Pumpkin Bread (& Muffins!)

Edited 10/17/09:

I made some of these muffins for breakfast this morning and decided to change it up just a tad. I used 2 t of freshly grated nutmeg, 2 t of ginger and 3 t of cinnamon. And I added 1 c of nuts. Wow. I cannot believe how awesome the additional spice made these. I changed the recipe below to reflect these changes.

Mmm, pumpkin. This is how you really know it is fall!

I first made this bread many, many moons ago. Before babies and husbands and mortgages and real jobs. This bread is even pre-Mr. Shoe! I have always made it with fresh, shredded pumpkin, just like the recipe calls for. But this year, I didn't have the time or energy to shred my own pumpkin so I reluctantly bought 3 cans of pumpkin at the store.

So lets chat about the original recipe. Since I hadn't ever made it without fresh pumpkin, I was nervous about the amount of pumpkin to use. Do I use 3 cups? One can? One large can? So I read all 76 reviews. I ended up just using 1 can and I am glad I went that route. The pumpkin puree will make your batter VERY dense!

Something else I noted when at the grocery store was that I had the option of Pumpkin Pie mix and just regular Pumpkin Puree. I grabbed the puree and again, glad I went that route. The pumpkin pie mix has a lot of sugar in it so I think you would need to alter your sugar amount if you went that route. If you aren't sure, look at the ingredients. Mine only contained Pumpkin.

Another significant change I made was that I altered the spices. The only spice this calls for is cinnamon. I added nutmeg and ginger. I would have added clove and all-spice if I'd had some. Several reviews said that they doubled the spice amounts but I really wanted to be able to taste the pumpkin so I didn't go overboard. Just enough to make it fallish and spice-y. See above comments about adding more spice.

INGREDIENTS:

2 c AP flour

3 t cinnamon

2 t nutmeg (preferably freshly grated)

2 t ginger

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/4 t baking powder
1 1/2 c sugar

3/4 c vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 t vanilla extract

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie mix) or 3 c fresh, shredded pumpkin

1 c nuts (optional, but soooo good)

Preheat oven to 325.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

In a separate (and larger) mixing bowl, combine sugar, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract. Mix well. Add in dry mix. I did not use my stand mixer for this recipe. Several reviews stated that the bread was tough or chewy and I think it's from over mixing. I recommend mixing by hand.

Fold in pumpkin and nuts (if using). This is where your batter gets really dense! I was uber worried but just don't use too much pumpkin puree and it'll be ok. Cross my heart.

Here's where I'm going to mess with your minds. The original recipe says that this will make one loaf. Sorry, Alton, but I respectfully disagree. You either need to make 2 loaves or 24 muffins. Or do what I did and make one loaf and 12 cupcakes. If you put all this batter in one loaf pan, I'm pretty sure it will not cook in the middle.

So pour your batter into chosen containers. Bake muffins for 30 minutes and loaves of bread for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

When a butter knife inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean, it's done!

VERDICT:

This is sinfully good. In that, you know you should stop eating, but it would be a sin to stop.

I thought that the spice amount I used was really good but I wouldn't mind playing with it a little more. You could definitely taste the pumpkin but it could have been a tad bit more spice-y. (Again, see above comments; adding more spice definitely made this better.)

Also, I probably could have put more batter into the loaf pan. It wasn't nearly as tall as I thought it would but I was really worried it wouldn't cook all the way through.

HOWEVER, this was still just amazing as the first time I ever made it and I plan to make it many more times this fall!

SOURCE:

Alton Brown