Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Pumpkins have appeared everywhere, seemingly overnight. October is prime pumpkin season, and everywhere I look I see them, bins and piles of bright orange squashes. They sit on porches next to mums and bales of hay, waiting to be carved at Halloween. Personally, I prefer my pumpkins un-carved so they can be displayed through Thanksgiving.

We’ve discussed pumpkin at length on this blog, but I continue to be amazed at how many different variations of pumpkin recipes that exist, particularly on the internet. I found this one one another blog, but tweaked it slightly to make it my own (I increased the amount of spices recommended in the original). It’s a rather large recipe, yielding three 8 x 4 loaves; I used foil loaf pans for them instead of using my regular loaf pans so I could give them as gifts. The original author of the recipe reports that they freeze very well, so they could be made ahead of time and given as holiday gifts.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray three 8 x 4 loaf pans with baking spray (or regular nonstick spray)

In a very large bowl, mix flours, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, eggs, and water until very well blended.

Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mixing well so that no streaks of dry ingredients remain.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide batter evenly between three pans; I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to do this.

Bake for 60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack in pans; once completely cool, remove from pans and wrap well in plastic wrap and foil (especially if you’re freezing any loaves).