How to: Bake your own pumpkin bread--Ella

Ever since I was young, my favorite time of the year has been fall. Specifically November. This was one of the few months that my grandma gets to come down and visit my family. She lives in Nevada, so she is not able to come very often. But I look forward to every Thanksgiving she gets to come stay at my house. I cherish the time I get to spend with her, and I always look forward to baking with her, it’s her favorite thing to do. My favorite thing to bake with her is pumpkin bread, the perfect bakery item for the holidays. The flavor of the bread matches perfectly with the time of year and really puts you in the spirit. This has been a tradition between my grandma and I for about 10 years now. Every year around Thanksgiving, the two of us make pumpkin bread for the entire family. It is also a part of our tradition that we deliver it to everyone’s houses once it is completely baked and ready to go. We give everyone enough to last them for a couple of days. But everyone in my family loves it so much that it is gone by the next morning! I can’t blame them though, whenever we have the pumpkin bread sitting in the kitchen, I always grab some for breakfast, lunch, and even after dinner. This pumpkin bread is super good, but you have to make it right. This recipe has to be followed very carefully, as it is easy to mess up. I haven’t even been able to master the recipe yet, even after years of making it, so I always leave it up to my grandma to take the lead. If you follow the recipe attentively and take your time, your pumpkin bread can come out tasting perfect. All of the instructions are listed down below, good luck and enjoy! 

DRY ingredients: 

3 ½ cups of flour 

3 tsp baking soda 

½ tsp baking powder 

1 ½ tsp salt 

1 tsp nutmeg 

½ tsp cinnamon 

⅓ tsp ground cloves 

3 cup sugar 

WET ingredients

1 cup oil 

4 eggs 

⅔ cup water 

2 cup pumpkin puree 

Supplies: 

Kitchen aid - this item is optional, you are welcome to use a big bowl in replacement or anything of your choice that will fit all of the ingredients. 

Measuring cups - 1 cup, ⅔ cup 

Measuring spoons 

Loaf pans - you can use any sized pan you want, however is you use mini pans, check on your bread every few minutes so it does not overcook 

Crisco (to coat your pans) 

 STEPS: 1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees 

2. Add all dry ingredients to a bowl first, then mix together 

3. Add all of the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients you just mixed - mix until the texture is smooth with no chunks, the consistency should be like cake batter. Here is an example of what your final mix should look like:

4. Coat loaf pans with crisco, afterwards coat the pan with flour - this step is so that the pumpkin bread won’t stick to your pans once they are done cooking. My grandma always reminds me that this is one of the most important steps because your pumpkin bread wont taste the same if it gets stuck in the pan. 

5. Pour your pumpkin bread batter to about the halfway mark of the flour coated pans. This is what your pans should look like once everything is poured: 

6. Place you pans with filled with your pumpkin bread batter into the oven 

7. Bake for 1 hour, To ensure that your pumpkin bread is cooked all the way through, use a long wooden skewer to poke a hole through the bread. If it comes out clean that means it is ready to come out of the oven. If there is any batter on it, leave it in for a few more minutes. This is another important step that my grandma taught me, nobody wants uncooked food. 

8. Once your pumpkin bread is finished baking, take it out of the oven using oven mitts to protect your hands, then place in the fridge to cool for about 15 minutes 

9. After the pumpkin bread has cooled and has been taken out of the fridge, it is ready to eat! Make sure to cover any leftover pumpkin bread with foil, this will guarantee the bread to last for multiple days after it is baked! Congratulations! You have finished baking your pumpkin bread. Hopefully it looks something similar to this and you can enjoy it for the holidays: