T'is the season to harvest pumpkin recipes and my friend Michelle Steinman has one of the best pumpkin bread recipes I've ever tasted!
It is pure decadence, brushed with a caramel glaze, and, though we intend to eat it for breakfast, just as often we have it for dessert.
Actually, when I made it last week, it never made it past my son's after school snack time. Fully one-third of the loaf was consumed within seconds of taking it out of the oven - and that was before the caramel glaze was applied!
The first time I sampled this bread was about six or seven years ago when our daughters attended a dance competition in San Jose. Moms organized all the food for the dancers and Michelle snuck in this little treasure for breakfast - a scrumptious alternative to the standard fare of Frosted Flakes and bagels.
Sometime later, we received a beautiful holiday basket of baked goods from Michelle, which featured her fabulous chocolate chip shortbread cookies (that recipe ran in Home & Garden almost three years ago - you can e-mail me for the recipe if you don't have it) and an assortment of breakfast breads, including the pumpkin bread with caramel glaze.
The caramel glaze is really easy to prepare, and Michelle says she always makes a double batch of it to use on other sweets like brownies.
I store the extra in the refrigerator for snitching whenever a sweet tooth comes along.
The recipe makes two full loaves, or eight mini loaves for holiday gift giving.
Michelle's Pumpkin Bread with Caramel Glaze
(Makes two 9x5 loaves)
3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup water
In a large bowl combine the first six ingredients. In another bowl combine the pumpkin, oil, eggs and water. Mix well with a whisk. Stir egg mixture into dry ingredients and mix well with whisk or wooden spoon. Pour evenly into two greased (or PAM'd) 9x5 loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 65 minutes or until a toothpick tests clean.
Cool for 10 minutes in the pans. Remove pans to a wire rack to finish cooling. (When making mini loaves, cook for 30-40 minutes, or until tester is clean.)
Caramel Glaze
¼ cup butter
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup heavy cream
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine in a saucepan butter, sugar, brown sugar and whipping cream. Cook until sugars are dissolved and mixture starts bubbling. Cool for 20 minutes. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Drizzle over cooled loaves.
Susie Iventosch can be reached at suziven@hughes.net.
