THE GREAT CRANBERRY PUMPKIN ...

"Have you come to sing pumpkin carols?" -It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

THE GREAT CANBERRY PUMPKIN LOAF ( 1990-2025)

(Double recipe makes 2 loaf pans, or 11 mini loaf pans. Adjust time accordingly.) The orange juice is optional. Use water instead. Leave out the pureed orange. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Never fails. Freezes well. If there's any of it left to freeze...

FIRST GROUP: 1/3 cup plant butter,1 cup sugar,2 eggs,1 cup canned pumpkin (half of a large tin if you are doubling), 1/3 cup orange juice concentrate or water

1 grated and pureed orange, and scrape another orange for fresh peel.

Beat all FIRST GROUP ingredients, then add ground up orange and peel,  if you are using oranges. 

2ND GROUP: 2 cups  flour,1 tsp baking soda,½ tsp baking powder, Pinch salt, ½ tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp cloves

Add all dry and combine together ( fold)..do not beat, or you will be sorry…gets tough that way.

3RD GROUP:½ cup chopped nuts ( I use pecans or walnuts) If you don't want nuts add extra cranberries and raisins, OR even a handful of chocolate chips. Go crazy. More fun that way.

1 cup dried cranberries/raisins mixed ( I toss in a bit more for good measure)

Plop into pans. The mini loaf pans are great. I used two regular loaf pans, greased and lined with parchment paper. 

"I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one..." -It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Bake in 350 oven for 1 hour with larger loaf pans. Bake for about 30 minutes with mini pans. 

Just be sure to check after 20 minutes, with a sharp knife plunged into the centre to test for doneness. If you use a toothpick, you might lose it in the vastness of the loaf...so I use a steak knife. Serve with anything and everything.

Years ago, when we lived in Petawawa,1990, most of the military wives made pumpkin pie, soup, pudding ( yuck). I decided to be really clever and make pumpkin puree from scratch. Oh yeah, that was a good idea. I got the axe from  the basement, and proceeded to hack that huge pumpkin outside. Chopped it up into huge hunks. 

I shoved the hacked up pumpkin (without peeling the skin) , into a stock pot ,and boiled it till it burnt in bottom of the pan. Oh well. I just added water, from time to time, and let it bubble away,for the rest of the day. The pot was too heavy and stringy pumpkin sloshed around. I forgot to take out the seeds as well. So there were seeds drowning in the mess.

Next day I smashed it all up. It was stringy and tough.Oh well. I figured that's how it was supposed to be. Removed seeds. That took all morning. I didn't have a food processor or blender, so just took a potato masher and a knife till it turned into  Pumpkin snot...( hmmm, kind of ewwwww)

Rolled pastry into a pie pan. Mixed the pumpkin globs with tofu, eggs, spices.  It was my "add-tofu-to-everything" phase. 

Strings hung out of the pie shell, so I snipped them off with scissors, squished down the tofu and pumpkin ( I had managed to get some seeds and pumpkin  skin off the pieces by that time). It was a trifle liquid, so I sprinkled extra flour into the mix and stirred. I figured that would thicken it up.( Oh yeah, it was gross).Baked it a good hour and a half. It burned on top and was raw underneath. It kind of looked like stringy pumpkin pudding globs ( ewwwww yuck). Retired pumpkin pie at that point.

HOWEVER! I first tried Cranberry Pumpkin bread years ago, when I went to a violin conference  in Vancouver. The friends I went with brought three HUGE loaves of orange pumpkin bread. They carved up those loaves, slathered fragrant slices with cheese. It was delicious, dripping with cranberries, raisins and walnuts. We sat in the green room of the Orpheum theatre, devouring pumpkin bread, till it was completely gone, and it was time to go on stage and play. Every time I make it, I remember that wonderful night where we performed Bach and Vivaldi, ate pumpkin bread, and laughed and reveled in that sweet, pungent scent of cinnamon and cloves. 

 "There he is. There he is. It's The GREAT Pumpkin!"

                                                                              -It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Photographs 2025 Printed recipe from "Company's Coming" Muffins and More  by Jean Pare. My go to, for years! I like to switch it up, especially at xmas. I add more fruit and use it as a fruitcake.