Pumpkin Bread Recipe

My grandmother often asks me to make her some pumpkin bread since it is one of her favorites. Even more often, she buys me all the ingredients so I can make it for her! What makes my pumpkin bread special? I use fresh pumpkin to make homemade pumpkin puree. This gives it a fresh twist to a classic recipe, especially when the pumpkins come from your own crops! You can check out the recipe I loosely followed here.

Note: The recipe makes 2 loaves of Pumpkin Bread or 24 muffins. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups of pumpkin puree 
• 3 cups of All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of Baking Powder
• 1 and 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 4 eggs 
• 2/3 cups of butter
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
• 2 teaspoons of Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of whole cloves
• 1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice

Instructions

For Homemade Pumpkin Pure:

I like to make my own puree instead of using the canned stuff, especially when my grandfather grows pumpkins and is always giving me a big piece of this versatile ingredient. To make this puree all you need to do is:

1. Remove the skin from your pumpkin and cut it into big chunks.
2. Fill a pot with water, pumpkin chunks, and the whole cloves
3. Boil the pumpkin until tender.
4. Remove from heat and drain. 
5. Make sure to remove all of the whole cloves once the pumpkin is cool enough to handle. 
6. Mash up your pumpkin using a fork or even your electric hand mixer. 

For the Pumpkin Bread:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and grease your loaf pans or muffin pans if you desire with some non-stick cooking spray.  
2. Whisk together your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix your butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs. 
3. Into your pumpkin puree add your cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and chopped walnuts. 
4. Add the wet ingredients to your dry and mix until they are well combined. 
5. Separate your mixture into two loaf pans. If you rather do pumpkin bread muffins, spoon the batter evenly into your muffin pan, fill them up half way. For me, it was approximately 2 tablespoons per cup. I used a measuring spoon because it made it easier to transfer the batter into each cup. 
6. Bake them for 60 minutes or until toothpic comes out clean. The muffins cook for 20-30 minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on them.  
7. Cool them completely before serving or slicing the loaves. 

This recipe is absolutely delicious! Once you get the basics down, you can play around with the ingredients and even substitute some of the sugar with honey or add some raisins. You can be as creative as you'd like to be, but trust me using homemade puree makes all the difference! Share with me your recipe creations on Instagram by using the hashtag #LoveNashiBakes and tagging me @love_nashi. I would love to see how yours turns out. I'll write to you all soon. 

Love, Nashi