This is a timeless recipe that I just absolutely love and since I am about to bake this in the 3D Skull pan from Wilton, I thought I'd share it! I usually make this recipe into muffins and add some buttercream frosting I make from scratch also. Here they are as muffins with a little buttercream icing ghosts:
Now don't be scared of this recipe cause it's from scratch (meaning no box mix here). It is the most simplest recipe! You simply dump it all and blend! It looks bad when you mix it but it sure does taste awesome! My kids love them!
So without further ado...
Pumpkin Bread
1 3/4 Cups Flour
1 1/2 Cups Dark Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Cup Pumpkin (I use the canned Libby's, NOT for the pie making, just regular canned pumpkin).
1/4 lb (1 stick) Margarine or Butter. (Best to use butter)
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 teaspoon Baking Soda (not the powder, the baking soda)
1/2 Cup Chopped Nuts (walnuts work best)
Grease well and flour a 1 lb coffee can. (Yes, a real metal coffee can that's been cleaned and dried. You can actually bake in it and the original recipe called for you to do just that! Wild eh?!) I take Crisco/shortening and rub it all inside and then take a bit of extra flour and dust it and then tap the extra flour out into the trash. You can also use a loaf pan if you are wanting it to be a pumpkin bread loaf you slice.
OR
Line muffin pan with liners.
That's the hardest thing to this one! ;)
Place all ingredients except nuts into a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer for 2 minutes.
Add nuts, stir by hand. Pour the batter into the coffee can or fill muffin cups about 1/2 - 2/3 full, depending on how high you like your muffins.
Bake in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 25 minutes for muffins and 1 hour for the coffee can. The coffee can sits upright and I know, its weird but it works!
Should have a slightly rounded top, thin, tender, orange-brown surface, small, fairly uniform holes, fairly moist, and distinct flavor with even distribution of nuts.
If you make this in a loaf pan or other sort of pan or coffee can, you want to take it out after about 10 minutes of cooling down. Once it has completely cooled, for the muffins, I add a frosting ghost out of the buttercream frosting recipe from Wilton:
Buttercream-Icing
I use the normal recipe and again, I use butter and not margarine. I also add a bit of corn syrup to make it a little more softer and this I tend not to measure but just eyeball it to make sure the icing isn't too thick or stiff.
Now here's a trick I learned from a friend of mine when I went thru the Wilton cake decorating courses....(and if you haven't taken them, you should, they are fun!)...
Rather than put that icing into a pastry bag that oozes out the back end and gets your hand all messy with icing, you take a piece of saran wrap and lay out some frosting like you are going to make a burrito and then you wrap it just like a burrito, leaving one end open and the other is folded up. My friend/instructor called them 'bullets'. Then you put one of those couplings into the bag to fit it right and take the bullet and pop it into your pastry bag so that the open end of your bullet is towards the smaller opening of the bag. Squeeze it from the top after twisting it closed and see the icing come out the tip. You can then add one of those metal tips and then a ring to screw onto the coupler to hold the tip on and there you have it! Then, when the icing is gone, you open the pastry bag and slide out the used up saran wrap bullet and toss it! You can change colors much easier that way and the only mess is at the tip of the pastry bag! Nice eh?! Cool trick! Thanks Madeline!
So ok...from here...I take the buttercream icing, (which is just fantastic and not too sweet), and I make lil icing ghosts with it. I'll take a few pics here this afternoon and put them up to show you. But they are very easy! Then I'll take a lil icing gel and make eyes and a smiley mouth. Just that little bit of icing is so well worth the effort to make it! Trust me! It adds a lil touch of yumminess to your pumpkin bread muffins.
A friend of mine inquired about a jelly roll log using this recipe of pumpkin bread and I have not tried it out yet. If I do in the near future, I'll let you know how it came out as I've been wanting to try my hand at making a yule log.
Hope you all enjoy this one! Not just for Halloween but great this time of year!
So without further ado...
Pumpkin Bread
1 3/4 Cups Flour
1 1/2 Cups Dark Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Cup Pumpkin (I use the canned Libby's, NOT for the pie making, just regular canned pumpkin).
1/4 lb (1 stick) Margarine or Butter. (Best to use butter)
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 teaspoon Baking Soda (not the powder, the baking soda)
1/2 Cup Chopped Nuts (walnuts work best)
Grease well and flour a 1 lb coffee can. (Yes, a real metal coffee can that's been cleaned and dried. You can actually bake in it and the original recipe called for you to do just that! Wild eh?!) I take Crisco/shortening and rub it all inside and then take a bit of extra flour and dust it and then tap the extra flour out into the trash. You can also use a loaf pan if you are wanting it to be a pumpkin bread loaf you slice.
OR
Line muffin pan with liners.
That's the hardest thing to this one! ;)
Place all ingredients except nuts into a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer for 2 minutes.
Add nuts, stir by hand. Pour the batter into the coffee can or fill muffin cups about 1/2 - 2/3 full, depending on how high you like your muffins.
Bake in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 25 minutes for muffins and 1 hour for the coffee can. The coffee can sits upright and I know, its weird but it works!
Should have a slightly rounded top, thin, tender, orange-brown surface, small, fairly uniform holes, fairly moist, and distinct flavor with even distribution of nuts.
If you make this in a loaf pan or other sort of pan or coffee can, you want to take it out after about 10 minutes of cooling down. Once it has completely cooled, for the muffins, I add a frosting ghost out of the buttercream frosting recipe from Wilton:
Buttercream-Icing
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (for white frosting and not a cream color, use clear vanilla extract)
- 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
- 2 tablespoons milk
Makes:
About 3 cups of icing.Instructions:
Step 1
In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.Step 2
For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.Step 3
For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.Step 4
For Pure White Icing (stiff consistency), omit butter; substitute an additional 1/2 cup shortening for butter and add 1/2 teaspoon No-Color Butter Flavor. Add up to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk to thin for icing cakes.I use the normal recipe and again, I use butter and not margarine. I also add a bit of corn syrup to make it a little more softer and this I tend not to measure but just eyeball it to make sure the icing isn't too thick or stiff.
Now here's a trick I learned from a friend of mine when I went thru the Wilton cake decorating courses....(and if you haven't taken them, you should, they are fun!)...
Rather than put that icing into a pastry bag that oozes out the back end and gets your hand all messy with icing, you take a piece of saran wrap and lay out some frosting like you are going to make a burrito and then you wrap it just like a burrito, leaving one end open and the other is folded up. My friend/instructor called them 'bullets'. Then you put one of those couplings into the bag to fit it right and take the bullet and pop it into your pastry bag so that the open end of your bullet is towards the smaller opening of the bag. Squeeze it from the top after twisting it closed and see the icing come out the tip. You can then add one of those metal tips and then a ring to screw onto the coupler to hold the tip on and there you have it! Then, when the icing is gone, you open the pastry bag and slide out the used up saran wrap bullet and toss it! You can change colors much easier that way and the only mess is at the tip of the pastry bag! Nice eh?! Cool trick! Thanks Madeline!
So ok...from here...I take the buttercream icing, (which is just fantastic and not too sweet), and I make lil icing ghosts with it. I'll take a few pics here this afternoon and put them up to show you. But they are very easy! Then I'll take a lil icing gel and make eyes and a smiley mouth. Just that little bit of icing is so well worth the effort to make it! Trust me! It adds a lil touch of yumminess to your pumpkin bread muffins.
A friend of mine inquired about a jelly roll log using this recipe of pumpkin bread and I have not tried it out yet. If I do in the near future, I'll let you know how it came out as I've been wanting to try my hand at making a yule log.
Hope you all enjoy this one! Not just for Halloween but great this time of year!
