Pumpkin Nut Bread

It's dangerous this time of year.... Not because of upcoming ghosts, goblins, and T.P. house pranks that next month will ultimately bring, but because on August 29, before the last full month of summer was even over, my dad texted me seven precious words--and one smiley: "Pumpkin Spice Latte is back at Starbucks. =)"

Dangerous words.

I don't care if the high is 100 degrees (though this week's rain has brought the outside temperature down a few notches). I don't even actually order Starbucks lattes and frappuccinos all that often (quite a bit of sugar, sadly, because the coffee addict in me wants them bad). But if Pumpkin Spice is back at Starbucks, that means it's officially fall.

It's OFFICIALLY FALL. 

And my hands are rubbing together with pumpkin scheming already....

If you know me, you probably remember that fall and winter are my favorite times of year (baking for Halloween, baking for Thanksgiving, baking for Christmas, baking for Valentine's Day...). So naturally I am more than thrilled that stores are starting to pull out their Halloween decor (giving me ideas for upcoming costume parties) magazines are offering autumn themed recipes and Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Pumpkin is showing up on the shelves of grocery stores in a variety of forms. Canned, of course, (will need that for baking, thank you), in coffee (OMG, my favorite in K-cup form), as candy and even in granola (I miss this one, please let me know if you see it on the shelves of Trader Joe's).

And naturally, I must write an obligatory Pumpkin blog post to remind you just how Pumpkin crazy (you get the idea) I really am.

My first pumpkin dish of the year (don't worry, pies will come soon enough) was brought to me by my mom from her friend who offered up a recipe for Pumpkin Date Bread, promising that golden raisins could be substituted for the dates if I didn't have any (I don't).

While I'm typically not inclined to corrupt my pumpkin products with nuts, fruit, or even chocolate chips, I thought I'd try something different and keep the recipe's additions (though I did cut the original recipe in half to make one loaf instead of two). I call it Pumpkin Nut Bread so when friends try it they'll expect to bite into something more than just pumpkin. The original recipe comes from a Taste of Home magazine of unknown origin (though I can see the original page number was 42...spooky).

Ingredients:

1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup canola oil
1 and 1/2 eggs (accomplished with one whole egg and one egg yolk)

1/4 cup fat free evaporated milk (original recipe just calls for milk but this was all I had on hand--ready for pies)
Half of 1/3 cup (I estimated) molasses
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 plus 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I broke them into pieces with my hands)

For topping:
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup chopped pecans (also with hands)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl (the largest mixing bowl you have), combine the applesauce, pumpkin, oil, eggs, milk, molasses, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder.

2.) Slowly (in batches) add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir after each addition to combine. Fold in the raisins and pecans. Then pour the batter into a loaf pan greased with nonstick cooking spray.

3.) In a new bowl (or you can wipe out the dry ingredient bowl), combine the brown sugar, extra chopped pecans, and cinnamon. Sprinkle the topping over the batter and bake for about 55 minutes (check with a toothpick after 45 minutes, just in case your oven is more powerful than mine). I also covered mine with foil for the first 35 minutes to prevent the pecans in the topping from burning.

4.) Let the bread cool about 15 minutes before serving.

My resulting loaf baked high, was fluffy soft with an occasional pecan crunch, and was rated highly by my taste-tester football-watching crowd (yes, I brought the bread to a Monday-night game. It's the most I have to contribute to the sport of football). Even a friend who claimed to dislike pumpkin bread took two (three?) slices and asked for the recipe to boot.

So this one's definitely a winner by itself, though if I were to recreate the recipe, I might adjust the topping--1/8 cup of pecans is just not very much. Or I may try a topping/nut/raisin-free version that's just for butter and jam spreaders.

While some Americans are hiding away this season in football hibernation "man caves," I'll be hiding away in my kitchen concocting fall recipes and planning crazy pumpkin spice purchases like an out-of-her-"gourd" mad scientist. Bwa ha ha--let's laugh in the face of danger.