Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Bread

For Christmas gifts this year I am giving out quick breads. Quick breads are easy and lend themselves to endless varieties. Unlike most ‘breads’ quick breads use baking powder or baking
soda as a leavening agent rather than using yeast. They also require little to no kneading.

Today I am giving you a recipe for Pumpkin Bread. The addition of chopped candied ginger and chocolate chips give this bread an interesting texture and help it stay moist. Find candied ginger in an Asian food store or the ethnic aisle of your grocery store.

The secret to making quick breads moist is to keep the dry and wet ingredients separate until it is absolutely necessary. After you combine the wet and dry ingredients, don’t over stir. If there are a few streaks of flour, it doesn’t matter, they will cook out.

 

If you wait to cool this completely and wrap it up very tightly in plastic wrap, it will stay good for a week.

I cooked ALLLL day today. Writing up these recipes (and photographing them) is a great deal of work, so I am doling them out throughout the week. I am going to share a Lemon Blueberry Bread, an Onion Cheddar Bread and an Orange Cranberry Bread with you, one per day, starting on Tuesday.

Servings:  2 loaves
Time:  Prep: 10 minutes, cooking: 55-60 minutes, cooling time one hour
Hardware:  Measuring cups and spoons, 2 mixing bowls, a mixer, a large wooden spoon, a silicone spatula, a can opener and 2- 9x 5 loaf pans, a wire cooling rack

 Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 3 cups sugar
• ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ¼ cup chopped candied ginger
• 1½  teaspoons cinnamon
• ¾  teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼  teaspoon nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 ½  teaspoons salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup apple juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Butter and or Crisco and flour for the pans

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease and flour the loaf pans. It is always better to over grease and flour than under.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, chocolate chips, chopped candied ginger, spices, baking soda and salt in one of the mixing bowls. Set aside.
3. Beat the eggs in the other mixing bowl. Add in the pumpkin, oil, apple juice and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
4. With the wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture. Only stir until just moistened.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
6. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 20 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

This bread is delicious butter and toasted a little in the oven. My husband is pretty picky, and he loved it.