Hi friends! Baking season is upon us and this week, I have a fun new recipe for you! Pumpkin chocolate quick bread. It officially qualifies as my one pumpkin recipe for the year. Ha! Y’all know how I feel about pumpkin, right? I have a confession to make too…
Yep, we’re using cans and bags to make this quick bread. And no, I don’t feel guilty about it. Ok, ok! I do feel a little guilty about it (please don’t take away my blogger card!), but I’m going to enjoy it anyway! It’s worth every guilt-filled bite.
Everything about this bread makes me happy! Yes, even the pumpkin part! The flavors of fall come through with the spices and who can resist chocolate? It pairs perfectly with coffee too! Which is probably the part I like best!
This bread also gave me a chance to use my new tea loaf pan! It’s ceramic and fabulous! Because of the shape (thinner and longer) than regular loaf pans, it bakes faster!
And the chocolate down the center… mmmm! It’s just melted chocolate mixed in to a small amount of the pumpkin batter so you still get both flavors. Delicious!
Ok. I have another confession to make. I’m not very good at creating the perfect center of chocolate in the middle of this bread. It’s supposed to have this fabulous interior, so when you slice it, people go “Ohhhh! Ahhhh! Pretty!!” The trick to that is to leave plenty of room around the chocolate batter so a goodly amount of the plain pumpkin batter will bake up around it. Sadly, I didn’t do that. My chocolate got too close to one side of the pan.
This is the other side of the loaf… see the chocolate poking through?
That’s a no-no.
Oh well! We all know how to fix it for next time. Plus, it’s still delicious. If anyone gives you a hard time for not having perfectly centered chocolate in the middle of your pumpkin bread, tell them to call me. I’ll set them straight!
So, I have a third and final confession. I made this pumpkin bread on a day when THIS was happening in my kitchen:
Thanks to winning the IE Media Awards for Blog of the Year, the local newspaper sent over a photographer who wanted some shots in my kitchen. What a perfect time to make this bread, right? I was thinking it’s going to be all fabulous and impressive and … yeah, not so much. You know what? The photographer liked it! He’s a nice man.
It doesn’t look too bad. Does it?
The article will be out next week and I’m super nervous about it. (That may be confession number four for this post! HA!) Look for all the links and things on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I’ll be sharing!
For now, here’s the recipe for this Pumpkin Chocolate Quick Bread. Maybe don’t make it for the first time on a day when a photographer is coming over. Just saying’.
Until next time, friends! Live life deliciously!
