PUMPKIN BREAD

COMBINE:

• 2 ½ CUPS BROWN SUGAR
• 1 CUP OIL
• 2/3 CUP WATER
• 4 EGGS
• 2 CUPS PUMPKIN (FRESH COOKED AND MASHED OR CANNED)

SIFT AND ADD:

• ½ TSP SALT
• 2 TSP BAKING SODA
• 1 TSP BAKING POWDER
• 1 TSP CINNAMON
• 1 TSP NUTMEG
• 3 CUPS WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR

ADD:

1 CUP CHOPPED NUTS

1 CUP GOLDEN RAISINS

BAKE IN 2 OILED LOAF PANS AT 375◦ FOR 1 HOUR.

Every autumn, I buy two pie pumpkins and cook them down for my holiday baking. This is a habit I picked up from my mother, though I can’t recall if “pie pumpkins” were even a thing when I was a child (there was a lot less variety in the supermarket back then…). She might have just used the same standard pumpkins we used for jack o’lanterns. In any case, she cut them into halves or quarters and baked them at 350◦ for an hour, or until a knife slid through the skin without resistance. Once cooled, she scraped the flesh from the skin and put it through a food mill. So, in the manner traditions are passed down, I do the same (the primary difference being that I use a food processor).

I thought very hard about using my favorite pumpkin pie recipe here—eggnog maple pumpkin pie—but I changed my mind. Because one other thing my mother left me, aside from an annual tradition or two, is her hand-inked bread cookbook, A Loaf of Bread, which I colorized a few years ago and put up for sale. So, in honor of this new autumn, here is her recipe for pumpkin bread.