Pumpkin, chocolate, & warm spices team up in Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread, an updated fall classic. Sweet & spicy, it's sure to please!
Ah, traditions…
They lend comfortable predictability to life, like a snuggly blanket on a chilly day.
Here in the US we just celebrated Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday of the whole year. I love that my nuclear family gathers, if only for a few days (with one daughter living in the South, these moments are rare).
I love having all my extended family get together (which is more important than ever now that we don’t live in the same state).
And of course, I love the food traditions. You know, roast turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, and all the desserts (those are my specialty, as you might expect).
I tweak tradition a little bit with my desserts, like Black Bottom Maple Bourbon Pecan Pie, Glazed Orange Cranberry Bread, and Southern Brown Sugar Pie.
Yummm...
(pausing to wipe the drool off my keyboard)
One tradition I don’t touch is that my Father-in-Law won’t let me in the door unless I promise to bake him my Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread, and that’s upwards of 30 years now!
Jump to:
Hunting for the right recipe
I couldn’t find my original recipe when I moved to Boston, so I searched until I found one on Alexandra Cooks that looked similar to what I remembered.
A few tweaks here and there, and voilá…Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread as it has always been.
Then I found my old recipe I had used for years. You can see how well loved (and adapted over the years) it was.
Pumpkin and chocolate are well matched
This pumpkin bread recipe starts out with pure pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling). One 15-oz can of pumpkin is sufficient.
Adding the chocolate chips takes this good pumpkin bread recipe and makes it great. You can substitute chopped nuts or dried fruit for the chocolate chips, if desired (but my Father-in-Law wouldn’t approve).
There was one year when I accidentally bought a large 29-oz can of pumpkin, so I added the 2nd recipe you see in the above picture for Pumpkin Gingerbread Loaves. I couldn’t let that extra pumpkin go to waste!
[Side Note: If you are a sourdough baker, I have a recipe for Sourdough Pumpkin Cake that uses your unfed sourdough starter discard, plus a lot more sweet and savory recipes. Check it out!]
An easy to mix batter
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread is considered a quick bread, so it's super easy to make. All you do is combine all the ingredients together in a bowl.
Easy peasy!
My recipe makes two loaves in a standard loaf pan (here I'm using a glass baking dish). You can also make eight mini Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Breads using mini loaf pans.
Pumpkin, chocolate, and warm spices team up to make this the best Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread around!
Moist and flavorful, sweet and spicy, it's sure to please your family during the holidays!
Having baking traditions is a great way of celebrating the past, even if you tweak them a bit!
Slainté! L’chaim! Cheers!
Tammy
Recipes for quick breads & bundt cakes
Most quick bread & muffin recipes can be made as bundt cakes, and vice versa.
The secret is if the recipe makes one loaf in a standard loaf pan, use a small 6-cup bundt pan. If the recipe makes two loaves (or one extra large loaf), use a standard 10- to 12-cup bundt pan.
Other options using a recipe that makes one loaf in a standard loaf pan are 4 mini breads in mini loaf pans, 12 muffins in a standard muffin pan, or 24 muffin bites in a mini muffin pan. Great for breakfast or gift giving!
You can also adjust the recipe you're using (doubling or halving it) to fit the pan you'd like to use. Don't be limited to one shape for a recipe!
Recipe
The Best Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- 1 cup canola oil
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 can pumpkin purée, canned, not pie filling
- ¾ cup water
- 2 cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Spray two standard loaf pans with a baking spray.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar, oil, eggs, pumpkin purée and water and mix only until just incorporated, then stir in chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into prepared pans (don’t fill pans higher than ⅔ full).
- Bake for about an hour (if using standard loaf pans) but start checking for doneness after 45 minutes. The loaves are done when center springs back when touched and a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the pan for 15 mintues, then remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack. Serve and enjoy!
