Pumpkin Bread II
This recipe is based on Smitten Kitchen's Pumpkin Bread, but with various tweaks and changes, mainly reducing sugar, upping the spices, and adding walnuts. It maintains all the great advantages of that recipe, namely, using up a whole can of pumpkin (no weird extra bit of pumpkin), and being all mixed easily in one bowl.
- 1 15-ounce can (1 3/4 cups) pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable or another neutral cooking oil or melted butter (115 grams)
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 c of walnuts (untoasted is fine, but you can toast them if you like too)
- 2 1/4 cups (295 grams) all-purpose flour
Topping:
- 1 tablespoon (12 grams) granulated sugar (or use demerara sugar)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- optional fun addition: some minced candied ginger
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter a 6-cup loaf pan or coat it with nonstick spray (this makes a big loaf; make sure not to use too small a loaf pan).
Optional: coat the buttered loaf pan with an extra layer of demerara sugar.
In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs and sugar until smooth. Sprinkle baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinanmon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves over batter and whisk until well-combined. Add nuts and mix so nuts will be distributed throughout the batter. Add flour and stir with a spoon, just until mixed. Scrape into prepared pan and smooth the top. In a small dish, or empty measuring cup, stir sugar and cinnamon together. Sprinkle over top of batter.
Bake bread for 65 to 75 minutes until a tester poked into all parts of cake (both the top and center will want to hide pockets of uncooked batter) come out batter-free, turning the cake once during the baking time for even coloring. It should register 205 degrees everywhere when temped.
Make sure to probe around the very bottom in the center of the loaf where it will cook slower.
You can cool it in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove it, or cool it completely in there. The latter provides the advantage of letting more of the loose cinnamon sugar on top adhere before being knocked off.
Cake keeps at room temperature.