Pumpkin Bread Massacre

Several weeks ago I tried a new pumpkin bread recipe from allrecipes.com. It had glowing reviews, and I thought I'd get a couple loaves out of it and be able to bring one to work to share. I followed the recipe with only a few changes: I added some whole wheat flour, reduced the sugar by 1/2 cup, added chocolate chips to one of the loaves, and baked them in 2 regular loaf pans instead of 3 smaller ones (but I increased the cooking time due to the bigger pans). I thought everything was going well; I tested several locations in the loaves and they appeared to be cooked through.

I took the loaves out of the oven and turned them upside down on the cooling rack - and that's when disaster struck! Batter went everywhere - all over me, the counter, the floor. Apparently the loaves weren't done! I managed to salvage most of one loaf, and part of another. I put them back in the oven to continue baking, and they were both still edible in the end. Next time I probably won't add chocolate chips, and I'll be more careful when testing the doneness of the loaves!


Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread
courtesy of allrecipes.com
Ingredients:
15oz pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup olive oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups sugar (I used 2 1/2)
3 1/2 cups flour (I used 2 cups white, 1 1/2 cups wheat)
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ginger

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease 3 loaf pans (or 2 if you increase baking time).

• Mix pumpkin, eggs, water, oil and sugar until blended. In separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Stir dry ingredients into pumpkin mixture, then pour into loaf pans.

• Bake for 50 minutes, making sure they are done before removing from the oven! :)

**That picture at the top was taken as soon as these were out of the oven. The one on the right came out in pieces, and I had to pry part of it off the bottom of the pan.**