This recipe began as my mother’s recipe and I have changed it a little … only because I enjoy tweaking recipes. It is perfectly delicious the way my mother makes it and is the pumpkin bread I grew up enjoying. Mom’s pumpkin or banana bread always has a special quality to it that I cannot duplicate. However, here is the recipe the way I make it and I hope you enjoy it with your family.

Ingredients

• 3/4 c. brown sugar, packed firm
• 1/4 c. plus 2 Tbsp. SPLENDA® Sugar Blend for Baking*
• 1 c. canned pumpkin
• 1/2 c. melted butter
• 2 tsps. vanilla (pure if you have it, extract if you don’t)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour**
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsps. pumpkin pie spice
• 1. c. walnut, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 c. water

Directions

Combine sugars in a large mixing bowl; add butter and cream together. Add eggs, vanilla and pumpkin; beat until smooth.

In a separate bowl, stir flour, baking soda, salt, and spices together until well blended. Add gradually to pumpkin mixture, folding in gently with a spatula just until well blended.

Add walnuts and 1/4 c. water, folding in gently just until blended.

Bake in a very well greased (don’t skimp, or it will stick) loaf pan at 350 degrees for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a testing stick pushed down through the middle comes out without any gooey stuff on it.

Cool on a wire rack until you just can’t stand waiting any longer (about five minutes, maybe?). I will say, it will crumble when you cut it while it is too hot, because of the nuts. However, it is really, really good hot out of the oven with a bit of butter spread on it.

*If you don’t want to use Spleda, use 1 c. brown sugar and 1/2 c. white sugar … or all brown sugar (1-1/2 cups).

**You can susbstitute 1 cup of whole wheat flour, so it is half and half white and whole wheat. If you do this, you should add a bit extra butter or pumpkin to increase the moisture some and maybe add a tad bit extra baking soda for help in rising.

Frosting Idea

The pumpkin bread you see in the photo above is made in a petite loaf pan, which makes eight cute little loaves. I had some left-over frosting from icing some cut-out sugar cookies, and that is the icing you see. I made that icing using one package of cream cheese, softened (8 oz.) and 1 box of powdered sugar. I beat the softened cream cheese until it was fluffy (with an electric mixer) and then I added the powdered sugar in gradually, beating well after each addition. Now, that will be more icing than you will need for eight little loaves of bread. So, if you have no other use for the icing, use half as much of the cream cheese and only a half a box of powdered sugar. I put the icing in a baggie, and then I cut a little hole in the corner. then I squeezed the icing out through the little hole. Then I placed one walnut half in the middle of each loaf.