Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Bread 

Happy Fall! 

This recipe was listed under B for bread. 

Autumn is upon us and what better way to celebrate than to eat everything pumpkin flavored? Lately it seems like everything has a pumpkin flavor from coffee to ice cream. This recipe is a great as a breakfast item or for a sweet treat. 

The recipe was handwritten by my Mom, but I'm not sure where it originally came from. She doesn't remember making the bread, but I figure anything with pumpkin pie filling has to be delicious! 

Let's get cooking! 

Pumpkin Bread

2 Cups flour

2 Teaspoons baking powder

2 Eggs

¼ Teaspoon baking soda

1 Cup pumpkin pie filling

¼ Teaspoon salt

¼ Cup sugar

1 Cup chopped nuts

2 Tablespoons melted shortening

¼ Teaspoon nutmeg

½ Teaspoon cinnamon

350 degrees for an hour

Greased loaf pan

First things first; you'll need to set your oven to 350 degrees and get out your bread pan. I greased mine with Crisco. Here's a little trick I use: Turn a plastic sandwich bag inside and stick your hand inside. Then you can scoop out some of the Crisco and rub it on the bread pan. Once the pan is greased up you can just turn the bag inside out again and toss it in the garbage. This way your hands won't get greasy! 

You will first want to combine the melted shortening and sugar together. I used melted margarine, but you can use Crisco or any other melted shortening. 

Next you'll want to beat the eggs into the sugar mixture:

Once those have been combined you'll need to add the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. The best way to do this is to combine them all into a separate bowl first and then incorporate them into the egg mixture. 

Once the dry ingredients are mixed together you should end up with a doughy mixture similar to this:

I know what you're thinking; it's so dry! Don't worry! You're going to add the pumpkin pie filling next and that will help moisten the bread. For this step you can continue to use the electric mixer or fold it in with a spatula. 

Your bread dough should have an awesome orange color now! You can put your electric mixer away now if you haven't already. We'll be folding in the chopped nuts with a spatula. I used walnuts, but you can use any kind of nut you like (or leave the nuts out too). Pecans would be a great combination also. 

Now that the nuts have been incorporated, your dough should be ready for baking! My dough ended up being a little dry so I added about 1/4 cup of 2% milk which helped to moisten it up. Once you have the consistency of your liking you can go ahead and put the dough into the greased bread pan. 

For added deliciousness I sprinkled sugar on top of the dough before putting it into the oven. This will make a hard sugary layer for the top of the pumpkin bread. Go ahead and put it in the oven. Mine took exactly one hour to cook so be sure you keep an eye on it. 

Yum! The bread is best when it's warm, but you can eat it any way you'd like. It would be great as a dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top! 

I gave this recipe a 4 out of 5 on the yummy scale.

While it is a great fall food, it just didn't seem to have enough spices for me. If I were to make it again I would probably double the amount of nutmeg, cinnamon, and pie filling. I'd also probably add a little bit of ground cloves for that extra spicy taste.

I definitely recommend trying this recipe at home!