Unquestionably Good Pumpkin Bread

Once upon a time, I was a fashion designer, and I worked for a man with very questionable ethics. He also employed some other men with very questionable ethics. The first year I worked there, one of the questionable men came into the design room with packages for all of us. For the most part, my rule is beware of questionable men bearing gifts, however once I (well, all of us who were working in the design room) opened the package, we forgot about his questionable traits...for a little while....

...for inside this package was some of the most divine pumpkin bread I have ever eaten. Truly spectacular....so much so that this incident happened 15 years ago and I still make this bread regularly (I think about the source of the recipe as little as possible). So, since I am very into pumpkins and we all have to eat, I thought I would share it.

This recipe makes a ton (not literally, duh!) of bread or muffins. It is a great recipe for bake sales, teacher appreciation days, and other big group events. Now, if you read the story, you know this recipe did not originate with me. I have the original recipe this man gave me, but have no idea where he got it from. So, there you have it...he cannot come after me anyway... his questionable ways caught up to him!

Unquestionably Good Pumpkin Bread
Combine:
3 cups sugar (the original calls for 4 1/2, but I reduced it to 3 and don't notice a difference in taste)
1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce or oil (use the applesauce, I do!)
6 eggs or equivalent egg substitute
Beat above well...
Add 1 cup water
Beat again

Sift together:
5 1/4 cups flour (I use white whole wheat or a combo of whole wheat and white whole wheat)
2 1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/4 tsp. cinnamon (add more if you like cinnamon)
2 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 1/4 tsp. (or to taste) ginger (optional)
2 1/4 tsp. (or to taste) pumpkin pie spice (optional)
3 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
Add to mix and blend

Add:
1 Large can of pumpkin

Optional add-ins:
1 1/2 cups raisins or nuts or a combo
or
1 1/2 cups mini (or regular) chocolate chips
or
1 1/5 cups dried cranberries and pecans

Grease loaf pans and fill 2/3 full
Bake at 350 for 1 hour
or
Line muffin tin with cups (or grease cups) and fill 1/2 to 2/3 full
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes

Yield:
3-4 regular size loaves
10+ mini loaves
Lots of muffins! Just realized I never counted...oops!

Last time I made this, I yielded 2 large loaves, 4 mini loaves, and 2 1/2 dozen muffins.

NOTE: I am very "into" making recipes healthier...but have not tried using any other sugar substitutes or flour substitutes (I think brown rice flour would work well)...maybe later....for now, I am just enjoying some Unquestionably Good Pumpkin Bread and hope you do too!

Enjoy!
Holly

P.S. You may notice I use Jules's photo in (probably) way too many posts, but she is there and a good prop and Joe doesn't like taking pictures!