Pumpkin Bread

After a long, hot summer, fall always seems so refreshing. The bright blue skies, chilly mornings, and changing leaves are so wonderful after being scorched for months. One of my favorite things to do in the fall is bake. I love for the house to be filled with the smells of pumpkin and spices. This is my recipe for pumpkin bread. It is about as healthy as it gets when it comes to bread! It is sure to make your house smell heavenly and it tastes as good as it smells!

 

What you'll need:

15 oz. can of plain pumpkin

1/4 c. oil (I use Smart Balance, but you can use vegetable or canola too)

1/3 c. water

1 egg + 1 egg white

1 c. sugar

1 3/4 c. all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. pecans

 1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spice, and salt together. In a separate bowl, mix the pumpkin, sugar, eggs, vanilla, water, and oil together.

  

2. Add the 1/3 of the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Add another third of the wet into the dry and mix again. And repeat again so that all of the ingredients are in one bowl now. Mix just until combined. Gently stir in the pecans.

3. Put mixture into a greased loaf pan. The size doesn't matter too much, it'll just vary your cooking time. This silicone pan was a 7 x 3. Fill mixture about 3/4 of the way to the top. If you have extra mixture, pop it in a muffin tin and have a few muffins!

4. Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes (cooking time will vary if using a different size pan) or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Hope you have the smells of fall running through your house soon.