Seeing as how I’ve been strongly suggesting pumpkin recipes in my Clippings posts of late, I thought I should finally get around to doing something with pumpkin. Hopefully this won’t be the last foray because I believe you can safely get away with cooking with pumpkin between September and December. Unsafely, I see no problem in pushing it all the way until Spring. I mean, pumpkin usually connotes warm and spicy. Why do those feelings have to end with Thanksgiving? In Canada, we need those feelings to keep us going through months and months of winter.
When I came across this easy easy easy chocolate chip pumpkin loaf, I knew I had the perfect Sunday afternoon task to make my coworkers love me on Monday morning. As I learned last year, pumpkin and chocolate are well-suited for each other. Chocolate gives your cold-weather pumpkin treat a little more engine power. It appears that magic happens when you add something sweet and rich like chocolate to baked goods of the vegetable variety. Think about cream cheese icing and carrot cake or zucchini bread and chocolate. They’re tricks to get us to eat our vegetables, sure, but are you complaining?
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Loaf
Adapted from Big Girls Small Kitchen
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 can pureed pumpkin (~14-15 oz)
1 cup chocolate chips or chunks or chopped chocolate
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking powder, and soda. In another bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, vanilla, and vegetable oil until thick. Fold the dry ingredients into the beaten mixture until well blended. Stir in the pumpkin, then add the chocolate. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake 1 hour, until it tests done with a toothpick or cake tester. Remove from the pan and cool completely on a rack.
