The mother of all pumpkin bread

Tis the season...
Pumpkin Bread Season!
Time to break out The Cookbook

Most everything I know about cooking and baking can be credited to this book. It's an older edition Betty Crocker's Cookbook, copyright 1969, printed in 1971. I found it at a flea market and (as you can see by the nonexistent binding) it has been very well loved. The text inside is priceless. Here's a quote:

"Basic Eggs. The man you marry will know the way he likes his eggs. And chances are he'll be fussy about them. So it behooves a good wife to know how to make an egg behave in six basic ways. And here they are, with helpful hints."

I love it. Though the marital advice may be questionable, the recipes are always fool-proof classics.

The quick breads page. Splattered, stained and crusty.

Pumpkin Bread (adapted slightly from Betty's original)

2/3 cup butter

2 2/3 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 can (1pound) pumpkin

2/3 cup water

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp each cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves

1 16oz bag chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9x5x3 inch loaf pans and line the bottom of the pans with greased parchment paper.

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in eggs, pumpkin and water. Blend in flour soda, salt, baking powder, spices. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into pans. Bake about 70 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.



The batter is thick like brownie batter.



Perfection

Perfection improved with butter

This bread freezes perfectly if well wrapped in plastic and tinfoil.

The original recipe calls for 2/3c nuts and 2/3c raisins, but I went for the chocolate. Also the original recipe only calls for cinnamon and cloves, but I like the additional spices - it becomes a little gingerbread-meets-pumpkin-bread, but it's subtle and (in my humble opinion) oh so good.