Battle of the Pumpkin Breads

I found two great pumpkin bread recipes online, and I decided I had to try them side by side to find a winner. The first recipe is different than traditional pumpkin bread in that it has a pecan topping. 

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar 

2 eggs 

1/2 cup vegetable oil 

1/3 cup water 

1 (15 ounce) pumpkin puree 

1 3/4 cups plain flour 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon baking powder 

1 teaspoon salt 

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 

TOPPING:

1 tablespoon butter 

1/4 cup brown sugar 

3 tablespoons milk 

1/4 cup pecans, chopped 

1. In a medium size bowl beat eggs and mix with sugar, oil, water and pumpkin.
2. In another bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients only until just blended. Do NOT over-mix.
3. Pour into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 50 to 60 minutes.
4. For topping: In a small saucepan mix butter, brown sugar and milk. Boil only 2 1/2 minutes while stirring constantly. Immediately drizzle on top of loaf. Sprinkle with chopped pecans and press pecans lightly into topping.
5. Wrap and store until next day for serving. This will keep moisture inside.

Pumpkin bread with pecan topping

The second recipe I tried was also not "traditional" pumpkin bread in that it uses dry vanilla pudding mix. The pudding mix helps keep the bread soft and moist.

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup vegetable oil
5 eggs
1 16-oz can of pumpkin
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
2 pkg. instant vanilla pudding (dry)

Directions:
1. Grease 2 loaf pans. 

2. Mix oil, eggs, and pumpkin in mixing bowl and beat well. 

3. In a separate bowl sift together flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix until blended. 

4. Stir in pudding mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour (my bread was still goopy in the middle and had to be put back in the oven for about 15 more minutes).

Moist pumpkin bread

So which one is the winner? Well, I don't know. I loved the topping in the first recipe, because I am a huge pecan fan. However, I actually liked the bread of the second recipe better. The vanilla pudding mix made the pumpkin bread extremely moist. It also had a slightly different flavor, which I preferred compared to the first recipe. In the future, I think I might just add the topping of the first recipe to the second recipe. Best of both worlds?