Pumpkin Bread for the Picky Eater

I have always been a picky eater. Growing up, I hated nearly all food associated with my family's Thanksgiving. Oh, I was okay with the turkey, mashed potatoes, and, well, really that's it. Green bean casserole? Wouldn't touch the stuff unless I was threatened with being grounded. Sweet potatoes? I would only eat the marshmallows. Cranberry sauce? I wondered how my grandma made Jell-o look like a can and taste so awful. I guess you could say I was a picky eater. Normally, my family could count on me to devour dessert. Not the case for Thanksgiving. Pumpkins were meant for jack-o-lanterns, not dessert. What is the pie made from anyway? The gross stringy stuff that is thrown away when a pumpkin is turned into a jack-o-lantern?

Knowing this about me, my grandmother still baked this bread for me. I devoured slice after decadent slice. I begged her for the recipe. "You sure, honey?" she asked as she went to her secret recipe stash.

My eyes bugged out of my head. "This! This is what I've been eating?" I couldn't believe that combination could taste so heavenly. "Don't tell anybody the name of this," I suggested, "otherwise, they won't eat it."

"Well, what should I call it?" she asked.

"Yummiest bread ever," was my reply. Grandma insisted upon using the original name.

Pumpkin Cheese Bread with Struesel Topping

Ingredients for bread:

• 2 ½ cups white sugar
• 1 8 oz. Package of cream cheese (softened)
• ½ cup margarine (softened)
• 4 eggs
• 1 15 oz. can of pumpkin (or 16oz)
• 3 ½ cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Ingredients for topping:

• 2/3 cup flour
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons firm margarine

  For two 9x5 loaves

  Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour two 9x5 bread pans

  For Bread: Using electric mixer, combine sugar, cream cheese, and margarine at medium speed until well blended. Add eggs - 1 at a time- mixing well after each addition. Add pumpkin and mix well.

  In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and cloves. Slowly and gently add to pumpkin mixture until moistened. Fold in nuts.

  Pour half of the batter into each greased pan. Spread to smooth and into corners also.

  For struesel topping: Mix with fork until coarse lumps form (leave rather lumpy. Lumps = yummy.)

  Spoon over bread and gently press into batter.

  Bake 1 hour in preheated oven. Check for doneness by inserting toothpick, if it doesn't come out clean, bake and additional 5 minutes.

  Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan.