Classic Pumpkin Bread

First week of November and I want to take a moment because this month marks something: it is October of Savannah Clarke's twenty-fifth year and she has Tyler and Gloria and DeAnna and a daycare full of kids who need her and a kitchen that is hers and a birth mother who is trying in ways that are tentative but real, and she has more than she expected and she is not taking that lightly.

I have been in a preserving mood this fall: apple butter, pickles, fig jam from the last figs of the season that I found at the farmer's market, and this week a cranberry sauce from scratch that I am going to bring to both Thanksgiving dinners. The cranberry sauce is simple: fresh cranberries, orange juice and zest, sugar, a cinnamon stick, a little port wine for depth. It comes together in twenty minutes and tastes like fall in a spoonful. I am making two jars, one for each table.

Tyler and I cooked dinner together at his house on Thursday evening for the first time, both of us actually cooking rather than me cooking and him watching. He made the biscuits, Debbie's method, which he grew up watching and has retained in his hands even without practicing, and I made the smothered chicken. Two dishes from two different kitchens, two different women who taught them, on one table. That is the whole story in one dinner.

All this preserving — the fig jam, the cranberry sauce, the putting things in jars — has me thinking about the other ways we hold on to a season before it slips away. This pumpkin bread is one of those ways. It’s the kind of thing I’ll slice and set out on the counter on a slow Saturday morning, the kind Tyler might find waiting when he comes over, the kind that makes the kitchen smell like November at its best. After a week that gave me so much to sit with, I needed something simple to bake — something that just asked me to measure and stir and be grateful.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 60 min | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min | Servings: 10 slices

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/4 cup water or orange juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and set aside.
Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger until combined.
Mix wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, water (or orange juice), and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.
Combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir gently until just combined. Do not overmix — a few small lumps are fine.
Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake for 55–65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If the top begins to brown too quickly, tent loosely with foil after 40 minutes.
Cool. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Classic Pumpkin Bread — The Kind of Fall That Asks You to Slow Down and Bake