The taste and feel of fall is in the air when you smell Pumpkin Bread baking in the oven. Full of rich pumpkin, warm spices, toasted nuts and sweet raisins. This bread will be one of your favorites.

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

Batter:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¾ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

1 15-oz can pumpkin

2 1/3 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup toasted walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped

½ cup golden raisins

Tip: See Toasting Nuts and Seeds. Use standard measuring cups and spoons or scales for accurate measuring.

Topping:

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare two 9x5x2¾ inch loaf pans; lightly grease the pans with shortening. Tip: to make baked bread easier to remove from pan, lightly grease the pan, line with parchment paper, and then lightly grease the top of the parchment paper.
   
   Batter:
2. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice. Set aside.
   
   
3. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, eggs, and oil; whisk together until well blended. Add flour mixture; stir just until blended. Add nuts and raisins; lightly stir to mix in.
   
   
4. Pour batter into the loaf pans, dividing the batter evenly between the 2 pans.
   
   Topping:
5. In a small bowl, combine ¼ cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Sprinkle tops of batter with sugar cinnamon mixture.
   
   Bake:
6. Bake 55 to 65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove pans from oven and let cool about 15 minutes. Grabbing the top edges of the parchment paper, lift bread from loaf pans and place on a wire cooling rack to finish cooling. Remove parchment paper and discard.
   
   Makes 2 loaves
   
   TheBakingPan.com
   ___________________________________________________