Mommy Rocker’s Coffee Can Pumpkin Bread Recipe
Every year around Thanksgiving and Christmas, my mother would make pumpkin bread by request. Our relatives, neighbors, and friends loved Leah’s pumpkin bread so much, they offered to pay her to make it for them. My mother never accepted their money because she was happy to oblige. It made her feel good knowing she was making people happy.
My mother had a few recipes that were often requested, mostly during various holidays.
Back in the 70’s she made this crazy Jello mold. The Jello mold had all kinds of ingredients, including sour cream. I always thought using sour cream in a Jello recipe was the strangest thing ever, but it worked.
Maybe one day I’ll sift through my box of recipes and share mom’s crazy Jello mold recipe. For now, I’m sticking with my mother’s pumpkin bread recipe.
You will need 4 metal coffee cans to bake the pumpkin bread in. When the cans are cool enough to handle, you slide the pumpkin bread out of the cans.
Ingredients
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
4 room temperature eggs
1 ½ cups white sugar
1 ½ cups dark brown sugar
1-15 ounce can of 100% pure pumpkin (do not use pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup neutral oil ( you can use vegetable oil)
2/3 cup of room temperature water
1 ½ teaspoons real vanilla extract (Do not use imitation)
¾ cup of chopped walnuts
¾ cup of plump raisins
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Spray coffee cans with non-stick cooking spray
Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt into a bowl.
In a separate large bowl, beat the eggs and then add both the white sugar and brown sugar and combine completely.
Add the pumpkin, oil, water, and vanilla and mix until combined.
Put the raisins and nuts in a small bowl and add a tablespoon of flour and mix it through until the nuts and raisins are covered in flour. This will prevent the nuts and raisins from sinking to the bottom of the cans during baking.
After you’ve mixed the nuts and raisins with the flour, gently fold them into the pumpkin bread batter.
Fill each coffee can about ½ way with batter. Place the cans on the middle rack of your pre-heated oven and bake for 60 minutes.
Let cool for about 20 minutes and slide the bread out of the cans.
Our favorite way to eat the pumpkin bread was to slice it and put it in the toaster for a few minutes, then slather it with butter or cream cheese.
If we were eating it as a dessert, we’d spray a little whipped cream on it and go to town. Enjoy!
