Easy Pumpkin Pecan Bread

My love for pumpkin is one that has definitely matured over the last couple of years.  I was never a big fan up until I met my boyfriend who is a borderline pumpkin fanatic.  Upon a recent trip to visit his parents, his mom made a cornucopia of baked goods to keep our mouths full and our tummies happy.  One of the things she made was this bread.  I ate probably two entire loaves to myself. 

I got the recipe from her, and she got the recipe from www.thefreshloaf.com, and now you are getting it from me and Instructables!  You are welcome!

Enjoy this over a cup of coffee with a pat of irish salted butter on top.  It doesn't get better than that on a Sunday morning!

Yield: Makes ~ 12 muffins, 3 small loaves, or 2 large one

• 16-ounce can pumpkin (2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 3 eggs, slightly beaten
• 3-4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans
• loaf pans (use what you got, i just grabbed some aluminum ones from the store, which actually are really great to reuse since the bread just slides right out!!)

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the pumpkin and eggs and blend well.

In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients except the nuts. Mix 3 cups of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then add as much of the 4th cup as necessary to achieve the proper consistency (moist, but thick enough to stand a spoon in). Add the nuts and stir in.

Pour or spoon the batter into greased muffin tins or bread pans. Bake on the center rack until a toothpick poked into the center comes out dry.

At sea level, muffins should take between 20 and 25 minutes to bake, small loaves between 25 and 30 minutes, and full sized loaves between 50 minutes and 1 hour.