Pumpkin Bread

You know I love pumpkin, right?
I struggled finding a recipe I loved for years for Pumpkin bread, but this is the one that I have come up with that has everything I want in a recipe; moist, not too high fat, dense and delicious. 

This is a big batch of pumpkin bread, I made 2 large loaves and 2 mini loaves, but you can easily make 3 loaves.  I know, I know, you don't need three loaves, but in case you haven't noticed it's the time of year where it's super-duper nice to share with others; neighbors, friends, co-workers and family.  I took a bunch to work, gave away a mini one and put the rest into the freezer.  This will make my kids very, very happy when they come home for Thanksgiving. Freezing it also makes it hard for me to eat it all up before then, which is a very real danger and no laughing matter.

If you don't have applesauce, your could  use oil to substitute, bringing the whole amount of oil in the recipe to 1 cup of oil.  Originally, this recipe had all oil and no applesauce.  I also used 1 cup of whole wheat flour in the recipe swapping out for the same amount of regular flour.  I just want to get some more healthy benefits but don't want to reduce the taste or texture on a holiday treat like this.

I figure I have a couple more days of pumpkin recipes, and then you will be on to Gingerbread and Peppermint recipes. So I'm ready to make the change and I already have some great recipes in my creative 'hopper' for the coming weeks.

Yield: 3 big loaves, or 2 big plus 2 small

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 1/2 cups Flour, all-purpose (ok to substitute 1 cup whole wheat for one of the regular flour)

1 tsp. Salt

2 tsp. Baking soda

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1 tsp. Nutmeg

4 lg Eggs

1/2 cup Vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce

2 c. canned Pumpkin (cooked)

2/3 cup Water

1 1/2 cup. Walnuts, chopped (Optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter your containers well.

Sift the dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the eggs, oil, pumpkin and water. Beat thoroughly. It's easier to get all the lumps out if you use an electric mixer. Stir in the walnuts with a wooden spoon.

Pour the batter into the containers, filling each only half to two-thirds full.

Bake for about 60 minutes, depending on the sizes of your containers. If you're using a very small container, start checking much sooner. The bread is done when a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

Cool about ten minutes, then loosen the edges of the bread with a knife, and turn out of the pans to cool the rest of the way on a rack.

Quick breads are SO easy, here's some more that I like:
Kauai Banana Bread
Maple Yogurt Pound Cake
Moist Lemon Bread
Zucchini Bread