Pumpkin Bread

We've gone through quite the cold snap lately out here in the Great Northwest.  So cold, in fact, our pipes froze! Oh no! Nothing like getting up in the morning to brush your teeth and realizing that there's no running water because you forgot to let it trickle throughout the night.

It was my husband's turn to sleep in, but sleep no more!  Rise and shine, Honey Cakes! Bless his heart.  It's 7:45am and he's under the house with my hair dryer defrosting the pipes.  And after two glorious hours or so...viola! We had running water again and no busted pipes!

"Why is she telling me all this," you ask.  I'm telling you because he wasn't irritated with all the commotion and inconvenience.  He wasn't mad at me even though I was the one who turned off his trickle.  He wasn't upset at all...not even a little.  Why?  Because the night before I had made two beautiful, delicious loaves of pumpkin bread.

So if you're ever in deep, or suspect you will be soon, or maybe you want to show someone how much you love them, or just plain show off, make pumpkin bread.  I assure you, this recipe's a keeper.

I adapted it from a recipe my mother gave me.  I have no idea where she got the original recipe. Hers was always too sweet for me and not quite as soft as I like, so I cut back on the sugar and substituted whole wheat pastry flour for some of the all purpose flour. Then I added vanilla and played around with the spices. Finally...Perfection...for me at least.

Pumpkin Bread

1 15oz can pumpkin puree (or 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree)

4 large eggs

1 cup oil (I use safflower or grapeseed)

2 cups granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground clove

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 cup chopped dates

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour two loaf pans.

In a large bowl combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Stir to slightly combine. Add the flours (reserving 1 T of all purpose flour), baking powder, salt, baking soda, and spices. Stir to combine. 

In a small bowl, add the dates, walnuts, and the reserved tablespoon of flour together and stir around so that the flour coats the dates and nuts.  This will keep them from sinking to the bottom of the loaf pans during baking.

Add the date/walnut mixture to the pumpkin/flour mixture and stir well.

Pour the pumpkin bread batter into two greased and floured loaf pans and bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. 

It takes 55 minutes to bake in my oven, but I have a convection oven, use glass loaf pans, and live part way up a mountain. So check it at 50 and go from there.

This is a quick bread and can be combined in a large bowl in no particular order, but I find it turns out nicer when you do it the way I described. Sometimes I even sift my flour and leavening agents together. Depends on my mood.

Daft Punk's Get Lucky is what I'm listening to today. I didn't even know they put out a new album. I'm so lost in motherhood I've gotten kind of out of the loop. I heard this song on the radio one fateful day when my mp3 player died and I had two choices. Radio or nothing. I'm so glad I picked radio. 

I immediately liked it but thought it was probably just one of those one-hit-wonder songs because it was so catchy. I have a few of those on my mp3 player...a guilty pleasure. I was pretty stoked to hop on the computer and find it was a band I actually dig!