It's Officially Autumn!

Around my house, it's not officially autumn until pumpkin bread is baked. Well this week I baked pumpkin bread. I've been making this recipe since I was about 12 or 13 years old. I love it! The flavors and texture are just what I want in a sweet bread. Now I am a purest where pumpkin bread is concerned -- no nuts, no raisins, and certainly no chocolate chips! The point of pumpkin bread bread is the PUMPKIN and the SPICES. Nothing else should interfere with these flavors. So's here's my recipe. My kids demand mini loaves now, but when they were little they were all about the mini muffins. If you make full size loaves, cut them in half long ways to serve in smaller slices (this is accepted way to serve THIS bread! LOL!) Warning: We can knock back one whole loaf straight out of the oven!

Pumpkin Bread

4 eggs                                                       

3 cups sugar                                            

1 cup oil                                                    

½ cup water                                            

2 cups canned pumpkin

2 t. baking soda

1 ½ t. cinnamon

1 ½ t. nutmeg

1 ½ t. salt           

3 ½ cups flour

Spray 3 loaf pans or 5-6 mini-loaf pans. Preheat oven to 350°. Beat eggs in large in large mixing bowl with electric mixer until light. Add sugar gradually, beating all the time. Add oil, water and pumpkin. Mix well. In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Divide batter among loaf pans, filling each 2/3 full. Bake on middle rack of oven for 45 minutes. Check for doneness by sticking a toothpick in the center. If not done, bake up to 15 additional minutes checking every 3-5 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Wrap in foil and store in refrigerator. May be frozen. Yield: 3 standard loaves; 5-6 mini-loaves.

(This is the remaining loaf of the SIX I made on Wednesday)