I’m jumping on the Great Autumn Pumpkin Bandwagon (that’s what I call it anyway) and posting the best pumpkin recipe ever. Ever. I’ve made this pumpkin bread for years because it’s so very good and moist. Nothing worse than a dry quick bread.

This year the recipe is even better with the addition of caramel icing.

We never ate pumpkin when I was a kid. My Mom made everything with sweet potatoes (including an incredible sweet potato pie). To this day, I don’t really like pumpkin pie, but I do love this pumpkin bread!

This icing originally came from a Pumpkin Cookie with Icing recipe, but I made a mess out of the cookies and ended up using the icing on my tried-and-true pumpkin bread recipe. The result is very successful and the recipe immediately altered to include the icing in the instructions.

Bret has a general mistrust of quick breads – I promise him I don’t put onions in them, but he’s suspicious. He liked this pumpkin bread, though, and compared the icing to his grandmother’s famous banana bread caramel frosting. It’s a great compliment.

This Pumpkin Bread with Caramel Icing is thick, moist and delicious. It’s just rich enough and the icing surprisingly doesn’t make it too sweet. Give me a fork and let me loose with this bread. Awesome.

Put this pumpkin bread recipe on your holiday recipe list. I promise it won’t disappoint and your friends and family (and you) will love it. It makes 2 loaves, so you can give one away and keep one for yourself!

Pumpkin Bread with Caramel Icing

Yield: 2 loaves

Outstanding pumpkin bread with amazing caramel icing.

Ingredients

4 eggs
2 C. pumpkin puree, about 1 full can and not pie filling
1 C. oil
2/3 C. water
3 C. sugar
3 1/2 C. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
Caramel Icing:
6 tbsp butter
1/2 C. heavy whipping cream
1 C. packed light brown sugar
Two pinches of salt
1 1/2 to 2 C. sifted powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 °.
Mix wet ingredients together along with sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients and gradually add to wet mixture while mixing on low.
Divide mixture and pour into 2 sprayed loaf pans. Bake for 45 min. to 1 hour, turning pans once during baking. Cool before turning out on rack and icing.
To make the icing: In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, cream, brown sugar and salt and cook over medium heat. Stir constantly until the mixture comes to a low boil. Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla and 1 1/2 C. powdered sugar. Stir well. It will thicken considerably on cooling, so don't add too much more powdered sugar.
After cooling, if it's still thinner than you want, add a little more powdered sugar and mix very well until it's the consistency you want. Let cool slightly before icing loaves.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

I used freshly grated nutmeg because the flavor is so much better (and my bottled nutmeg is probably 10 years old).

My bread came out best when I used a glass loaf dish for baking. My larger metal loaf pan browns the crust a little too much.

Be patient after adding the sifted powdered sugar to the icing - keep stirring until it's smooth and lump-free.

After removing the pans from the oven, while the loaves were still hot, I pressed down lightly on the tops with a pot holder to make it flatter. That way the icing isn't thin on the top and running down the sides (even with this thick icing).

As always, put a sheet of waxed paper under the rack while you're icing the loaves.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1 grams
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 410Total Fat: 16gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 44mgSodium: 318mgCarbohydrates: 66gFiber: 1gSugar: 49gProtein: 3g

Nutrition Values are Approximate