Pumpkin Bread

I recently acquired a pie pumpkin in our bi-weekly CSA delivery, and had so many ideas of what to do with it, it was hard to decide. I love the taste of pumpkin in the fall, and typically make pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting, but this time I wanted to do something different. After baking and pureeing my pumpkin, I found this recipe for pumpkin bread, and figured I'd give it a shot. This recipe is a keeper as it was quick and easy, and the bread was very moist with all the wonderful flavors of fall pumpkin and spice. You can definitely make it with canned pumpkin puree to make the process even faster. I used one regular sized loaf pan about and had enough batter left to make a mini loaf pan also. This method increased the baking time by about 15 minutes, but I will leave the recipe in its original form below. Enjoy!


Ingredients:

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.

2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.


Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

Apple Crisp

This is my favorite recipe for apple crisp. The original recipe is from Allrecipes.com, however I made a few changes to the ingredients and amounts. Using granny smith apples keeps the taste slightly tart, but the topping sweetens it up just enough. Be sure to use cooled butter and not to over-mix in order to achieve a crisp, crumbly topping. You are sure to enjoy this recipe with or without a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!



Ingredients:

4 cups sliced granny smith apples
1-2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
slightly less than 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup flour

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 8x8 inch baking dish.
• Place apples in prepared dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Pour water over all.
  
• In a bowl, mix together the sugars and butter, creating a crumbly mixture. Blend in flour. Sprinkle mixture evenly over apples. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon, if desired.
  
• Bake in preheated oven 30 to 40 minutes, until apples are tender and crust is golden. Enjoy!