Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips

Yeah, yeah, I know: where is the meringue I promised?

I wish I had a decent excuse. Something like: I was abducted by aliens with green, pointy heads and weird names such as Wrchzyzk and Yshdmeb. Or something along the lines of: the Rocking Rebel and I have won the lottery and went to the Bahama’s to celebrate. That would have been nice, wouldn’t it? Even ‘a dingo stole my mixer’ would have been fine! I mean, who makes meringue without a mixer? It’s impossible…

But no. I don’t have a decent explanation. Just my thesis. Which is my excuse for everything these days!

So instead of posting 2000 words on making French meringue today, I thought I’d share my favorite don’t-disturb-me-I’m-writing-my-thesis-snack with you guys today. Because it’s amazing!

Okay, so the first thing you’ll need to know is that I’m going through an orange phase right now. Meaning that I like to eat orange things these days. Maybe because the leaves are turning orange? Maybe because there are pumpkins everywhere? Maybe because orange makes me think of a sunset in the Bahama’s instead of how many words I still need to write before the 30th of November?

Who knows…

All I know is that I’ve been living off nachos, homemade peanut butter and puffy croissants this past week. And this pumpkin bread with chocolate chips (which are really chocolate chunks, to be honest). And guess what? It’s kind of orange!

Why is it so orange? Because there’s a lot of pumpkin in there, that’s why! Duh… Also, the blue background makes the orange/golden brown really pop!

But seriously guys, this bread is gooooood! And super easy to throw together! Which is always a bonus if you ask me… Especially now that I am really super busy staring at that annoying flickering cursor all day long, trying to come up with intelligent things to say about cultural memory and literature. Because for those of you who didn’t take the time to read the titles of the books in the big pile that’s sitting next to my laptop all day, which I just posted a picture of last week, that’s what my thesis is about. Cultural memory and literature.

It’s a very interesting topic and I’m really glad I picked it, but it’s also a huge topic to discuss in just (!) 25.000 words…

But thick slices of this pumpkin bread makes writing a lot easier!

By the way, this isn’t my recipe. It’s by Sally McKenny, the mastermind behind Sally’s Baking Addiction. I loooove that girl! She’s so nice! Did you know she just got married? Sally, if you’re reading this: congratulations! Anyway, I bought Sally’s cookbook a few months ago and I was super glad to find this recipe in it. I couldn’t wait to try it, but then I somehow completely forgot about it. Because … yeah… thesis!

(See? Excuse no. 1 these days!)

Anyway, I suddenly remembered how badly I’d been wanting to make this recipe when Sally posted about it on her blog a few weeks ago. So here it is!

Gorgeous, thick slices of moist pumpkin bread studded with dark chocolate chunks.

That’s just dangerous…

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 15 mins

 

Author: Adapted from Sally McKenny at Sally's Baking Addiction

Serves: 10-12

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 340g (or 1½ cups) pumpkin purée, I used homemade but you can also use canned
• 150g (or ¾ cup) granulated sugar
• 100g (or ⅓ cup + 2 tablespoons) light brown sugar
• 120ml (or ½ cup) vegetable oil, I used sunflower oil
• 60ml (or ¼ cup) orange juice
• 220g (or 1¾ cups) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 120g (or ⅔ cup) dark chocolate chunks

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 175°C/350°F (standard oven setting) and place the oven rack on the lower third position of your oven (so just under the center of the oven). This prevents the top of the bread from browning too much. Line a 23x12-cm or 9x5-inch loaf pan with baking parchment. Use a little butter to help stick the parchment to the sides of the pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin, sugars, oil and orange juice. The mixture should be smooth.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth. Make sure not to overmix. It’s okay if there are still a few small lumps in the batter.
4. Whisk in the chocolate chunks, but reserve a few to sprinkle on top of the bread.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and sprinkle the remaining chocolate chunks on top. Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Because some batches of pumpkin purée may be a bit drier than others, make sure to start checking your cake for doneness after 50 minutes or so.
6. Remove the bread from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature in the pan. Slice and serve.
7. The bread will stay fresh, stored in an airtight container in the fridge, for up to 10 days.

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