Pump It Up! Pump-Kin Up!

21 September 2013

Sorry for the single blog post this week.  It has been a jam-packed and busy week with little time to do my side projects.  As it stands now I am 6 days away from leaving and one week from today I will be in York, England settling in to my new living quarters and exploring the town, albeit extremely jet-lagged.  And even though I am leaving in only a short week I have yet to actually get my bags packed.  They lie there in my closet, taunting me with their emptiness.  For whatever reason I have yet to build the proper motivation for packing, that in addition to a sudden and large influx of freelance writing with quick turnaround times and attempting to see all my friends at least once more and the time just flies away.

Old Castle in York

And then there is the four legs of travel to commence my adventure in York.  Not at all a thrilling time, it should prove to be an interesting post for my next turn at posting. 

But enough about that, let’s talk about something crafty, or really bake-y.  A week or two ago Kellie and I got together to make our signature baked good: Mini Pumpkin Loaves.  They never disappoint and really are not that difficult to make at all.  This is especially true because Kellie and I often have to be resourceful with our ingredients as well as our kitchen equipment.  This time around we had the ingredients as we needed them, but not kitchen equipment we had intended.  Regardless they turned out great.

This doesn't include the softened butter
and also has white sugar, which you don't need

 First off gather the ingredients…

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

3 cups brown sugar (we originally had it at a straight half and half with regular sugar and brown sugar, but later we decided that all brown sugar would be better)

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

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/2 cup of softened butter

After gathering the ingredients preheat your oven to 350 degrees F or 175 degrees C.  Start by combining, in a large bowl (or pot if you don’t have a large bowl…) the pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until it is well blended.  You can do this with a fancy blender, or if you don’t have one of those (like we didn’t) you can simple stir it with a sturdy spoon.  Don’t worry if there are lumps of sugar, all will be well in the end. 

Now if you have the bowls to spare you can mix the dry ingredients together, otherwise you can just add it to the wet mixture in one go (as we did).  So add together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and allspice, either in a bowl or straight into the pumpkin mixture.  Mix as well as you can, again there might be lumps depending on if you use a blender or not.

The greasing and flouring of the loaf pans can either be done before, after or during the mixing of the batter.  You use the softened butter and a paper towel to rub the butter into the crevices and edges of the loaf pans.  It is important that you get it as lubed up as possible.  Then, using a little extra flour you move the pan around until the entire inside is covered in a light dusting of flour.  Dump out or reserve the excess flour and set aside.

In progress

All greased and floured up

Then you must fill the loaf pans, about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full.  Try not to spill any on the edges like I did.

In progress

All filled up

Then throw them in the oven and bake them for about 45-50 minutes.  Inserting a toothpick or butter knife in the center and if it comes out clean you are good to go.  Let them sit a little while in their pans before taking a knife to cut around the outside to dislodge the loaves then turning them out onto some paper towels for further cooling. 

Cool in pans for about 5-10 mins

Cool on paper towels until just warm to the touch

From here you can eat right away or wrap in plastic wrap while still slightly warm to preserve them best.  Optional delight might include spreading butter on them or enjoying with a cup of coffee.  Either way you can’t go wrong eating or sharing (if you can stand to give them away) these little loaves of wonder.

Until next time!

Brittani