Sweet Potato Bread

It's a cool, rainy October day today and I found myself wanting something sweet and warm and fitting for this autumn day.  I toyed with the idea of making pumpkin bread, but as I'm making another pumpkin dish soon, I thought that might be pumpkin overl0ad - though, that might be impossible. Then I remembered I had a can of pureed sweet potato languishing away in the pantry. I had bought it on a whim, seeing it in the store and knowing it would be fabulous in something. Today, I hit upon that something.  I checked a few of my cookbooks yet none had sweet potato bread recipes, so I simply adapted a pumpkin bread recipe. Easy peasy. And a darn good idea.

I didn't get too creative with this batch; I wanted to make sure the initial flavors went well together. The next time I make this - and I will make this again soon - I think I'll add a cinnamony crumble like my mom puts atop the sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving.  You could also add pecans, but hubby doesn't like them so I won't.  Perhaps you could even incorporate marshmallows. Hmmm...

Sweet Potato Bread
(adapted from the Pumpkin Bread recipe in Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, pg 132)

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup cooking oil [I used pecan oil to add a slight nuttiness]
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 3 1/3  cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 - 15 oz can of pureed sweet potato 

 
Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease the bottom and a half inch up the sides of two 9x5x3 bread pans.

 In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and oil in medium speed. This will be crumbly, and that's okay.  Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat well. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Alternately add the dry ingredients and water to the wet ingredients. On low, beat after each addition just until combined, making sure the scrape the sides of the bowl every addition or so.  Beat in the sweet potatoes.  

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans. To ensure even loaf sizes, I alternate spoonfuls between the two pans, so spoonful into pan 1, then spoonful into pan 2, spoonful into 1, spoonful into 2. You get the picture. 

Bake 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a knife or spatula around the edges to loosen the loaves. Remove from the pan and cool completely.*

*Ok. I didn't let my cool completely. Or really even mostly. The bread just smelled so good and filled the house with its fragrance 30 minutes into the cooking time. We just had to eat some.