Bring on the Pumpkin: Recipe #3

I'm a little bit afraid of Martha Stewart. She doesn't seem very nice. I've caught her on the Today show a few times recently doing cooking demos and I cringe watching her interactions with the hosts. She just seems so harsh. I suppose that's what jail will do to you. Anyway, regardless of her attitude, she didn't become a household name in cooking, baking and entertaining for nothing so I decided to turn to Martha for my third pumpkin recipe: pumpkin bread! The recipe doesn't use the usual autumn-y spices (nutmeg, ground cloves, cinnamon) but it does call for ground ginger (the recipe is actually titled "Ginger Pumpkin Bread").

My mixer did all of the hard work:

Then I came to the decision of whether to split the batter into two loaf dishes or one. Martha does two, but a few of the reviews said that there wasn't quite enough batter for two and that one dish worked fine (it just needed a bit longer in the oven). I did the one dish method since I only had one anyway and I actually liked the overstuffed look. I was worried about the loaf coming out of the dish but I followed Martha's directions to butter and flour the inside well and it popped right out, very easily.

It looked a little plain so I opted for the "optional glaze" (1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar mixed with 2-3 tablespoons water). Much prettier:

And, I have to hand it to Martha, tasty, too!

Ginger Pumpkin Bread

• Ingredients:
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, plus room-temperature butter for pan
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree (1 3/4 cups)
• 3 large eggs
• Sugar Glaze, (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter and flour two 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch (6-cup) loaf pans (see note, below); set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, ginger, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugars, pumpkin, melted butter, and eggs; add flour mixture, and stir until just combined.

Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of loaves comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes; invert pans and transfer loaves to a wire rack to cool completely. Glaze, if desired.