In addition to great conversation, our local bakers like to share their homemade treats with the group! Come to the Solon Public Library at 9am on Wednesdays to sample the treats and meet some fantastic people!
Grandmother Bryan’s Pumpkin Bread, by Janet Salathiel
Ingredients
2/3 cup shortening (she uses butter), 2-1/3 cups sugar, 4 eggs, 1 one-pound can pumpkin (see note below), 2/3 cups milk (she uses soy milk), 3-1/3 cups flour (she uses a mix of ½ white and 1/2 whole wheat), 2 Tsp soda, 1 Tsp. salt, ½ Tsp baking powder, 1 Tsp cinnamon (she uses ¾ Tsp), 1 Tsp cloves (she uses ½ Tsp allspice instead as she doesn’t care for cloves), 2/3 cups nuts (she prefers 1 cup), and 2/3 cups raisins (again, she prefers 1 cup).
Preparation:
Cream shortening and sugar together then mix in the order given. Grease two loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 65-75 minutes.
Note: “I buy a pumpkin at Halloween, take the seeds out, then bake it until it’s soft. After removing the cooled pumpkin from the shell and pureeing it (I love my food processor), I measure two cups each into freezing containers and freeze. Bread made with fresh pumpkin tastes a lot better than the canned stuff. One Halloween pumpkin makes a lot of bread. I don’t strain the frozen thawed pumpkin, I just add it in.”
Janet added after her husband had an allergic reaction to canned pumpkin, she discovered “canned pumpkin” is really squash! “The government allows it to be labeled ‘pumpkin’ because it’s in the same family.” She said her husband had never been allergic to squash before, and she couldn’t find out what else was in the canned concoction. “There was no problem with fresh pumpkins, so I know the manufacturers add something that’s not on the label.”
Buyer, and baker, beware.