spiced pumpkin bread

I live in Florida, where we only have two seasons: hot and not-quite-as-hot. While my friends and family who live north of the Mason-Dixon line are enjoying fall foliage and beautiful autumnal colors, I am sweating in 85 degree heat. To remind myself that fall is actually here, I make this quick bread. It does the trick.

This recipe can easily be turned into muffins (approx. 24) -- just reduce the baking time to about 35 minutes.

1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups lightly packed brown sugar
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 15 ounce can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling -- that has sugar/spices already in it)
2/3 c water
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices into a large bowl. Whisk the ingredients together to ensure that they are evenly distributed. Set aside.

In a blender, mix the pumpkin, sugars, water, vanilla, and eggs. While the blender is running, drizzle in the oil. Pour this on top of the dry ingredients, making sure to scrape out as much of the pumpkin mixture as possible.

Gently fold the wet into the dry until no more streaks of flour are present. Be careful not to overmix, as this will toughen your final product. Split the batter into two greased 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf pans (9x5 will work in pinch, but your loafs will be shorter). Bake for one hour. Remove the bread from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes on a rack. Remove the loaves from their pans and allow to cool for another 45 minutes.

If desired, drizzle the loaves with an icing made of 1 cup of confectioner's sugar and 3 tablespoons of real maple syrup. Alternatively, you could leave out all of the spices but the nutmeg and add one cup of chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans) and 1 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter for a chocolate-studded pumpkin nut bread.

Enjoy!