Pumpkin Bread: Classic, easy, and absolutely delicious.  I love pumpkin bread, and apple spice bread, and cranberry walnut bread, and all the other breads of the holidays.  Last weekend, I made pumpkin bread, and it was wonderful.  Moist, soft, and just the right combination of spices.  The recipe I used made 2 loaves, which is great, because one is NEVER enough.  And, since I was at my parents’, I got to relish in the delightfully spacious kitchen in which my baking obsession was born, and I had a direct line of sight to the TV (oh, how I’ve missed that…sigh, my life is so difficult).  Covert Affairs, all the way.

Anyway, breads are a quick, easy, and delicious treat for any occasion, especially in the fall and winter seasons, when the perfect blend of spices in each loaf warms you to the core.  Now, I found this recipe on My Baking Addiction, and only after I had poured all the wet ingredients into the bowl, did I remember my grandmother’s pumpkin bread recipe.  After rummaging through my mom’s recipe box, I found it!  It is similar to the recipe I had begun to use, so I just stuck with the recipe I had already started.  After all, I had already poured in the pumpkin, so I was kind of past the point of no return without scrapping the whole thing.  The only change I made was adding walnuts to one of the loaves.  (I would have added them to both, but my mom prefers no nuts – so I left that loaf with them and took the walnut loaf home for Christian and I to enjoy.  And enjoy, we did!)

Tip: A little bird once told me (aka, I don’t remember who) to pour each of your ingredients in a different part of the bowl before mixing. That way, you can look at your bowl just before you mix it all together and be sure you didn’t forget anything.

This recipe was so quick and easy and extremely delicious…just combined ingredients, mix, and bake.  Both loaves were devoured before week’s end! (It could have been faster, but I try to savor!)I absolutely love pumpkin bread.  And since it is bread, not cake, or cookie, or, technically, a dessert of any sort, I can convince myself it is good for me, and eat it devour it, guilt-free.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Bread

Yield: 2 loaves
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Bake Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 ½ cups sugar
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice*
½ cup walnuts**

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 8.5 x 4 x 2.5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, vanilla and sugar until well blended.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice until well combined.
4. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour batter into the prepared pans.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

*Tip:  If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, or run out, you can make your own. Just combine the following spices and store in a small jar (or, in my case, my empty pumpkin pie spice jar):

• 3 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 ½ tsp ground allspice
• 1 ½ tsp ground cloves

**Walnuts, of course, are optional. You could add all sorts of other extras instead, or just keep it simple (but no less delicious, of course. Some options are: dried cranberries, chopped pecans, or chocolate chips. Let your imagination run wild!