Fifteen

“Pumpkin bread!” That’s what I was dubbed last year at the Mediterranean Ocean Auction. I guess the fact that it wasn’t my real name made no difference, nor that I was meeting a lot of my SO’s classmates for the first time. Instead, the notoriety came from my marathon baking week last December.

Last fall, I was an intern at America’s Test Kitchen in Brookline. For those not familiar with the company, here’s what they do: they take a recipe and test it over, and over, and over again. The testing ends when they’ve perfected a recipe and have determined the best way to make it, sometimes using scientific tests and always using lots of trial and error.

One of my projects while interning there was to test and perfect pumpkin bread.  Twenty loaves and 6 days later, I was finished. My biggest struggle was to get pumpkin bread that wasn’t soggy—there had to be a way to get a moist pumpkin bread that didn’t have a squishy and gummy texture. After doing some research, I found a great way to wick away some of the moisture from the pumpkin before incorporating it into the batter: “drying” it out with paper towels before adding it to the batter.

Another goal of mine was to get true pumpkin flavor to come through. Too often, the spices overwhelm the other flavors, and while pleasant, make you wonder if you’re eating pumpkin bread or just spicy cake. There had to be a delicate balance between all the flavors, and I discovered that cutting down on all the spices really enhanced the subtle creaminess of the pumpkin. I had finally made my idea of a perfect pumpkin bread real. Wonder if it’s any good? Joseph Bamber ’08 said, “That pumpkin bread is fabulous!”

You probably won’t believe me if I said that having to taste all those loaves of pumpkin bread was a chore, but there IS truth to the phrase “Too much of a good thing.” What would I do with all these loaves of pumpkin bread lying around? That’s where the Mediterranean Ocean contributed. My SO Hayden Gallary ’08 had plenty of hungry classmates to feed, so I loaded him up with 1-2 loaves every morning. He would always come back empty-handed, confirming my suspicion that all students, even grad students, are always hungry.

Thanks to Jason Roeder ‘08 for donating to the kids and purchasing the recipe last year. But with the fall season sneaking up on us, I thought I’d share the recipe with everyone so that we could all have a little taste of some fall flavor. Enjoy!

Just in case you’re wondering if I’m a legitimate food person, check out my blog www.chezchristine.typepad.com and see my diary of cooking school in Paris, internships, cooking classes I teach, and the Boston food scene.

Pumpkin Bread

Makes one loaf

1½ cups (7.5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon table salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground clove

1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 ¼ cups sugar

2 large eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped coarsely

1.    Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350?F. Spray bottom & sides of a nonstick 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2.    Whisk flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices together in a medium bowl.

3.    Spread pumpkin on a baking sheet. Cover with a triple layer of paper towels. Press firmly until the towels are saturated. Peel back the towels and discard.

4.    Cream butter for about 45 seconds with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy (use paddle attachment if using stand mixer). Add sugar and beat on medium speed until lightened in color and texture, scraping down bowl with plastic spatula as needed, about 1 minute. Texture should be similar to wet sand.

5.    Beat in eggs one at a time until just combined. Add pumpkin and vanilla and beat until just combined, about 1 minute.

6.    Add flour mixture in three additions, mixing until just combined, scraping down sides after each addition, about 1½ - 2 minutes. (If using, fold in nuts by hand with a plastic spatula after the flour is mixed in.) Pour into loaf pan and smooth out the top with the plastic spatula.

7.    Bake 50 minutes – 1 hour or until skewer inserted in middle comes out clean.

8.    Cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool at least one hour on rack before serving.

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