Holiday Pumpkin Bread

Ahh, fall. You are definitely my favorite season. I mean, what isn't there to love? Spiced apple cider, hayrides, pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks, Halloween (and my birthday!!!), candy corn, leaves changing...I could go on forever. Although I definitely felt the effects of last year's canned pumpkin shortage, luckily it hasn't proved to be a problem in the Northeast. Will and I went to the grocery store last night and I snagged a couple of cans of Libby's, just in case. Since my little brother is coming to Boston this weekend for a visit, I decided it would be nice to have a special fall breakfast treat for him and Will on Saturday morning. Let me preface this by saying, holy sugar content Batman! While these loaves of bread look delicious and my kitchen smells like heaven, I'm pretty sure I won't be making this recipe too often. 3 cups of sugar is 2 cups too many, in my opinion. However, I'll try anything once. Depending on your oven, you may have to vary the cooking time. 350 degrees was just fine, but by the time we reached 50 minutes I could tell the loaves were done. Just check the bread occasionally so you don't overcook it, and you will be fine. Here's to another wonderful fall!

Source: All Recipes

Ingredients:

• 3 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice (I couldn't find mine, so I substituted pumpkin pie spice)
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted)
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup vegetable oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7 x 3 inch loaf pans. 
2. Mix oil, sugar, and eggs together in a large bowl. Mix in pumpkin puree and water. Stir together flour, soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Add to the pumpkin mixture, and mix until just combined. Stir in nuts and raisins. Divide batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on wire racks.