, add rest, dole out by hand atop the batter before loading into oven.

6. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.