Cooking Column

Kristin's Kitchen
Monday, 15 September 2008
by KRISTIN LARMORE

Imagine you are sitting in your living room, hungry. A sweet and savory odor suddenly tickles your nose, wafting from the kitchen. You smile widely and open the oven door to see the dough rising ever so slowly, hoping the time might pass just a little quicker.


Now I ask you, who doesn’t love the smell of freshly baked bread?


Many of us have fond memories from our childhood of waking up on a weekend morning, or even a week day morning if you have a “super mom,” to the smell of biscuits or bread baking in the oven.


If you are anything like me, you would like to carry on that tradition even without the help of your parents. Baking, unlike cooking, is fairly simple and merely requires that you can measure a few ingredients and read directions.

Since fall is quickly approaching, I thought I would share a recipe for pumpkin bread, as we often attribute this season with the sweet scent of pumpkin and cinnamon.

My family originally got this recipe from a school cookbook that we got back when I was in elementary school, and we have been using it ever since. According to the recipe, men love the taste!

1 (16oz) can pumpkin
1 cup oil
4 eggs
3 ½ cups flour
3 cups sugar
½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp ground allspice
1 ½ tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
½ cup chopped nuts (optional)

Combine your pumpkin, oil and eggs in a separate mixing bowl. Sift together dry ingredients in a second bowl. Combine the two mixtures, blending thoroughly. Add ½ cup chopped nuts to the batter if desired. Pour into two greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pans and bake for one hour at 350 degrees.

Most of us are busy college students that cannot find the time to sit down and bake bread just for fun, but this is a very easy recipe that is quick and well worth it. You should definitely try it.

Source: theapp.appstate.edu