Pumpkin bread – a tasty snack

Bread is a daily necessity in most of our diets. But eating the same type of bread every day, can be boring. Hence experiment a little with your baked items, and treat yourselves with some pumpkin bread. Here is one recipe you can follow to make a really tasty pumpkin bread, perfect for the Halloween season.

Vanilla flavored pumpkin bread

Ingredients
1 can pumpkin
2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cups vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
3 cups flour
½ cup coarsely chopped nuts
½ cup raisins (optional)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cloves

Directions
Pre-heat the oven at 350F. Grease the bottom two loaf pans. A preferable size of 8 ½ x 4 ½ inches.
In a bowl, mix pumpkin, sugar, oil, vanilla, and eggs.
Sieve the dry ingredients together in another bowl, and combine.
Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture, and blend well.
Fold the mixture gently until smooth.
Pour all the batter into the pans that were kept ready.
Bake it for an hour, or until you’re sure of the center to have been cooked.
Once it is baked, set it aside to cool for two hours.
Slice the loaves and wrap it in a cling film to store.
This bread will last for a good 10 days.
You can also make the pumpkin puree.
Cut a small sized pumpkin horizontally. Scrape out the seeds and strings. Place the two portions on a baking sheet or a piece of foil, and bake.
Bake it at 350F, for 45 minutes, or until you check for it to be soft.
Cool it, and scoop out the flesh.
Roast and boil the pieces of pumpkin that are left, and discard the skin.
You can store the leftovers.
To tweak the recipe a little, you can stir in some chopped pecans, walnuts, or raisins. For precautions, remember not to over beat the mixture before you pour it into the pan. Once it bakes, do not immediately slice the loaves as they will crumble. Instead, run a butter knife round the edges, five minutes after it has baked. Allow it to cool for a good two hours. You can also glaze the bread, mix some zest, orange juice, vanilla and powdered sugar. Mix well and pour the syrup on the bread to sweeten it and give it the shine. Always use a serrated knife to slice the bread, you reduce the number of crumbs that way.