A Season of Pumpkin Bread

An occasional series in which staff members share a recipe that we turn to time and again:

Every year, as close to Oct. 1 as possible, I do two things: Read Helen Hunt Jackson's poem "October's Bright Blue Weather" and begin to bake my trademark pumpkin bread. And I keep making it throughout the late fall and all the way through winter, slowing up only toward the end of March.

Just last week, I doubled the recipe to create some simple gifts for those on my belated holiday list and some loaves to send back to college with the kids, who claim that this quick bread has the power to help them make new friends and keep the old.

Over the years, the family has come to recognize the signs of an incipient bread-baking spree; first, there's the choosing of which old apron to don from among my collection. Once the production's underway, it becomes a reassuring ritual and, for months on end, batches of batter get stirred and blended in big, old bowls.

I don't claim that this is a recipe I created. I certainly didn't come up with it on my own, and it bears a striking resemblance to those of Fannie (Farmer), Betty (Crocker) and even Betty (Small, my mother). I have no idea of its culinary provenance, but I do know that it first came into my hands in the form of the finished product -- a steaming piece, irresistibly fresh from the oven, 35 years ago, when I was living in a kind of "Big Chill" situation with college friends in Colorado. We were nothing if not young and hungry and in search of the richness and fullness of life. Whatever recipe we started out with exalted the humble pumpkin, a lovely (and my favorite) vegetable.

In our case, we added to the richness -- in every sense -- of our product by hitting upon the idea of throwing in chocolate chips. Purists among you may want to stay with the unadulterated version; it's certainly delicious on its own. When chocolate chips or chunks are added, it's simply ambrosial.

I'm no cook, but my reputation as a master baker rests solely on this never-fail bread.

Ev's Pumpkin Bread

Makes three 8-inch loaves

or about 24 muffins

This bread freezes beautifully, if it lasts long enough to get wrapped and out of the reach of willing tasters. The original recipe called for less cinnamon and nutmeg, but over the years I've increased them, being partial to both spices. A friend who is a French chef argues that Americans always use way too much cinnamon, which tends to overpower whatever it's added to, but I've noticed that he always polished off my bread with no complaints.

2 1/2 to 3 cups sugar