My Friend Pumpkin Bread

Let's get into pumpkin bread. It's one of my earliest memories of my Grandmother Mimi's cooking, rich, dense, good for the soul and great with a cream cheese icing. Mimi used to make it inside of coffee cans, so it came out round, like the shape of canned cranberry sauce. How I do miss the round shape - who saves coffee cans anymore?

There are many variations of the classic recipe that uses canned pumpkin. Dallas super chef Stephan Pyles makes a cross between a pumpkin bread and a gingerbread using candied ginger, molasses, oranges and dark corn syrup in his book The New Texas Cuisine. It's very good but Mimi's gingerbread is another classic recipe I've preserved; I like to keep the two separate.

Part of the attraction of using old recipes the way they were is to smell the air and remember how it used to feel standing by your grandmother's stove. Pumpkin bread this time of year is such a cheerful companion. It goes well beside a fire in the fireplace, or with a cup of tea in the afternoon as the light gently draws away. It never disappoints.

My wonderful friend Susie gave me an excellent loaf of pumpkin bread last year, and if memory serves, she wrapped it in a new dish towel, a grand idea that saves on wrapping paper and is reusable long after the loaf is gone. This loaf has the approval of both our college sons, and they both have good taste. I asked her to share it, and she did. Now that I see it, I realize it's nearly exactly the same as Mimi's.

The addition of chocolate makes it all Susie's.

Pumpkin Bread


31/2 cups sifted flour (tip from Mama Mia: If you don't have time to sift, use a whisk on it)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups sugar

Sift together the ingredients above. Then add the following:

4 eggs

2/3 cup cold water

2 cups or 1 can pumpkin

1 cup oil (Mama Mia tip: use 1/4 cup oil and 3/4 cup applesauce)

Mix until blended. May add 1 cup chocolate Chips if desired. (Yes, yes!)

Pour into 2 loaf pans (9x5) that have been greased and floured. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.


Mama Mia Tip: Don't try to bake this in one loaf pan or your son will graduate college before it's fully baked. If you have coffee cans, go for it, but use more than one.

(Photo from Peter's Market at the Weston Center in Connecticut)