How to Make Pumpkin Bread (Moist and Spiced)

Set a fine-mesh strainer over a large mixing bowl and add 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Tap the side of the strainer to push everything through.

Sifting catches the little lumps of flour that hide in the bag and breaks up any clumps in the baking soda. A clump of baking soda that does not get distributed turns into a bitter pocket in one slice of the finished bread. Two minutes of sifting now saves you that surprise later.

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon cloves to the sifted dry mixture. Whisk for 20 to 30 seconds until the bowl looks evenly tan all the way through.

Whisking now - while everything is dry - is how you guarantee that every slice of the finished loaf has the same warmth. Spices added to the wet mixture clump and float. Spices whisked into the flour disperse evenly the moment the two get folded together.

In a second medium bowl, whisk 1 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar, and 1/2 cup vegetable oil for about a minute. The mixture goes from grainy to the texture of wet sand.

Whisking the oil into the sugars first dissolves the brown sugar lumps and gives you a smooth base. Skip this step and you get hard little brown sugar nuggets that turn up in the finished bread.

Crack 2 large eggs into the sugar-oil mixture one at a time, whisking each one in completely before adding the next. The mixture lightens in color from caramel-brown to a soft yellow and gets smooth and glossy.

Adding the eggs one at a time gives the oil and sugar time to emulsify with each egg before the next arrives. Dump both in at once and the mixture stays streaky.

Add 1 cup pumpkin puree (half a 15oz can of Libby's), 1/4 cup whole milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Whisk until the wet mixture is uniformly bright orange and ribbons off the whisk when you lift it.

This is your final check on the wet side. If the bowl still looks streaky, keep whisking. Any unmixed pumpkin pocket here turns into a damp gummy spot in the finished bread.

Pour the wet pumpkin mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients. Switch from whisk to rubber spatula and fold gently - scrape down the side of the bowl, lift the dry from the bottom up over the top, turn the bowl a quarter, repeat.

Stop the moment you no longer see streaks of flour. This usually takes 20 to 30 seconds. Over-mixing develops gluten and gives you a tough, dense loaf instead of a tender, melt-in-your-mouth crumb.

Line a 9x5-inch loaf pan with a sling of parchment paper - long enough that two flaps hang over the long sides. Scrape the batter in, smooth the top with the spatula, and tap the pan once on the counter to release any large air pockets.

The parchment sling is the trick to lifting the loaf out cleanly without flipping it. Once the bread is baked and cooled, you grab the two flaps and lift - the loaf comes out in one piece, no inverting, no broken edges.

Bake at 350F (177C) on the middle rack for about 60 minutes. Start checking at 55 minutes - the loaf is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter.

Let the pan cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before grabbing the parchment flaps and lifting the loaf out. Slice while it is still slightly warm - a warm slice with a smear of butter is the best the loaf will ever taste. Wrapped in plastic, it keeps on the counter for three days.