Pumpkin Pecan Loaf

When my brother visited , they brought some pumpkin loaf with them. So while we were site seeing and the lunch or dinner happened during odd timings, hogging on all those stocked snack items helped to keep up the tourist energy. That pumpkin loaf was a hit. So when I stocked up on pumpkin puree I knew I had to try it.

When I first came to the US, it was Thanksgiving season. Jacob had bought some pumpkin chocolate cookies and they were heavenly. I remember those being the days when I was novice in baking, I didn't think of baking it myself then. But as I got better with baking, I did bake them and ate it to my hearts content. These seasonal cookies/loaf are my weakness. If I try to control myself; I cannot and just end up eating it all. So I try to make pumpkin puree at home and freeze it in portions to bake it in intervals over an year untill pumpkins start appearing next. So I do not hog over all those goodies baked all at once but have it spread all throughout the year.

If you are a pumpkin addict like me, you got to try it. They are absolutely yum. The warmth of spice combined with a hot cup of coffee during a chilled evening would be just perfect.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup of sugar
2. 1 large egg
3. 1/3 cup of vegetable oil
4. 1 cup of pumpkin puree
5. 1 cup of all purpose flour
6. 1/3 tsp of powdered cloves
7. 1/3 tsp of cinnamon powder
8. 1/3 tsp of nutmeg powder
9. 1/3 tsp of baking soda
10. A big pinch of salt
11. 1/4 tsp of baking powder
12. 3/4 cup of chopped pecan

Method

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• In a bowl, combine sugar and egg. Beat it well. Add the vegetable oil and pumpkin puree and beat it again.
• In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients 5-11. Mix it so that all the ingredients get distributed evenly. Add the dry ingredients slowly, and in parts to the wet ingredients while you combine it. Finally, add the chopped pecan and give it a mix to distribute the chopped nuts. 
• Grease a loaf pan. Transfer the batter into the loaf pan. Spread few whole pecans on top of the batter. 
• Bake it in the oven for about 50-55 minutes or untill a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Remove it from the oven and let it stand for about 10 minutes in the loaf pan. Then transfer to a wired rack for it to cool before you slice it and serve.

Tips

1. You could adjust the amount of spices as per your needs.
2. The bake time would vary as per the oven settings or model. It takes about 50 minutes to get it ready. However, do eyeball it to see if it needs to be cooked a little longer by pricking it with a toothpick.