Pumpkin Bread

Today is a great day to start Thanksgiving Prep, by baking Pumpkin Bread, or Cranberry Bread, or both!
Snack on one today, then wrap it well in foil, and freeze it for Thanksgiving, or bring it to work, or send it off to someone you love.

A couple of years ago, Amanda and I had a great time making this with Stella and Juliette. It is easy and fun to make, and totally yummy. And non-dairy, making it very versatile. The recipe makes three loaf pans if you use the disposable foil or paper ones, or two if you use full size (mine are pyrex) ones. They also work very well in muffin or mini muffin tins.
disposable paper bake pans

Ingredients:
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 16 oz can solid pack pumpkin
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour 2 or 3 loaf pans depending on size.
Beat sugar and oil in a large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin.
Sift flour, spices, baking soda and baking powder together in a large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in two additions. Mix in walnuts if using.
Divide batter equally between pans. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, and bread start to pull away from the side of pan, about 1 hour and 10 minutes for two breads in the large pans.
Allow to cool on racks. Can be frozen directly in disposable pans.

UPDATE:
A couple of footnotes to the above post.
First, and most important: It is often a problem getting the middle of a large pumpkin bread to cook sufficiently without the edges being overcooked. This problem is easily solved by baking it in a ring pan, such as the paper one here:

These paper baking rings are available from baking supply sources like King Arthur Baking Company.

Two: Lisa Friedland suggested adding chocolate chips, and was happy with the result, I wanted to make some of the breads without nuts for Emily, so I divided the batter. One loaf plain, one with walnuts, and one with dried cranberries and walnuts.