Pumpkin Bread-Half Moon Bay Style

I stumbled across this recipe and had to include it because when I lived in the Bay Area, it was always a tradition to go to Half Moon Bay to pick out our pumpkins. I make a pumpkin bread that is similar to this recipe and it is gone before I can try some-its that good! I like to add additional ingredients in some-one or two loaves…cranberries, currants, pecans, walnuts, and chocolate chips. I also use a full tablespoon of cinnamon and nutmeg and add ½ teaspoon of cloves. Try and make it organic by using all organic ingredients! Let us know how what you think!

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Bread - Half Moon Bay, CA. Bake-off Winner
Makes 3 loaves

3 c Sugar, granulated
3 1/2 c Flour, all-purpose
1/2 t Salt
2 t Baking soda
1 t Cinnamon
1 t Nutmeg
4 lg. Eggs
1 c Vegetable oil
2 c Pumpkin (cooked)
2/3 c Water
1 1/2 c Walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter your containers well. Sift the dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the eggs, oil, pumpkin and water. Beat thoroughly. It's easier to get all the lumps out if you use an electric mixer. Stir in the walnuts with a wooden spoon.

Pour the batter into the containers, filling each only half to two-thirds full. Bake for 60-90 minutes, depending on the sizes of your containers. If you're using a very small container, start checking much sooner. The bread is done when a toothpick in the middle comes out clean. Cool about ten minutes, then loosen the edges of the bread with a knife, and turn out of the pans to cool the rest of the way on a rack. For baking containers, you can use a loaf pan, metal cans, or whatever. If you use 1-pound coffee cans, it takes three of them. For tiny loaves, use soup cans or mini loaf pans.