Pumpkin Bread

It’s fall now and nothing says fall to me like pumpkin bread.  Pumpkin bread is a type of quick bread.  While it’s called bread, it is really more of cake in the shape of a loaf of bread.  This recipe could also be used to make it in the shape of a normal cake and then iced.

This recipe is extremely easy to make and is very forgiving of mistakes.  You could use fresh pumpkin and make it a little more “home made” but would result in a much more involved recipe.

Here is the recipe that I use:

3 cups Granulated Sugar

1 cup Vegetable Oil

4 Eggs

15 oz Canned Pumpkin

3 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour

2 tsp Salt

2 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Ground Allspice

2/3 cup Water

Here is the mise en place for the pumpkin bread.

First the sugar and oil get mixed together.

Here they are after being creamed together.

Next up is the eggs.  They get lightly beaten before being added.

This is the mixture after the eggs were added.

The pumpkin goes in and gets mixed well.

The dry ingredients all get measured out into a separate bowl and mixed together.

Then the dry ingredients get mixed into the pumpkin mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the water.  This alternating procedure lets you get all the flour mixed in without clumping or over mixing the batter.

The batter gets evenly divided into two loaf pans.  They get baked in a 350 degrees oven for 40-60 minutes.

When it is done the bread should have pulled a little away from the sides of the pan and a skewer should come out clean when inserted into the center of the loaf.

The loaves should be cooled for about 10 minutes in the pans before turning out and cooling the rest of the way on a wire rack.

Here’s the final loaf.

Kitchen Sink Cookies

This post I decided to make some Kitchen Sink Cookies.  It is my own recipe based loosely on the chocolate chip cookie recipe from Tollhouse.  It was inspired by the flavor of the month cookie for June from Cougar Mountain Baking Company: Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal. 

Here’s the recipe:

1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter

3/4 Cup Brown Sugar

3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

2 Eggs

1 Teaspoon vanilla

1/2 Teaspoon Fresh Nutmeg

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1 Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 3/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour

2 Cup Oats

1 Cup Chocolate Chips

 

Here’s the mise en place for the cookies.  Well, without the eggs since I forgot to include them for the picture.

Here I’ve grated the nutmeg using a Microplane grater.

Measuring out the peanut butter.

The butter and peanut butter get mixed together and then creamed with the sugar.

Here’s the creamed sugar, peanut butter, and butter.

Then the remaining wet ingredients and spices get mixed in.

Here’s the recipe slowly taking shape as I decide how much of each ingredient I’m going to use.

Then the dry ingredients, except the chocolate chips, get mixed in.

Then the chocolate chips get folded into the cookie dough, so that they don’t break up.

The dough gets rolled into flattened balls and put on a cookie sheet.  I always use a silpat on top of an airbake cookie sheet when baking cookies.

They bake for about 14 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

The recipe makes about 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on how large you make each cookie.