October Pumpkin Bread

Autumn is my most favorite season of the year. It's full of color and change and anticipation. Fall signals the countdown to the holiday season and allows for excitement and, yes, even magic. How can you best celebrate the beginning of fall? Well, there are several ways that can happen. You can have a Halloween party, you can go shopping for new school supplies, you can make baked goods. One of my favorite treats that screams "AUTUMN!" is pumpkin bread. When I was growing up, I'd come home from school and Mom would have made a fresh loaf of pumpkin bread. It's definitely one of the most amazing seasonal treats out there. If you want to make delicious pumpkin bread for you and your family to help welcome in the last few months of the year, then read on. The pumpkin bread recipe is yours to make!

Here are the ingredients you'll need:

• 3-1/2 cups of flour
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of allspice
• 2 eggs or 4 egg yolks
• 1 cup of vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup of water
• 2 cups of canned pumpkin

Begin making the bread by mixing together all of the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and allspice. Mix them together in a large bowl and use a wire whisk to combine the ingredients evenly. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, vegetable oil, water, and canned pumpkin. Then combine the ingredients by stirring the dry ingredients in with wet ones. Make sure to combine carefully so the dry ingredients are evenly distributed. You don't want there to be any large chunks of dry ingredients left in the bread dough. (The bread dough actually looks more like a batter—it's supposed to be a little runnier than your typical bread dough.)

Divide the dough into loaf pans: this one recipe makes about five to six small loafs. Put the dough-filled pans into an oven that's preheated at 350 degrees. Bake the dough for 35 to 40 minutes. Once the timer goes off, check to make sure the bread is done by sticking it with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out with dough on it, then the bread should bake for another minute or two; if it comes out clean, then go ahead and take the bread out to cool.

Once the bread is cool, then feel free to slice it and eat it with a nice cold glass of milk, a nice warm mug of hot chocolate—whatever suits your fancy! Autumn is here—enjoy it! Pumpkin bread is one of the best ways to welcome autumn and enjoy the season.