A happy burden

Having a loaf of my mom's pumpkin bread in the house reminds me of being a kid. Then, I would carefully cut a few slices and pack them in my lunch bag to get me through the day. Now I fortify myself in the morning with a slice of pumpkin bread and a cup of strong coffee. In short, pumpkin bread can go a long way towards making a better day.

I want the pumpkin bread I buy out in the world to be like this, gently spiced and very moist. When it's not, I pick at it, disappointed, wishing I'd opted for something with crumbly stuff on top. Maybe you have a similar recipe? It's my end-all-be-all, it's homemade, and it hits that magic spot hovering between stomach and brain.

I’ve been making this since high school. High school… a time when I never checked to see if I had all the ingredients called for in the recipe until I actually needed to add them to the mixing bowl. Which means that once I had all my dry ingredients in the well, 6 eggs cracked in there, and then found I had no oil. I left it on the counter and went on an hour-long field trip to the store. And it still worked.

I got the recipe from my mom, who, if I recall correctly, got it from one of the cookbooks in the kitchen that has all the good desserts in it- maybe an old Betty Crocker book, with its retro-orange cover, that she got back in the ‘70s. There were pencil markings in the margin that were her notes to modify the bread for the 28-oz cans of pumpkin we buy.

Here it is, in all its classic glory, along with my peanut-gallery comments:

Preheat oven to 350F and grease 3 medium loaf tins (I use 1-lb loaf tins)

Sprinkle brown sugar in the bottom of each tin (I use about 1 tsp per tin, like my mom, I bang the tin against the heel of one hand to coat the sugar in the grease so that it balls up a bit. It doesn’t have to be perfectly dispersed on the bottom)

Mix together dry ingredients and fashion a well in the center:
(NOTE: USE A REALLY BIG MIXING BOWL)

5 1/4 c. sifted all-purpose flour
2 1/4 c. light brown sugar
2 1/4 c. white sugar
3 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground (or freshly grated, if you’ve got it) nutmeg

Add wet ingredients to the center of the well:
6 eggs
1 1/2 c. salad oil (canola/vegetable oil)
1 c. water
3 c. mashed pumpkin

Use your mixer to mix everything together, scraping down the sides with a spatula to ensure that all the dry ingredients get mixed in. Beat for approximately 3 min, then pour into prepared loaf tins (the batter should fill the pan about 3/4 of the way) and bake about 1 hr, 15 min.

Cool 5 min in tins (if you release them too soon, they won’t set well and you risk breaking the top from the bottom when you take them out.) I like it sliced thick and served refrigerator-cold. It’s great with peanut butter spread on top, or between two slices.