Fall is in full swing here in the mountains! The leaves are beginning to shine with reds, golds, and bright oranges around every curve. Fall in our house always involves lots of baked goodies that include lots of pumpkin and apples. Today we made pumpkin bread but added a crunchy, crumbly topping that we love! This is a quick bread meaning no yeast or rise time, plus it and requires no fancy appliances or long list of expensive ingredients.

 

[recipe title=”Crunch Top Spiced Pumpkin Bread” servings=”24″ time=”15 minutes prep time plus baking time” difficulty=”Easy/Medium”]

3 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 T cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 cup canola or similar oil

4 eggs

1 15 oz canned pumpkin

1 T vanilla extract

Crunch topping(optional)

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup sugar

6 T cold butter, cubed

1/4 tsp cinnamon

 

Pre-heat your oven to 350*. Grease 4 mini loaf pans or 2 regular size loaf pans and place them on a cookie sheet to make putting them all in and getting out of the oven easier. With a whisk, mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl until all the spices are distributed throughout.  In a separate medium-sized bowl whisk the eggs, oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients and using a rubber spatula, combine the two until all of the flour is incorporated and you don’t see large areas of dry ingredients. Do not over mix the batter.

Divide the batter into the four mini loaf pans until they are a bit over half full. Leave room for the crunch topping if using. If not, fill the pans to 3/4 full. You probably will have some batter left if using the topping, so you can make a few muffins, put in another mini pan, or toss the remaining batter. Remember, the muffins or pan with less batter will bake faster than the full pans.

Mix the flour, oats, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl.  Add in your cold butter that has been cut into very small cubes to make it easier to cut into the dry ingredients. I use a fork to mash the butter into the dry ingredients making a nice crumbly looking mess in my bowl, think green pea size butter bits.   You can use a pastry blender to make it go faster if you have one.

Divide the crunch topping evenly over the mini loaf pans. I had some leftover so I didn’t overfill the load pans. Place your cookie sheet in the center of the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of your loaf.  Cool in the pans for about 15 minutes then remove to a cooking rack to fully cool. Store in an airtight container.

[/recipe]

 Give it a try and let me know what you think!