When You’re Crazy About Pumpkin Bread - No. 310

Like Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman and me

I’VE BEEN SMITTEN with pumpkin bread all my life.

I would bake dozens of mini loaves at a time each October when I was in my teens, and when I had young children, I would bake a big family loaf for Halloween. Through the years, my love for it has never waned, only deepened, but I have continued to search for the perfect loaf.

It must not be too sweet, have enough flour to give it structure but not too much to make it dry, and needs plenty of spice, too, mostly from cinnamon. And if I’m feeling sassy, then, absolutely, it calls for chocolate chips.

So when reading a post on Instagram from bestselling Deb Perelman of the Smitten Kitchen Digest and how she was so ready for pumpkin bread season, and how she’s always been searching for the perfect pumpkin bread, I was nodding my head in approval while printing out Deb’s recipe.

It calls for one 15-ounce can of pumpkin, pretty standard, but when you’re on book tour all fall, you don’t stock up on canned pumpkin in September. So with the smaller cans gone at the store, I bought a big 29-ounce can. It didn’t matter, I told myself. If one loaf doesn’t work, I’ve got enough ingredients to bake it a second time.

But Deb’s loaf did work, and I’m not surprised. I’ve always admired her ability to not only cook but bake.

What I love about baking are the surprises found in it. As in no loaf of pumpkin bread looks the same. For example, this loaf, I might caption: The Comb Over. Whereas I did bake a loaf number two to use up the rest of the can of pumpkin, and it appeared like something out of the Grand Canyon. Have you looked out the plane window about 20 minutes before your flight lands in LAX? The landscape below is the color of dark clay with craggily lines embedded in it. That was loaf two. I wish I could tell you from all my baking experience why the tops of quick bread loaves differ in appearance, but I can’t. It might have to do with how you spread the batter into the pan, and did the pan go into the oven vertically versus horizontally, or how the heat hits it, but honestly, it was a pretty exact repeat of one after the other. Must be the pumpkin bread gods intent on keeping me curious.

What makes a winning pumpkin bread

As someone who has studied pumpkin breads intensely, this is a good recipe because it contains the perfect balance of sugar to pumpkin. It’s not too sweet. Even with the added sugar and cinnamon on top before baking, it’s still not too sweet.

And it contains a nice mix of spices, plenty of cinnamon, and you can always adjust the mix of spices as to what’s in your spice cabinet. I happened to have some fresh nutmeg to grate so I doubled the amount of nutmeg, and it was delish!

I baked the loaf in my Lodge cast iron 9-inch loaf pan, which conducts heat beautifully and evenly, and the loaf rose up straight and tall in the oven. Most any 9-inch loaf pan will do.

A little trick about unmolding this loaf so as not to disturb the sugar topping: Run a thin icing spatula around the edges of the pan after the loaf has cooled in the pan about 5 minutes. This helps loosen the bread from the pan. Let it rest another 10 minutes in the pan, then repeat with the running of the spatula. Turn the pan on its side and try to ease the loaf out of the pan, then let it rest and cool right-side up. Some of the sugar may fall off, but just gather it and sprinkle it back on top.

As for storage, Deb says this pumpkin bread keeps at room temperature ‘’as long as you can hide it.’’ She stores hers in a metal tin with a piece of foil or plastic just over the cut end and the top exposed to best keep the lid crisp as long as possible. I loosely wrapped the loaf in waxed paper after slicing, and then I gently over-wrapped it in foil to preserve that gorgeous top.

Are you obsessed with pumpkin bread, too? It’s a curable affliction as long as you just keep baking. Happy Halloween!

- xo, Anne

One more photo. New phone. Not sure I’m loving the camera on it, but I am definitely loving this pumpkin bread!

How’s Book Tour Going So Far?

My sweet dog Ella was overjoyed to see me back home. And I was happy to see many of you in Atlanta and Savannah, as well as throughout South Carolina and North Carolina.

• This week, I’m heading out to Phoenix and taking part in the 45th Annual Friends of Erma Bombeck Authors Luncheon, presented by the Arizona Women’s Board, a philanthropic group that raises funds for Arizona kidney patients and their families. I am one of five featured authors.

• Have you booked a seat in my Milk Street biscuit class yet? It’s Nov. 7 at 6 pm EST. (We may all need some buttered biscuits after this election year.) Here’s a 15 percent-off discount code for Between the Layers readers if you click on that link above to sign up—BUTTERY15.

• I’ll be in Athens, Tennessee at 2 pm Nov. 9 at Greeks Bearing Gifts, located on the charming city square. Athens is situated between Knoxville and Chattanooga in eastern TN, and I’ve been visiting Patti Greek’s beautiful shop with my new books for nearly 20 years.

• Then I’m headed to Kentucky! First up is Lexington at 7 pm on Nov. 13 at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, where I’ll be in conversation with super-star baker Stella Parks of the BraveTart book fame. And on the next night, Nov. 14, in Louisville, I will be at Carmichael’s Books Frankfort Avenue location, also at 7 pm, and I’ll be talking with Substack writer Scott Hines. I’ve never met Scott in person although we got to know each other pretty well in the Food Writer’s Intensive course a few years back. His Action Cookbook newsletter is so much fun to read. Can’t wait!

THE RECIPE:

Smitten Kitchen’s Pumpkin Bread

Here is what Deb Perelman says about this bread, and I heartily agree after testing the recipe: ‘’This is a towering, craggy pumpkin bread with a crisp cinnamon sugar lid that is impossible not to pick off in deeply satisfying bark-like flecks.’’ This makes one big loaf in a 9-inch loaf pan, but you can also make muffins, about 18 of them. Distribute the cinnamon-sugar on top each muffin before baking for about 25 to 30 minutes. The only adjustments I made to Deb’s recipe were to add twice the freshly grated nutmeg she called for, upping it to 1/2 teaspoon, and by my calculations 2 1/4 cups flour is 280 grams. I also stuck an instant-read thermometer into the side of the loaf when it was nearing doneness. When the thermometer reads 200ºF, the bread is done. No guesswork.

Makes 1 big 9-inch loaf

• 1 can (15 ounces, about 1 3/4 cups) pumpkin puree

• 1/2 cup (4 ounces) vegetable oil

• 3 large eggs

• 1 2/3 cups (330 grams) sugar

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 3/4 teaspoon salt (fine sea or table salt, if using kosher salt use 1 teaspoon)

• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

• Heaping 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• Two pinches ground cloves or allspice

• 2 1/4 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour (bleached or unbleached)

• Topping:

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Brush a 9-inch loaf pan with vegetable oil.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, oil, eggs, and sugar until smooth. Sprinkle the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves over the batter and whisk until well combined. Add flour, and stir with a spoon or whisk until just combined but no lumps remain. Turn into the prepared pan, and smooth the top.

3. For the topping, stir together the sugar and cinnamon in a small dish. Sprinkle this over the top of the batter. Place the pan in the oven.

4. Bake until a tester poked in all parts of the cake comes out batter-free. Or, insert an instant-read thermometer and bake until 200ºF, about 68 to 72 minutes. Let the loaf cool in the pan 5 minutes, run a thin metal spatula around the edges to release the loaf, let cool 10 more minutes then unmold and sprinkle any cinnamon sugar that has fallen off the bread back on top.

5. Let the loaf cool 1 hour, or as long as you can stand it, before slicing. This loaf freezes well, wrapped in heavy-duty foil, for two months.