My Never-Been-to-Maine Pumpkin Bread

First off–I have to admit that I’ve never been to Maine. I have been to Vermont, and stayed in an old farm house, and that’s close, right? And I have a friend from Maine… And my husband vacationed in Maine when he was a boy…

Anyway, I’ve adapted a very popular web-recipe: the Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread found here. The recipe was so good–almost perfect–that I wanted to share it with all of you. I’ve fiddled with it to increase the spice punch, decreased the amount of sugars, added a bit of whole wheat flour and orange juice and zest, and I’ve increased the baking time. The bread stays moist and super delicious for days. It’s a wonderful bread for giving…

Time Commitment: Half hour to assemble ingredients and mix, and another hour to bake.

Tools you need:

• Two loaf pans
• Cooking spray
• an oven 
• large bowl and wooden spoon, plus measuring cups and utensils…

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup water and orange juice mixed (or just water)
• zest of one orange
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (you can use all white if you don’t have any whole wheat)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

What to do:

Step One: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix wet ingredients in a bowl along with the sugars. (Regarding the OJ/water mixture: Zest one orange, then squeeze the juice into a measuring cup. Add water to the cup until you have 1/2 cup of liquid.)

Step Two: Add spices first, then flour, salt and soda. Stir round and round and round and round…

Step Three: Place the two loaf pans in the center of the oven and bake for 65-70 minutes. Do the knife-through-the-center trick to check for doneness…

Step Four: Let the loaves cool. (Make yourself a pot of tea, call a friend to join you.)

Step Five: Enjoy!