Blessed Pumpkin Season

Don't you just love pumpkin season? I know I do. For the first weekend of October I decided to bust open my first pumpkin and make something delicious. We used two small pumpkins and baked them down (and toasted the pumpkin seeds on the side, yum) and used the pulp to make glorious pumpkin bread. And when I say "we", it was just me.

I knew that pumpkin season was drawing close when I had a dream about eating pumpkin pie the other night. It was the most vivid eating dream I've ever had. I was slowly savoring every bite of a pumpkin hand pie. The crust was perfectly crisp and flaky and the pumpkin filling was sweet and pumpkiny and I woke up very hungry for pumpkin.


I'll share my pumpkin bread recipe. A few years ago, I was very poor and lived off of 7 pumpkins for almost 2 months. Yes, I ate 7 pumpkins. You can ask my roommates. It was a crazy pumpkin filled era. I made over 14 loaves of pumpkin bread and they were devoured almost as quickly as they were pulled out of the oven.

Best pumpkin recipe ever. And don't you dare add chocolate chips to this. What are you thinking? Would you add chocolate chips to perfection? I would gasp and steal away my pumpkin bread and probably never give you any more. You have been warned.


Pumpkin Bread

1+c pumpkin puree. If you are scared, you can just use canned pumpkin but it wont be the same. I'll share my technique below.
2 eggs
1/4 c oil (DONT SKIMP)
1 1/2 c sugar (DONT SKIMP)
1/3 c water

1 1/2 c flour (yes I realize there is as much flour as sugar...)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Technique: Small pumpkins are always better. Cut a pumpkin in half and dig out all the seeds and gunk. Wash off those seeds and toast them in the oven with some salt. Place the pumpkin cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees until the skin starts to blacken and crisp off and the flesh is soft and collapsing. The time depends on the size of the pumpkin. Check after 30 mins or so.

This is the hard part. You have to peel off the skin while it's hot. Don't peel the skin off before, the skin helps to steam the pumpkin in the oven. Carefully peel off the hot skin. It has to be hot or the skin will stick to the flesh and you'll have a mess. You'll be left with steaming hot pumpkin flesh. Get an old tea towel/dish cloth/whatever. Put chunks of the pumpkin into the towel and squeeze out as much water as you can. The watery-er the pumpkin puree the worse all your recipes will be. Then you'll have some lovely pumpkin puree that does not have that ghastly tinny flavor.

Now the real recipe. Combine the 1+ c pumpkin puree with the eggs, oil, sugar, and water. Mix well. Sift all the dry ingredients and slowly combine with the wet.

Ladle into greased baking tins and bake 375 degrees for about an hour and 5 minutes. A knife will come out clean. As soon as you pull it out of the oven smear honey all over the top. The honey crust will floor you.


It is good piping hot or just out of the refrigerator. If you had roommates or brothers-in-law like mine, it will probably last about 10 minutes. Better make a few batches.