Alaina's Pumpkin Bread

One hot summer day, I went to visit my dearest best friend Alaina before she moved from Western North Carolina to the Western United States. Alaina was going to further her education in Psychology at a college in Oregon, once she got there she changed tracks and decided she wanted to be a chef. During my visit with her we sat out on the grass in the hot sun behind her apartment and talked and talked about things that had been and things that might be. I have only seen my lovely Alaina one more time since then (she came to visit me in Raleigh once) because living on the other side of the country when you are constantly struggling financially really prevents you from getting to hang out much. But one thing I gained from that visit to the mountains was a recipe and love for Pumpkin Bread.

I watched as my amazing friend, who would some day graduate from culinary school, wrote down from memory her favorite Pumpkin Bread recipe. I still have that little yellow piece of paper with her hand written recipe on it :-) A little worse for the wear with all the times I've used it but still in pretty good shape.

On the back of this piece of paper is also a recipe for homemade pumpkin spice. Alaina made a special side note that I was not to use pre-made Pumpkin Spice :-) Every time I've made the recipe I've made my own Pumpkin Spice, until this time because I just couldn't afford to buy all the individual spices so I just bought a small container of Pumpkin Spice. 

Okay so let's roll with this. Gather all your ingredients: Flour, Pumpkin Pie Spice, Baking Powder, Salt, Eggs, Sugar, Pumpkin Puree (NOT Pumpkin pie in a can!!), Vegetable Oil, and Cranberries or Chocolate Chips.

Pre-heat the Oven to 350 and grease and flour two bread pans before you start whipping up the recipe. 

First you mix all your dry ingredients into a bowl. 2 1/4 Cups Flour, 1 Tbsp of the Pumpkin Pie Spice, 2 tsp Baking Powder, 1/2 tsp Salt. See the end of this post for the recipe for the Pumpkin Pie Spice. 

Next mix all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. 2 Eggs, 2 cups of Sugar, 15 oz can (or 1 3/4 cups) Pumpkin Puree, 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil.

Then you will slowly mix the wet into the dry and combine it until it's smooth. If you have a really good mixer this is an excellent time to break it out, I don't because I can't afford one so I mix everything by hand and sometimes it will still have clumps. 

Last, but definitely not least, add 1 cup of either Cranberries or Chocolate Chips...to quote Alaina "it tastes better with Chocololate!" and she is right although I've never tried it with Cranberries, perhaps someday I will take that adventurous track and try something new here but for now I love it with the Chocolate. 

Then you pour your batter evenly into the two pre-prepared pans and bake them into your pre-heated oven for 55 minutes or until done. 

And then you cool the bread in the pan for just a few minutes and then pop it out of the pan and onto a cooling rack. 

YUM!!! And then you slice and serve while it's still warm and the chocolate is all melty :-) Careful though, you'll eat a whole loaf in one sitting if you're not paying attention! I mentally thank my dearest friend every fall for this amazing recipe that makes my apartment smell even more like autumn with all the doors and windows open and the smell of Pumpkin Spice floating through the air. And now you too can enjoy this fabulous recipe!

Pumpkin Pie Spice: 

The recipe I was given is only for 1tsp but to make it for the recipe above 1 Tbsp is required so I tripled it for ya.

1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

3/4 tsp Ginger

3/8 tsp Allspice

3/8 tsp Nutmeg