Okay. Technically this is Mrs. Watson’s pumpkin bread, but nobody here would know it by that name. Gary likes to hand out this bread every year at Christmas. I have made upwards of 90+ loaves; this year was a no bake year. I just played Nana to my precious grandbabies instead. It was definitely less fattening and just as tiring to do that! This is not a low-fat, low-calorie recipe. Don’t even try to make it that way…just enjoy it and pass it on to friends.
As to Mrs. Watson. I was born and raised in a small town in almost central Arkansas. Mrs. Watson’s son and I went through school together and ultimately shared a commute to work after we graduated from college. It was during one of those early morning commutes that he first shared his mom’s pumpkin bread with me. I was hooked.
She was a generous soul and willingly shared her recipe with me. Over the years I have tried to reduce the calories, but y’all it just isn’t the same. Like I said. Don’t even try that.
Our Perfect Daughter used to take mini muffin versions of this in her lunch and, today, she makes them for Perfect Boy and Perfect Girl but without the nuts since PB is allergic. While I love, love the nuts in the bread, it’s equally as delicious without them.
Hubby got started passing small loaves of this out during a snowstorm one winter when he was a candidate for Prosecuting Attorney in our district. Yep. It was that first time Arkansas decided to embark on Super Tuesday. Can you say, “Miserable?”
In our district, voters still expected candidates to go door to door campaigning. While that can be fun and interesting, this particular winter had to go down as one of the coldest. EVER. There was one time my lips literally froze together when I was out on the campaign trail.
Anyway, the very nervous candidate had to do something to calm his nerves while snowbound (doesn’t take much in Arkansas), and I had to do something as well. Me? I bake. Hubs has to move. So the two efforts joined up and he started passing out those little loaves of pumpkin bread as he went about asking people for votes.
I think he may have actually won the election because of that! He sure made a ton of new friends because he still gets lots of inquiries every year as to when he is making deliveries.
And that’s how Gary’s Famous Pumpkin Bread came into being. So you see, you really must give this bread a try.
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 4 eggs
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree (not pie mix)
- 3 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons soda
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 cup (or more) chopped pecans or walnuts, lightly toasted
- Combine sugar, oil and eggs; beat well.
- Add pumpkin and mix well.
- Sift (I don't EVEN do this anymore.) together dry ingredients. Add water and beat well. Stir in nuts. Pour into two greased, large loaf pans.
- Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. (If you use a convection oven, you may want to shorten this time.)
- Cool slightly on cake racks before removing from the pans.
- If you want to use other size pans, just adjust the time spent in the oven.
- This can be wrapped in heavy duty aluminum foil and frozen. It keeps well.
- * Mrs. Watson used to make this for her son every year; I always managed to sneak a loaf away from him. He finally just gave me the recipe.
