Grandma’s Pumpkin Bread
In the early fall of 2020 my mom and I drove to her hometown to visit my Great Aunt JoAnn. In a very uncertain time we came together for a socially distanced afternoon after months of isolation and quarantining. While visiting she gave me my Great Great Aunt Bertha’s cookbooks - a collection of family recipes, newspaper cutouts, and to my surprise a postcard with a pumpkin bread recipe sent to my Aunt Bertha from my grandmother. It’s funny, I saw the handwriting and immediately recognized it as my grandma’s, I still have letters she wrote me as a kid and I have found myself going back to them when I need reassurance, or comfort, or just a laugh. Especially in the worst of times food is our common denominator, so from my family’s kitchen to yours, I hope you enjoy! I look forward to sharing some more of these recipes, many of which I grew up with and had been passed down to my mom in her own cookbook.
Ingredients
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
2/3 c water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup shortening
2 cups pumpkin
Optional:
1 tsp cardamom
2/3 cups chopped nuts
1 stick of butter
1 package of cream cheese
2-2 1/2 c powdered sugar
cream - to texture
Cooking Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and mix all dry ingredients together - except the sugar. I like to add a teaspoon of cardamom to the spice blend for a nice herby add to the spice notes.
Cream the sugar, shortening, eggs, water, and vanilla together for 3-5 minutes in a mixer or using a hand mixer/whisk.
Add the pumpkin in and mix util combined. Slowly add dry ingredients until a thick batter forms. If you want to add nuts to your pumpkin bread stir them into the batter now.
Grandma would bake these in buttered coffee tins. I bake the loaf in either one large round cake tin or two loaf pans - make sure you butter or spray them before you fill them with the batter.
Bake the pumpkin bread for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake and then removed comes out clean. Cool the loaves on a wire rack.
This bread has a subtle sweetness, if you like it sweeter dust it in powdered sugar or make a cream cheese frosting! Mix the frosting ingredients and mix until smooth. Add more cream if you like a looser icing/frosting, less if you want a richer firmer texture. Pipe or spread the icing on the top of the loaf and enjoy!