Pappa's Pumpkin Bread.

There was a time when I was a complete disaster in the kitchen - I was a freshman in the real world, living with two of my best friends, Shea and Phil. I had one failed, inedible experiment after another, but I was on a mission to make the perfect pumpkin bread!



My first attempt at pumpkin bread turned out SO DRY, it was like chewing on five Saltine crackers at once.



[Fast-forward through a few more failures] I finally asked my friend, Pappa, if she would mind sharing her mom's pumpkin bread recipe with me. Pappa sent me the recipe, I attempted to make it, and I ended up with an exploding mess.



At this point I quit all attempts at cooking and baking for a while. [Fast-forward to my sophomore year in the real world] I decided to give Pappa's pumpkin bread recipe another try - I'm so glad I did.



It is the most amazingly moist (sorry to all those who hate that word), pumpkiny delicious creation I've ever had the pleasure of eating.



What you need....

• 3 cups sugar


• 4 eggs, beaten


• 1 cup salad oil (vegetable oil works fine, too)


• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt


• 1 teaspoon cinnamon


• 1 teaspoon nutmeg


• 2/3 cup coke


• 2 cups canned pumpkin


• 3-1/2 cups flour


• 2 teaspoons baking soda

How to make it...

In a large bowl, mix the sugar, eggs, oil, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and Coke. Add the pumpkin and mix well. Stir in the flour and baking soda. Place in two well-greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.



If your loaf pans are small (i.e. 8 x 4) use three pans to avoid exploding pumpkin bread - no need to adjust baking time, it will still take the full hour to cook all the way through. K, byeeee!

Mini Pumpkin Spice Donuts.

All pumpkin everything, that's what I like. I've made so many different pumpkin recipes in the last few years (and weeks...I am so behind on my posts), some were amazing...some were not. This mini pumpkin spice donut recipe is worth a try!!

What you need for the donuts...

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour


• 2 teaspoons baking powder


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon


• 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg


• 1/2 teaspoon allspice


• 1/8 teaspoons ground cloves


• 1/3 cup vegetable oil


• 1/2 cup brown sugar


• 1 egg


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)


• 1/2 cup low-fat milk

What you need for the coating...

• 1 stick of unsalted butter, melted


• 2/3 cup granulated sugar


• 2 tablespoons cinnamon

How to make them....

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a 24-cup mini muffin tin with nonstick spray (or in my case, the most adorable mini donut pan ever).

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves.

In a separate large bowl, combine the oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin and milk until smooth.



Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. The recipe said "be careful not to overmix the batter." Whatever that means...so yeah, don't mix it for a long time?

Using a pasty bag (or a ziplock bag with the corner cut off) divide the batter evenly among the muffin/donut cups.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Remove the muffins/donuts from the oven and allow to cool. Repeat with remaining batter.

Once the donuts are cool, with the melted butter in one bowl and the sugar and cinnamon combined in another, dip each muffin/donut into the butter then roll in the cinnamon sugar to coat.



The recipe I followed (it came with the adorable pan pictured above) said to serve immediately because the donuts would get soggy, but I thought they got better everyday!



The recipe makes roughly two dozen donuts.



I'll be posting the BEST PUMPKIN BREAD EVER in a few days, so stay tuned! K, byeeee.