pumpkin bread

One of the terrible things that well-intentioned food people do all of the time is get bored with things that everyone loves. Because there’s a there’s a near-constant stream of food media coming in, with time the “hot takes” on apple pie begin to feel monotonous, the “cool new thing to do with sweet potatoes” can cause inward groans and pumpkin/pumpkin-spiced things? I’ll let them tell you: “Pumpkin spice has ruined pumpkins,” says Alton Brown. “America has gone entirely too far in its pumpkin spice devotion,” says Eater, with a fair amount of evidence backing it up. The Washington Post likened pumpkin spice lattes to “liquefied fall-scented potpourri.”

I, too, fell into this trap, something I hadn’t realized until I Snapchatted* making pumpkin bread a few weeks ago and have never received so many recipe requests. I didn’t get it at first — I mean, pumpkin bread is the most basic thing, right? And Google claims 5.7 million ways to make it. What could I possible add to the conversation?

But as I was making it, I got very persnickety about it, bothered by a few things in the recipes I tried. First, none of them really filled out my loaf pan and I wondered why we were settling for less when we always wanted more. Second, I adore brown sugar in most things, but it makes for a rather brownish cake and the versions I made with only white sugar tasted no less awesome. Third, good pumpkin bread is always tender and plush inside, but why can’t it have a crispy lid too, the way my favorite pumpkin muffins do? Finally, small cans of pumpkin have 1 3/4 cups of puree in them. Most recipes use 1 cup pumpkin and I like to go all the way to 1 1/3 cups. That small amount leftover drives me batty. So, I scaled my recipe a little, and then a little more and until I ended up with an insanely towering pumpkin loaf with a crispy crackly impossible-not-to-pick off cinnamon-sugar lid that’s like a snickerdoodle landed on top of a pumpkin bread and if there was ever a time to shake off any pumpkin/pumpkin-spice skepticism, you are in the right place. You’re among friends. Next stop: hayrides, corn mazes, apple picking, flannel shirts, hot apple cider and Don’t say it, Deb! … decorative gourds.

* @smittenkitchen, are you following? I hope you do. I’m having so much fun embarrassing myself over there. Also I share meal so-called plans, you know, real ones that include days like last Tuesday with the menu item “nope!”

Toronto! I’ll be in Toronto a week from Saturday, 10/22 at Type Books at 7:30 p.m. in conversation with Toronto Star Food Editor Karon Lui. [Details] I’m actually going to be in town all weekend for the Canadian Food Bloggers Conference, which has kindly invited me to keynote, something I’m not terrified about at all, nope.