Thursday, March 10, 2011

chocolate chunk pumpkin pie bread

So it's been over a month since my last post. Needless to say, it's been ridiculously busy in the house of sugar and chocolate the past little while. Final assignments and midterms are bearing their ugly, yellow teeth at us, and baking and cooking has taken the backseat to textbooks and group meetings. But finally, I've had enough of pre-packaged food and quick meals. I want the good stuff. The makes-my-house-smell-good treats and dinners that I haven't had for over a month. So in comes one of my favourites: Pumpkin Bread. I'm sadly allergic to bananas, so I painfully miss out on the joys of banana bread but this bread is totally better in my opinion. Spiced up with cinnamon and nutmeg, pecans tossed in, and rich chocolate chunks scattered throughout take this bread so far from plain. Now, as I mop up the drool that is now sloshed all over my keyboard, I give you the coveted recipe.

Just warning you now; this recipe makes 3, count 'em, 3 loaves of bread. The quantity is large, but if you don't want to waste a half a can of pumpkin, then just freeze the other loaves for later! Problem solved!


Chocolate Chunk Pumpkin Pie Bread


3 cups white sugar
1 15 ounce can pure pumpkin puree
NOT pumpkin pie filling
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
4 eggs
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 - 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chunks or chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 3 - 9x5 loaf pans. In a large bowl or mixer, combine sugar, oil, pumpkin, water and eggs. Beat until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Blend dry ingredients together with the pumpkin mixture until well combined. Fold in chocolate and nuts. Fill the loaf pans about 3/4 full. Bake for 1 hour, or until an inserted knife comes out clean (no gooey pumpkin should come out on the knife. Melted chocolate is okay.). I needed to bake mine an extra 15 minutes before there was no pumpkin on my knife. Cool on wire racks completely before removing from pans.

Note:  I bought two aluminum loaf pans for the two loaves I was going to freeze since I only have one real loaf pan. It worked out perfectly! No time adjustments required. ALSO!: you can make muffins using this recipe. I've done this where I made two loaves and 12 muffins (1 loaf = about 12 muffins). Adjust the cooking time of the muffins to about 30-45 minutes.

Enjoy!