PUMPKIN BREAD & VANILLA GLAZE
By Gloria Pitzer
As seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 158). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
I started to test several recipes for what truly talented cooks insisted was THE perfect pumpkin bread. Test after test, the loaves went out to the birdfeeder – as they were either too heavy, too spicy, too dry, didn’t raise enough or had so many ingredients in the recipe I had to “let out” the kitchen just to make room for the groceries.
I wanted the bread to be as light as cake, with a minimum of ingredients and delicately spiced so even an ulcer-sufferer could enjoy it. I started with a spice cake and computed the amount of liquid necessary to give it a bread-like texture.
I bought several loaves of pumpkin bread from various bakeries, none of which would give me their secrets, of course, and discovered this beautifully light, delicately spiced, wonderful bread!
PUMPKIN BREAD
INGREDIENTS:
1 pound can pumpkin
3 large eggs
½ cup vanilla ice cream – firmly pressed into a measuring cup and softened to a mushy cream
1 envelope Dream Whip powder
18-ounce package Pillsbury Plus Applesauce Spice Cake mix – or any good, moist, spice cake mix
INSTRUCTIONS:
Use a large mixing bowl and electric beaters to combine the pumpkin and eggs until smooth. Beat in ice cream and Dream Whip powder, then dump the cake mix into it. Beat for 6 minutes on medium-high speed.
Divide batter equally between 2 greased and floured 8½-inch Pyrex loaf dishes or 9-inch metal bread pans.
Bake the glass dishes at 350° for 40 to 45 minutes or until bread appears to be cracked on top and beginning to brown nicely around the edges. The metal pans should be baked 5 minutes longer or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
As soon as the loaves are out of the oven drizzle with my Vanilla Glaze (below.)
VANILLA GLAZE – for bread
INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
10 tablespoons firmly packed powdered sugar
INSTRUCTIONS:
Whip ingredients together, with a fork, until smooth. Makes about ½ cup of glaze, which will harden nicely if applied while the loaves are still hot from the oven. Bread will freeze well up to 3 months.
See also…
Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Michigan’s Mosaic Melting Pot
