This recipe is the only Pumpkin Bread recipe that I have been using for decades without changing a single thing in the recipe. I make it any time of the year, but especially around the holidays when pumpkins are in season. Now that we are in lockdown I’m using up a lot of the frozen pumpkin I have on hand.
There's one thing I've changed from the original recipe: I use fresh - or fresh frozen - pumpkin instead of canned. Initially because I couldn't find canned pumpkin in Italy, and now because I try to use fresh when available.
I still pull out the original notecard with the recipe when I make pumpkin bread. Over the years, the card has yellowed and it's gotten little bits of pumpkin and other ingredients stuck to it. I've halved, doubled, tripled and quadrupled the recipe in pencil. But it's still the same handwritten notecard I was given years and years ago.
I first had this pumpkin bread, fresh out of the oven with butter and cream cheese, many decades ago and it was delicious. The woman who gave me this recipe wrote it out for me on this notecard and I've been using it ever since. I look at her handwriting and think of her each time I make the pumpkin bread: a delightful woman and a great baker.
If you are using fresh pumpkin for the recipe first cut it into large slices and remove the seeds. Place the pumpkin on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and cover loosely with tinfoil. Bake the pumpkin at 350°F (175ºC) until it’s completely tender when you puncture the flesh. Allow the pumpkin to cool completely. Remove the pumpkin flesh from the skin and process in a blender or food processor until smooth and creamy. You can use the pumpkin immediately for this recipe or place it in freezer bags. The pumpkin freezes well for six months to a year.
Ingredients
- 480 grams sifted all purpose flour
- 600 grams sugar
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp allspice
- ½ tsp cloves
- 240 milliliters olive oil, or other vegetable oil
- 410 grams pureed fresh baked pumpkin
- 155 milliliters water
- 4 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175ºC)
- Make well in sifted mixture of all dry ingredients.
- Add oil, then water and pumpkin.
- Add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Bake for an hour, but check after 35 minutes.
- Large loaves may take more than one hour.
- Serve warm or at room temperature with butter, cream cheese or plain.
Notes
Nutrition
You might also enjoy this Banana Nutella Bread!
This bread looks great! Have you ever thought about framing that beauty of a recipe? That way you could still use and and be preserving it, such a treasure!