Spiced Pumpkin Bread with a Twist

Here is my attempt to drunken my famous pumpkin bread. I halved the recipe because I didn't want to waste my fresh pumpkin puree on what could be a drunken disaster. Top this bread off with bourbon cream cheese frosting and everyone will forget all of their worries.

When serving this, slice the bread and then cut the slices in half. Place the frosting in a ramikin or another similarly cute dish. Then arrange decoratively on your favorite IKEA serving tray.

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

Adapted from Epicurious

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree (or solid packed pumpkin from can)
2 tablespoons bourbon

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour one 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin and bourbon. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions. Mix in walnuts, if desired.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool 10 minutes. Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves. Turn loaf out onto racks and cool completely.

Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from AllRecipes

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 (4 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons premium bourbon

Preparation

Beat softened butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add confectioners' sugar and bourbon. Beat until creamy. 

Some Kitchen Tips: 

To Make Fresh Pumpkin Puree:
Here is detailed blog post about making Pumpkin Puree, pictures and all. Or you can use my quicky method below.

1. Choose the right kind of pumpkin of the many pumpkin varieties available.  
• Decorative pumpkins which are used for Halloween are grown with color, structural strength, a flat bottom, and a sturdy stem as their main attributes. The flesh tends to be bland, watery, and fibrous. 
• Culinary pumpkins have firmer flesh and a sweeter taste. There are many varieties of culinary pumpkins, including Small Sugar, Winter Luxury, Golden Cushaw, Cinderella, Fairytale, Jarradale, Sandman or Cheese Pumpkins. 
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
3. Cut the pumpkin in half, stem to base. Remove seeds and pulp. Cover each half with foil.
4. Bake in the preheated oven, foil side up, 1 hour, or until tender.
5. Scrape pumpkin meat from shell halves and puree using a hand blender, regular blender, or food processor. You can strain to remove any remaining stringy pieces if you like. I've also just used a potato masher, knowing that further mixing will take place during any recipe I make.
   
6. Measure into quantities for your favorite pumpkin recipes, usually 1 to 2 cup portions and place into freezer bags.
7. Label contents, date and quantity and store in freezer until ready to use.

Sifting Dry Ingredients

I can remember learning how to bake from my mom. She makes fantastic pies and brownies. When the recipe called for sifting the dry ingredients, we would dig deep into the cabinet and pull out the hand sifter. I dreaded this contraption. It was old and well use. It was difficult to clean and had small bits of crusted flour in the mesh from previous uses. Not that was a huge health hazard, but it grossed out the 10 year old version of me. It required repetitive squeezing of the handle to push the ingredients through the mesh. My wrists and fingers would cramp up.

Luckily they now make a battery operated version of the sifter and sifting is a more enjoyable experience for me. I bought my sifter at Fante's, one of the best kitchen stores in the U.S. which happens to be 3 blocks north of my house. You can buy both of these sifters and several other versions at Fante's dedicated web page of sifters.

And why is sifting important? It keeps things airy and light. It also helps to evenly mix multiple dry ingredients that may have different weights and grinds. One could say sifting helps to marry the dry ingredients. Luckily I know the Deaconess of Desserts when I need help with marrying things.