During quarantine everyone picked up new hobbies or rekindled their love for old ones. I, like many others, turned towards baking during these very confusing times. With fall creeping in on us, it is the perfect time to try out all those recipes we have pinned on Pinterest but have never gotten around to trying. My first fall-related baked good I made was pumpkin spice bread and here is how you make it.

Pumpkin Spike Bread
To begin you are going to need the following ingredients:
• 1 2/3 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon cloves (optional)
• 1/3 cup butter
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup milk
• ½ cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)

After you have gathered all your ingredients, it is time to start the baking process. Here are the steps for that:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease bundt pan and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients. Then set aside for later use.
3. In another bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla extract. Once combined, beat in your eggs and canned pumpkin.
4. Next alternate between mixing in your dry ingredients and your milk.
5. Once mixed, gently fold in the chopped nuts of your choice.
6. Pour batter into your prepared pan and place in the oven.
7. Bake for approximately 45 minutes.
8. Remove bread from the oven and wait until cooled to begin slicing.
9. Enjoy!!

Some tips I have to make your baking process go as smoothly as possible would be to make sure you do not over-mix your batter because it can cause it to become tougher and not as fluffy. Another tip would be to make sure you only fill your pans about half way so that when the bread rises in the oven it does not overflow and create a mess. Lastly, one thing I struggled with was the outside of the bread browning before the inside. To fix this issue so that the bread would not burn, I took the loaf out of the oven once it was evenly browned and then covered it with aluminum foil in order to trap the heat and allow the insides to cook for longer.

This recipe is from “onbetterliving.com” . On this website you will also find many other baked good recipes that would be perfect for this fall season. Try this recipe out and let me know what you think!