Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

I made pumpkin bread for the first time, "following" this recipe. I use the term loosely. The pumpkin I used ended up making about 4 cups of purée, so made a double batch, and substituted pumpkin purée for bananas; no raisins, so I used dried cranberries; not enough eggs, so extra cream cheese; and I’m not even sure what else I didn’t follow. Maybe I should plan ahead more next time and have stuff prepared. Oh well.

Do you often find yourself modifying a recipe?

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

by CJ Huang

A scrumptiously moist pumpkin bread with dried cranberries and a cream cheese frosting.

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Total time: 60 minutes
Yield: 2 loaves

Materials:

Mass	Weight	Volume	Number	Material	Notes
		8 tablespoons		butter
		1 tablespoon		cinnamon
		1 cup		dried cranberries
		14 ounces		cream cheese	separated use
			3	eggs
		4 cups		flour	I used about 1.25 cups white flour and the rest wheat.
		2 teaspoons		baking powder
		2 teaspoons		baking soda
		1/2 teaspoon		milk	I used whole.
		2.5 teaspoons		nutmeg, grated
		2 teaspoons		salt
		4 cups		pumpkin puree	About a mid-sized pumpkin, and the most inefficient part of the process.
		2 cups		sugar
		3/4 cups		powdered sugar
		1 teaspoon		vanilla extract

Methods:

1. Butter the loaf pans (I used 2 loaf pans, you could easily make muffins or mini-muffins like the recipe, but I didn’t have that many muffin tins).
2. Form the Wet Team (eggs, butter, pumpkin, 10 ounces cream cheese, dried cranberries, sugar) and cream together. I didn’t get it completely homogeneous, but it should be fine as long as it’s not too chunky.
3. Assemble the Dry Team (flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt).
4. Add Dry Team to Wet Team.
5. Mix until barely combined.
6. Fill baking container about 75% of the way.
7. Bake at 350F-375F until GBD, or golden brown and delicious, as Alton Brown would say. James thinks it took about 30-45 minutes, but that’s just a guess.
8. While the bread is baking, mix all the glaze ingredients (4 ounces cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla) in a bag, and squish it around until it’s uniform. You could also do the mixing in a bowl and then transfer to the bag for easier application, or spread it on instead of squeezing it on. So many options!
9. Take the bread out when it’s GBD, put on the glaze, and enjoy!