You know how it is…you’re with a friend who serves something you can’t get out of your head. Or, a friend walks in the door with something and in one taste you realize you’ve been sent to the moon. You utter the words, “Can I get that recipe?” That’s what happened when Linda Giuca tasted a friend’s pumpkin bread. Now, Linda has tasted countless things as the long-reigning food expert at The Hartford Courant, where she now co-writes a column. (She’s also co-director with husband Bob of Al Forno Restaurant in Old Saybrook, Connecticut one of our favorite spots.)
Ingredients
- 2½ cups white whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ginger ground
- 1½ teaspoon cinnamon ground
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves ground
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup butter unsalted, at room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups pumpkin mashed, canned or cooked
- 4 eggs
- 2/3 cup water
- 2/3 cup raisins golden
- 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped
Servings: makes one large loag
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9- or 10-inch baking stoneware dish or spray with vegetable spray and sprinkle with unseasoned bread crumbs.
- In a medium bowl, mix together flour, cornmeal, baking soda, spices and salt; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar until blended. Beat in pumpkin, eggs and water and mix just until blended. Stir in flour mixture. Fold in nuts and raisins.
- Pour into prepared stoneware and bake 55 to 65 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the bread comes out dry. Cool in stoneware for 10 minutes. Cool completely on a rack.
