The Best Pumpkin Bread Ever!

 (photo by Gengberg, Dreamstime.com)

Over twenty years ago, a friend gave me this recipe for pumpkin bread.  I still remember her exact words:  "You can't mess it up.  It always gets right."  Now that's my kind of recipe!  Thanks, Rosene!

Every fall when I see pumpkins for sale, I know it's time for the best pumpkin bread  ever.  This recipe is moist, just the way I like it.  It's easy, too. And Rosene was right--I have never messed it up; it has always gotten right!  I have some in the oven right now, and it's smelling like I just can't wait to have a piece!

The Best Pumpkin Bread Ever

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups sugar (I use only 2 cups and it is sweet enough for me.)

1 cup oil

4 eggs

1-1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat together all the above.  Then add one cup cooked pumpkin, 2/3 cups water, 2 teaspoons baking soda, and 3 cups flour.

Grease and flour 3 coffee cans (1 lb cans).  Fill until the three cans are equally full.

Bake 350 degrees for 50 minutes to an hour.  Cool and remove from cans.

Then indulge! It's delicious toasted for breakfast, or as a dessert.  The tops of this bread get like the tops of muffins--crusty and oh, so-o-o good.  You can double this recipe and freeze it.

You can play around with this recipe--it will still get right!   Some things I have done over the years:

• Added walnuts and/or raisins
• Used a 9 x 12 pan instead of the coffee cans.  
• One time I didn't have enough granulated sugar, so I used some brown sugar.
• I have added a lot more cooked pumpkin than 1 cup.  If  I have more pumpkin than the recipe says and I don't want to throw it out and have no other use for it, I just add all of it!
• A few times I've been short an egg or two.
• I've added more of a variety of spices 
• And I can't forget this one! A few years ago I turned on the oven to preheat and proceeded to mix the pumpkin bread.  When I went to put the batter in the oven, it wasn't hot. My oven had died. But I had all this batter on hand!  So I put the batter in a frying pan with a lid and cooked it on the stove top. The edges burned, but the rest was still edible, pumpkin bread.  I don't want to repeat this "method", but it worked in a pinch!

I just took my pumpkin bread out of the oven and put on the coffee.  How soon can you get here?  I'll save one of the "muffin tops" for you!