Here's a great little baking project that won't take up much of your weekend!
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This no-frills spiced pumpkin bread is tops in my book. It's sweet, tender and speckled with walnuts throughout. The recipe makes two big loaves, which means you can share the love by giving one away to your neighbor. I think that's important. Even if we can't cure the world's ills we can still give a loaf of pumpkin bread to our neighbor, and that's a step in the right direction.
A warm slice of this bread with butter or cream cheese makes a mighty fine breakfast, but lately I've been eating it with goat cheese and fresh figs. I love this time of year because I'm often handed free home-grown produce from friends and acquaintances, and the super sweet figs pictured were one such gift (thank you, Sarah!).
Grab your largest mixing bowl, because this recipe makes a lot of batter! You'll also need two 9x5-inch loaf pans.
The loaves usually take about one hour to bake and during their oven stay you'll benefit from pumpkin spice aromatherapy. I make this recipe many times throughout fall and winter. It requires no extra decoration, toppings or frostings, but I will sometimes sieve a spoonful of powdered sugar on top to make it pretty.
Happy weekend, friends!
Classic Pumpkin Bread
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Yields two 9x5-inch loaves
1 1/2 cups (340g, 3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups (600g) granulated sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup (60 ml) vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (540g, 19oz.) pumpkin puree (canned is fine)
3 1/2 cups (420g) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons fine grain salt
1 teaspoon each:
baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg
1 1/2 cups (170g) broken walnut halves
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease two 9x5-inch baking pans with flour-based baking spray (or grease and flour pans).
Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. With the mixer running, add the eggs one at a time. Mix in the vegetable oil, vanilla extract and pumpkin puree. Scrape down the bowl and mix again briefly.
Add the flour, salt, soda, cinnamon and nutmeg to the butter mixture. Mix well on low speed until just combined. Using a large rubber spatula scrape down the bowl and mix again until well combined. Fold in the walnuts.
Divide the batter between the prepared loaf pans and bake for 1 hour. Loaves are done with they are well-browned and a toothpick tester inserted in their centers comes out clean.
Turn the loaves out onto wire cooling racks. Serve slices warm or at room temperature.
Store loaves in large zip-top bags with the air removed, or double wrapped in plastic wrap.
Source: Sprinkle Bakes
