Pumpkin Apple Bread

The semester is over (just about), and I'm busy grading papers. And since grading papers is the number one reason to do something else, I baked a couple loaves of pumpkin apple bread this morning--one for us and one for our wonderful neighbors. If you look in the picture, you can see the stack of papers (unfortunately only a small portion of the many yet to grade) and my red pen.

The recipe is from The Gourmet Cookbook.

PUMPKIN APPLE BREAD
For topping:
1 T. all-purpose flour
5 T. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1 T. unsalted butter, softened

For bread:
3 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 t. salt
2 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1 t. grated nutmeg
1/4 t. ground cloves
1/4 t. ground allspice
1 (15 oz) can solid-pack pumpkin
3/4 c. vegetable oil
2 1/4 c. sugar
4 large eggs, slightly beaten
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (2 cups)

Make the topping:
Blend together flour, sugar, cinnamon, and butter in a small bowl with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Make the bread:
Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Butter two 9x5 loaf pans.
Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice into a medium bowl. Whisk together pumpkin, oil, sugar, and eggs in a large bowl Add flour mixture, stirring until well combined. Fold in apples.
Divide batter between buttered loaf pans. Sprinkle half of topping evenly over each loaf. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center of bread comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes.
Cool loaves in pans on a rack for 45 minutes, then turn out onto rack and cool completely, about 1 hour.