Alton Brown's pumpkin bread

To celebrate the Autumnal Equinox today, I broke out one of my favorite seasonal recipes from Alton Brown. The pumpkin bread featured in "Squash Court" quickly became a wonderful addition to the Fall baking repertoire because of its ease to make and great taste.

The bread is more akin to spice cake than bread bread, think banana bread or zucchini bread and not loaf bread. In fact, the first time I made this bread, it brought back memories of eating spice cake as a kid. That is one of my mom's favorite cake flavors, so we had it a lot on holidays and special occasions.

This recipe is a simple quick bread, but the prepping of the fresh pumpkin does take some time. Last year I had waited until mid October to make the bread, but waited too long and the smaller "pumpkin pie" size pumpkins were gone from the megamart.

Once I spotted the little orange orbs for the first time this year, I snapped one up and readied for the bread.

One pumpkin will generally make two loaves. Mmm. My only modification to the recipe is omitting the pumpkin seeds. Well, not only... I do add nutmeg. A couple of rakes across the Mircoplane.


AB's Pumpkin Bread

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 3/4 cup vegetable oil
* 3 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 cups shredded fresh pumpkin
* 1 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.

In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla. Combine both mixtures and fold in the shredded pumpkin and pumpkin seeds. Once the ingredients are all incorporated pour into a non- stick 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan. If your pan is not non- stick coat it with butter and flour.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. A knife inserted into the middle of the loaf should come out clean.