Pumpkin Party

I grabbed this recipe from AllRecipes.com and made a few changes according to the comments. 

 Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil (sub 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup applesauce, 1/4 vegetable oil)
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar (sub 1 cup dark brown sugar, 2 cups white sugar)
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I kept adding cinnamon through the process, probably more like 1 1/2 teaspoons, at least)
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• (add 1 teaspoon vanilla)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans (I used two 7x3 inch loaf pans and made six muffins with the addition of chocolate chips for fun).
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (I usually cook it for at least an hour, the middle always takes longer and tests my patience)

For an extra super good time, try making your own puree...I want to try this, have not found the time yet (that's no excuse, seems pretty easy): 

 

They were yummy moist. I did, however, overcook my muffins. Make sure you check on those after about 20 minutes-half hour as they tend to cook faster. Enjoy! 

Just for fun...check out this pumpkin farm/apple orchard we ventured to just outside of Milwaukee. There's a sweet corn maze, apple blaster, llamas, goats, popcorn, caramel apples, cider, hayride--it was the perfect fall day affair. They're open through October 31 if you're in the area. We'll be carving up our pumpkins on Sunday. Yippee!