Pumpkin Bread Blue Heron Kitchen

If you're thinking that I've run out of recipes and all that's left is pumpkin bread, you're wrong. Listen, it's almost Thanksgiving, and after Thanksgiving, not many of us want to look at another thing made with pumpkin.  I know I won't.  It'll be up there with singing "Over the river and through the wood, to grandmother's house we go..." 


The new kitchen is off to a pretty good start. I think I need a used fridge for the basement (anyone selling one?)  But photos aren't looking great - these halogen floods cast terrible shadows on my food.  I need to work out the photography thing.  


This recipe is dedicated with love and appreciation to the hard-working people of the Long Beach, NY's Kennedy Plaza Farmers Market.  Have a warm and healthy winter, and thank you for a great season!  I'm already counting the days until the market opens again in the spring.  A special thanks to Bernadette Martin for making it all happen.  Think about this:  if it were not for Bern, there would bern ner merket.  Bring her some flowers.

Pumpkin Bread

Blue Heron Kitchen

This recipe has been worked through several times and altered enough to call it ‘my own’.  Its origins are from Bernard Clayton Jr.’s great book, Complete Book of Breads.  I like it for one important reason:  it has butter. It doesn’t have that slippery, oily quick-bread texture, and it tastes better. It’s not too sweet. (You could put a confectioner’s sugar glaze on it when it comes out of the oven!) Subsequently, it has more depth and body, and the butter allows for subtler spicing.  It’s a perfect balance of taste, texture and color. The golden raisins are gorgeous.  I’ve used both my own cooked organic cheese pumpkin as well as regular canned pumpkin.  They’re both great.  But never skimp on butter. Use good quality, fresh butter.  If you can find 83% fat European style butter, use it.  Plugra and Cabot are two American-made brands that are great.  Land-O-Lakes is a good conventional option. You can find the higher fat content butters in good supermarkets.  Cabot 83% is my favorite, and Fairway carries it.

Ingredients:

1 ¾ c. (15 oz. can) cooked pumpkin, fresh or canned

1 c. dark brown sugar, firmly packed (make sure it’s fresh and moist)

½ c. granulated white sugar

4 oz. (1/2 cup or 1 stick) unsalted butter (European style is best), room temperature

3 eggs, size large, room temperature

4 ½ c. all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ground cardamom

½ tsp. ground nutmeg (freshly ground, please)

½ tsp. kosher salt

1 ½ c. walnuts, toasted, cooled and chopped

½ c. golden raisins, hot water poured over them, soaked for 15 minutes, and then drained

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350º F. 

Butter or spray pans with release: two medium loaf pans, several smaller loaf pans of the same capacity, or a dozen financier molds and one small loaf pan (you’ll work it out)

In a large bowl, measure flour, baking powder, spices and salt and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Set aside.

Prepare nuts and raisins and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars.  When light and fluffy, add eggs and mix until blended well.  Add pumpkin (it’s ok if it looks curdled). 

Add dry ingredients and mix thoroughly, but don’t over mix. 

Add nuts and raisins.

Spoon batter into prepared pans and be sure to ‘push’ the batter into the corners with a spoon, a spatula, or your clean fingers. 

Bake until a metal tester comes out clean and dry, depending upon the size of the loaves, anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour! Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes before turning the breads out of their pans. 

This will develop a better flavor if you wrap it well and allow it to age a day or so before devouring it.  It will keep for at least two weeks, wrapped in plastic or foil in the fridge.  Or, you can freeze it ... for months.