A wonderful moist and flavorful pumpkin bread great for the Fall season
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 can pumpkin (not pie filling)*
- 8 tbsp butter melted and cooled
- 2 tsps vanilla
- 1 cup pecans or walnuts toasted and chopped
- 1 cup dried cranberries (optional)
- almond flavoring i also added some
- Carbohydrate 68.1642301666667 g
- Cholesterol 109.024 mg
- Fat 19.694204 g
- Fiber 3.28746836943428 g
- Protein 8.56772016666667 g
- Saturated Fat 7.2298672 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (149g)
- Sodium 259.7082 mg
- Sugar 64.8767617972324 g
- Trans Fat 1.5531298 g
- Calories 474 calories
Step-by-step
- Be sure to buy unsweetened canned pumpkin...
- Preheat oven to 350
- Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 loaf pan...(I always cut a piece of parchment for the bottom to ensure that the bread will come out.)
- Whisk the flour, baking soda,baking powder, cinnamon,salt,spices in a large bowl.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the pumpkin,sugar,melted butter, eggs and vanilla together until smooth.
- Gently fold the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined (do not over mix).
- Gently fold the pecans and cranberries (if using). The batter will be very thick. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached 45 -55 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool for 1 hr before serving.
Canned pumpkin puree carries a significant amount of water that recipes rarely quantify, meaning your batter can easily swing from properly hydrated to sodden depending on the brand you open. Unsweetened purée behaves differently than starchy squash variations, releasing moisture steadily as starches gelatinize in the oven. Butter provides fat that coats flour proteins, limiting gluten formation to keep the crumb tender rather than rubbery. Overmixing this thick batter develops those exact gluten strands you want to avoid, turning a rustic quick bread into a dense, heavy brick.
Visual cues replace internal thermometers entirely when judging quick breads baked in loaf pans. Edges shrink very slightly from the metal sides and turn a deep golden brown once fully set. A wooden skewer inserted into the absolute center must emerge with a few moist crumbs clinging to it, never wet batter or a completely spotless surface. Tapping the top crust should yield a firm resistance rather than a soft, yielding indentation.
Standard oven thermostats frequently drift by twenty-five degrees or more, making elapsed time an unreliable metric for structural doneness. Rotating the pan halfway through the forty-five to fifty-five minute window compensates for hot spots in domestic ovens. Cooling the loaf inside the pan for exactly ten minutes allows internal steam to finish setting the crumb before inversion onto a wire rack prevents soggy bottom crusts.
Nuts and dried fruit add density that sinks straight to the bottom if unmanaged. Tossing toasted pecans and cranberries in a tablespoon of the measured flour mixture before folding them into the batter creates enough surface friction to suspend them evenly throughout the loaf. Slicing too early shatters the crumb structure while starches are still hot, so wait the full hour of cooling time for clean, distinct cuts.
