My love for pumpkin is one that has definitely matured over the last couple of years. I was never a big fan up until I met my boyfriend who is a borderline pumpkin fanatic. Upon a recent trip to visit his parents, his mom made a cornucopia of baked goods to keep our mouths full and our tummies happy. One of the things she made was this bread. I ate probably two entire loaves to myself.

I got the recipe from her, and she got the recipe from www.thefreshloaf.com, and now you are getting it from me and Instructables! You are welcome!

Enjoy this over a cup of coffee with a pat of irish salted butter on top. It doesn't get better than that on a Sunday morning!

Step 1: Ingredients

Yield: Makes ~ 12 muffins, 3 small loaves, or 2 large one

16-ounce can pumpkin (2 cups)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3 eggs, slightly beaten
3-4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans
loaf pans (use what you got, i just grabbed some aluminum ones from the store, which actually are really great to reuse since the bread just slides right out!!)

Step 2: Mixing Ingredients: Bread Dough

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the pumpkin and eggs and blend well.

In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients except the nuts. Mix 3 cups of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then add as much of the 4th cup as necessary to achieve the proper consistency (moist, but thick enough to stand a spoon in). Add the nuts and stir in.

Step 3: Place in Bread Tin

Pour or spoon the batter into greased muffin tins or bread pans. Bake on the center rack until a toothpick poked into the center comes out dry.

Step 4: Bake, Cool, & Enjoy!

At sea level, muffins should take between 20 and 25 minutes to bake, small loaves between 25 and 30 minutes, and full sized loaves between 50 minutes and 1 hour.