Pumpkin Pecan Loaves with Caramel Glaze

By Addie

One Thanksgiving I made this delicious recipe from Taste of Home for a GREAT pumpkin bread with a special frosting containing brown sugar with a caramel-like taste. The funny thing was - the first time I made it, we all hated it! Everyone said it tasted funny! I couldn't figure out what was wrong for a while but finally I realized what had happened. I had made the frosting and stored it in a container that had previously contained ONIONS - and still smelled like onions in spite of a run through the dishwasher. That onion odor permeated the frosting and ruined it - but I didn't realize that until I frosted the bread and we ate it! That event provided a good laugh though (and taught me a good lesson!) The next time I made the pumpkin bread, we all LOVED it - WITHOUT onions, ha ha!

Ingredients

• Glaze:
• 3-1/3 cups flour
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 15-oz can pumpkin
• 1 cup oil
• 4 eggs lightly beaten
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• ....................................
• 1/4 c butter or margarine
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/4 c packed brown sugar
• 1/4 c whipping cream
• 2/3 c powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk first 6 ingredients together and set aside. Combine pumpkin, oil, eggs and water and mix well. Combine this with the dry ingredients mixing just until combined. Stir in pecans.

2. Spoon into two greased 9x5x3 loaf pans. Bake 60-65 minutes until it tests done. Cool ten minutes before turning out onto racks.

3. For glaze combine butter, sugars and cream and cook until the sugar is dissolved. Cool for 20 minutes and stir in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth and drizzle over cooled loaves.