Pumpkin Bread

I love the fall. Like, really, really love the fall. And when it really gets down to it my favorite thing about fall is probably PUMPKIN. Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin beer, the pumpkin patch, pumpkin scones, pumpkin spice coffee, roasted pumpkin seeds, carving pumpkins, etc!

In tribute to my favorite flavor of the fall, here is my recipe for pumpkin bread that I've twisted and tweaked into perfection:-)

Ingredients

• 15 oz of canned pumpkin
• 3 eggs (I use cage free, vegetarian fed, omega-3 eggs)
• 2/3 cup of oil (I use Smart Balance cooking oil)
• 1 cup of apple cider
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 3 1/2 cups flour (I use whole wheat white flour)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp+ ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp+ ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp+ ground nutmeg

*I put a "+" next to the spices because I tend to have a generous hand with them*

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two loaf pans or one loaf pan and 6 muffins.
• Mix first five ingredients together (I use my stand mixer).
• In a separate bowl, whisk all of your dry ingredients and spices together.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in three allotments. Each time, blend just until incorporated.
• Divide your batter between the two loaf pans. If making muffins, add a heaping 1/2 cup of batter to each of 6 muffins and pour the rest of the batter into the loaf pan.
• Bake loaves for approximately 45-60 minutes. I usually set a timer for 45 minutes and see if a knife inserted in the center of the loaf comes back clean. If not, I set a timer for 5 minutes and follow the same routine until it's done.

*You can make this recipe more exciting if you add mini-chocolate chips, raisins, dried cranberries, and/or chopped walnuts*