I found this wonderful recipe over at the All Recipes site and had to share it. I'm not really sure why I have such an affinity for cookbooks, when I'm constantly trying the recipes I find online. Maybe I'm a wanna be luddite?

In any case, I make good use of the All Recipes site. So, I'll share my approach. First, I narrow down the food type (for example, cookies, chicken dinner, cake, etc). Next, if necessary, I'll add in any additional search parameters, such as, raisins, chocolate chips, almonds, etc. After that, I sort the results by ratings, and choose the recipe that has both a high number of reviews/votes, and a high rating (up to 5 stars are possible). Finally, I take a quick look at the 'most useful' reviews to learn any additional tips and tricks to improve on the end result.

In this example, the pumpkin bread, or Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread , has over 4000 reviews, and has managed to keep a 5 out of 5 rating.

While I can't take credit for the recipe, I can say I've increased the popularity of it ... every time I make it, people ask for the recipe. Okay, women ask for the recipe, men just eat (and eat, and eat). Just this past weekend, an acquaintance told me they gave out a number of these loaves in their Christmas baskets, after I passed along the website.

But don't wait for Christmas! This also makes a great school snack as it has no nuts, and keeps it's shape when sliced. I've only made it as a loaf, but I imagine it would be just as good, and quite cute, as mini loaves or even muffins.

So, here it is.

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree (i've used 14oz cans as well)
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions
1 .Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour, or spray, three loaf pans. You may need to turn your oven down to 325 if the edges appear to be browning (and pulling away from the sides of the loaf pan) before the center cooks.
2.  In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended.
3.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.
4.  Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. You don't want to over mix this, or any other muffin/loaf mixture. Pour into the prepared pans.
5. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. I have found it takes closer to 60-65 minutes for these to cook in my oven.

Eh, voila ...



Think I'll share this over at my Adventures In Thriftiness website.