With melty chocolate chips and spicy pumpkin flavor, all wrapped up into one delicious loaf, this Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread is the perfect fall treat for any pumpkin lover.
Ingredients
Grab these simple ingredients and get baking!
- Sugar – You can’t make a classic pumpkin bread without sugar! This is what makes it deliciously sweet.
- Shortening – Rather than using vegetable oil, I like to use shortening. It helps to create a tender end product. I also use it to grease the bread pan. It won’t cake like many sprays or burn, like butter.
- Eggs – Always assume that a recipe calls for large eggs. And it’s always best to bake with eggs that are at room temperature.
- Pumpkin puree – Make sure you are using canned pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling. Your bread will be way too sweet and the consistency will be all wrong if you use the latter. And if you want to get totally crazy, try our homemade pumpkin puree recipe!
- Vanilla – This rich flavor enhances the pumpkin and chocolate chips.
- Flour – All-purpose flour works great for this recipe. Whole wheat flour makes the texture turn out to be a little too grainy.
- Baking Powder – This acts as a leavening agent and provides the perfect rise and fluffiness in this moist pumpkin bread recipe.
- Fine Sea Salt – We just need a touch of salt here to really bring out the flavors. I like to use fine sea salt.
- Baking Soda – This releases gas in the form of bubbles when baked giving the pumpkin bread its light and airy texture.
- Mini Chocolate Chips – Using minis offers an optimal ratio of bread to chocolate. And minis weigh less so the chances that they just sink to the bottom of the loaf are slim. I reserve a handful for the top as well. I mean, look at those chips!
Variations
The fall flavors of this bread are great as is, but there are plenty of ways you can spruce it up to your liking.
- Chocolate Chips – Measure those babies with your heart! Add as many or as few as your heart desires. Also, feel free to use any variety — dark chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips will both work well.
- Cream Cheese Frosting – This pumpkin chocolate chip bread recipe is already fairly sweet, but feel free to add a slathering of frosting on top. If you want even more sweetness, stir some brown sugar into the frosting or make maple cream cheese frosting.
- Glaze– For just a touch of frosting, use our powdered sugar glaze and drizzle over top after cooling. For extra fall flavor, whisk in some cinnamon, ground cloves, ginger, or nutmeg.
- Pumpkin Muffins – Want to make individual servings? Add the batter to a muffin tin rather than a loaf pan.
- White Chocolate Chips – White chocolate and pumpkin are two of my favorite combos, so feel free to make the switch.
- Mini Loaves – Just like the muffins, you can bake this batter into a mini 5-inch loaf pan as well. Just adjust the baking time accordingly.
- Nuts – Chopped walnuts or pecans would give a nice crunch when mixed into the batter.
- Other Chips – Swap out the chocolate for butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, or cinnamon chips.
- Dried Fruit – Sprinkle some dried cranberries or raisins into the batter.
How to Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
- Prepare oven and pan. Preheat oven and lightly coat a 9-inch bread pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper for easy removal.
- Wet ingredients. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream shortening, and sugar, then add eggs and pumpkin puree. Blend on low until just mixed. Over-blending or beating will result in tough bread, so keep it slow and just until it comes together. Be sure to use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Dry ingredients. In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Gradually add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture until combined.
- Chocolate chips. By hand, fold in chocolate morsels with a rubber spatula.
- Bake. Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan. Bake until the top is lightly brown and it passes the toothpick test. If the top starts to brown too fast, loosely cover it with a leaf of aluminum foil.
- Cool. Let bread cool on a wire rack and then remove it from the pan by gently turning it upside down.
Common Questions About Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
If your bread came out gummy there could be a few reasons why. First, not using the right size pan could cause gumminess. Also, under-baking can cause the bread to become gummy — be sure to test your bread with a toothpick to make sure it’s finished baking. Finally, avoid slicing the bread before it has cooled. The steam can create a gummy texture.
Batter that has too much moisture could be to blame for a gooey center. Be sure to carefully measure your wet and dry ingredients to avoid having the bread turn out gooey in the middle.
Over-baking is the most likely cause of dry bread. Using too much flour is another cause of dry bread — take care to measure precisely.
Storage
Nearly all breads are best within the first one to two days of baking, but if you keep this chocolate chip pumpkin bread tightly wrapped at room temperature or in an airtight container, it will stay moist for up to 5 days.
When you are ready to enjoy the pumpkin bread, take it out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature for an hour or two on the counter. Slice and serve!
Refrigerator
Bread is best kept in a cool dry place — it can dry out in the fridge. But if you want to refrigerate it, you can keep it in the fridge for up to a week.
Freezer
To freeze, wrap the loaf tightly in plastic wrap. Then add to a plastic freezer bag and freeze for up to 2 months.
More Easy Pumpkin Recipes
Looking for more ways to use up that can of pumpkin puree? Here are a few of our favorite pumpkin recipes.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup shortening, plus more for greasing
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips , divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan liberally with shortening. This is optional, but for even easier removal, line the bottom with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy, approximately 2 minutes. Add the eggs, pumpkin puree and vanilla, blending until fully combined.
- In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredient to the wet ingredients until just combined. Do not over mix.
- By hand, fold in 3/4 of of the mini chocolate morsels with a spatula.
- Transfer the batter into the prepared bread pan. Top with the remaining 1/4 of the mini chocolate chips.
- Bake for 50 minutes or until top is lightly brown and it passes the toothpick test. If the top starts to brown too fast, loosely cover with a leaf of aluminum foil.
- Cool the bread for 15-20 minutes and then remove from pan by gently turning upside down.
- East immediately or let fully cool, wrap well and freeze.
- If you've tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was in the comments or star ratings.
Nutrition
The color of this bread is incredible! Perfect way to enjoy the quiet before the storm.
Way to make great use of your time alone and Bake up a storm! This bread is perfect!
Chocolate and Pumpkin and so great together!
Ohhhhhhhh, it looks so good! So moist and delish. It would be perfect to make this weekend and then enjoy throughout the entire next week!
Chocolate and pumpkin sounds amazing!!!
Pumpkin bread is so yummy – love the addition of choc chips!