Try more recipes from our 'bread winners'

Last week, we shared three of the recipes that won members of The Pilot’s Dream Team ribbons at the State Fair of Virginia in the quick breads division. We have more instructions this week: the third-place finisher in the fruit or nut bread category and the second-place recipe in the biscuit category. In all, the team won five ribbons, and now you can try to re-create their success in your own kitchen.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Sweet Bread

(Fruit or nut bread, third place) Linda Montgomery, Virginia Beach

FOR CREAM CHEESE MIXTURE
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ cup white sugar
1 large egg
1½ tablespoons flour
¼ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

FOR PUMPKIN MIXTURE
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 15.9-ounce can pumpkin, or 2 cups fresh pumpkin
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)
1½ cups toasted sugar and spice pumpkin seeds (recipe below)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans.

For cream cheese mixture, beat together cream cheese, sugar, egg, flour, sour cream and vanilla extract until well blended. Place in freezer for 30 minutes to an hour.

For pumpkin mixture, beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin.

In another large bowl, sift flour, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir that mixture into pumpkin mixture on mixer’s lowest speed in two additions. Mix in walnuts, if desired.

Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Drop cream cheese mixture onto top of batter in the middle.

Sprinkle toasted sugar and spice pumpkin seeds on top of batter and cream cheese mixture.

Bake until tester in center comes out clean, about 70 minutes. Turn loaves out onto racks and cool.

Toasted Sugar and Spice Pumpkin Seeds

2 cups pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons melted butter or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons granulated sugar, or more, to taste
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice

Heat oven to 300 degrees.

Rinse seeds well if using fresh ones and pat dry with paper towels. Toss seeds with butter, sugar and spices. Spread seeds in a shallow baking sheet lined with foil.

Bake for about 45 to 60 minutes, turning from time to time until nicely browned and crunchy. Let cool. (You can double the recipe and freeze half for up to six months.)

Sweet Potato Biscuits

(biscuits, third place) Anne Covington Urbi, Norfolk

1 1/2 cups cold mashed sweet potatoes (with fibers removed if mixing with a beater or sliced thinly and roughly mashed by hand)
2 cups sifted flour (start with about 2¼ cups; I used Lily White all-purpose flour)
5 teaspoons baking powder (without aluminum sulphate)
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup sugar
½ cup cold shortening (I used 1/4 cup unsalted butter and 1/4 cup lard)
About 3 tablespoons buttermilk or half and half (amount will depend on how moist the sweet potatoes are)

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Lightly grease an insulated cookie sheet.

Cook sweet potatoes in advance, and chill in skins until ready to use.

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

Cut in shortening using a pastry cutter until pieces are quite small.

Stir or cut in the sweet potato mixture until well blended.

Add buttermilk, starting with less than the full amount. Add more if needed. Dough will be very sticky and will not form a ball.

Place dough on well-floured pastry cloth, sprinkle with flour and knead about six times. It will not be elastic. Roll out to about ¾-inch thickness using a floured rolling pin.

Cut with a 2-inch cutter. Gather the scraps, knead two or three times and cut second batch.

Space biscuits about an inch apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for about 8 to 9 minutes on the rack one notch above the oven’s middle. After 7 minutes, check color of bottoms and tops. They may need another minute or two, but be careful because the bottoms burn easily. (Biscuits on edge of pan will cook faster and need to be removed sooner.)

– Adapted from “The New York Times Southern Heritage Cookbook,” compiled by Jean Hewitt