Pumpkin Bread - from fresh pumpkins!

Instead of carving this year, we painted our pumpkins for Halloween. So instead of having a decaying mound of orange flesh, we had two lovely, plump pumpkins. I'd never cooked with fresh pumpkin before so I called my Granny for tips. She's used pumpkins to make pumpkin pie by peeling and boiling the meat. She suggested baking the pumpkins, skin-side up, on a baking tray. That's just what I did, at 375. We had two sizes of pumpkins - the smaller took one hour, the larger (jack-o-lantern size) took 1.5 hours until soft. Beware though - a LOT of pumpkin juice came out of these, over the baking sheet and into the bottom of the oven. Ah, time to see if that self-cleaning thing actually works!

After the pumpkin cooled I mashed it up. There was a lot - about 4 cups. One cup went into the pumpkin bread using a recipe Fanny Farmer recipe. It is hands-down the BEST pumpkin bread I've even eaten. My sister found the recipe a few years ago and now it's a family favorite. It's moist and flavorful without being too sweet.

I made three small loaves from one recipe. It hasn't lasted long! I believe there is just one small slice left...which I will make disappear very shortly...

Pumpkin Bread (adapted from a Fannie Farmer recipe)

1.5 cup flour

.5 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup pumpkin puree

.5 cup olive oil

2 eggs, beaten

.25 cup water

.25 tsp. nutmeg

.25 tsp. cinnamon

.25 tsp. allspice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
2. Combine flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda. Whisk.
3. Mix pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, .25 cup of water, and spices in a separate bowl.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Fold in ingredients until just combined. Do not mix thoroughly.
5. Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 loaf pan.
6. Bake 50-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Cool on a rack and enjoy!