Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

 MMMMMmmmmmmmmmm.  Pumpkin bread.

This is my favorite recipe for Pumpkin Bread and is guaranteed to make your house smell Autumnal and Amazing (what is it with me and alliteration?  Enough already! :) ).

The original calls for raisins, and I love raisins--just not in most baked goods.  They get all slimy and bloated.  Not very appetizing, see?

But substituting chocolate chips is genius, if I do say so myself, even though I can't take credit for the idea of pairing pumpkin and chocolate.  When I first moved to Utah to begin college, my sister would come visit every so often.  When she did, she would go get some groceries for me at a local grocery store called Smith's (sadly no relation).  They made something delicious there called pumpkin chocolate chip cookies--I realize that probably they have been around for ever, but to me, these cookies were a revelation.  If you haven't tried them, I recommend them highly.

So anyway, onto the recipe, which comes by way of Deb Drake from The San Francisco West Portal Lutheran Church's cookbook.  Church cookbooks are the best!  It was my maternal Grandmother's church, and she gave my mom, my sister and me each a copy for Christmas the year before she passed away.  Cooking from it makes me happy, remembering her.

Okay, really--onto the recipe.


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

2/3 cup butter
2 2/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 lb. pumpkin (I use canned usually, but it also works with one you bake and puree yourself, too)
2/3 cups water
3 1/2 cups any mix of white and whole wheat flour (I use finely ground white whole wheat, but anything works)
1/2 tsp ground cloves (the original recipe called for more cloves and less cinnamon, but I like this mix better)
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cardamon (cheapest source is from a whole foods bulk spice aisle--don't pay $10+ a bottle at the grocery store!)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or 9 ounces roughly chopped chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Generously grease two 9" x 5" loaf pans.  Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  beat in eggs until well blended.  Stir in pumpkin and water, mixing well.  Sift dry ingredients (or just fluff them around in the bowl after you dump them on top of the wet ingredients like I do :) ).  Stir into pumpkin. just until blended.  Add chocolate chips or chocolate.  Divide into pans.  Bake for approximately 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out cleanish with no batter stuck to it.  I usually just poke the center gently with my finger and when it is solid instead of mushy when you push it, it is done.

Enjoy my favorite taste (ok, one of 'em) of Autumn.




I'm linking up to: Modern Country Style's Fall in Love link party.