The first time I encountered chocolate chip pumpkin bread was when the wife of a colleague brought a loaf of it when their family visited my house. I didn’t think it sounded very good. Chocolate and pumpkin didn’t seem like they would go together very well. So I set it aside and forgot about it. Then, a couple of days later, just to be polite, I tried a bit of it. OH MY GOODNESS!!! I found out how VERY WELL chocolate and pumpkin DO go together!!!
After that I was hooked. They kindly gave me a copy of the recipe. It was originally published in a newspaper recipe column with the name “Mrs. Dugin’s Harvest Loaf Cake.”
pureed dates, raisins and eggs
For many years I made chocolate chip pumpkin bread for pot lucks and work events. It got to be kind of synonymous with Valerie. You know, if there’s a pot luck, Valerie will bring chocolate chip pumpkin bread.
When my family went dairy-free and then gluten-free, I converted the recipe and kept right on making it. This recipe is way too good to lose!
One interesting thing about this recipe is that it is so yummy that you can add all kinds of additional healthy veggies to it and my kids will still eat it. Also, I’m a big fan of converting recipes to use fruit as the sweetener instead of refined sugar. So I’ll give you two versions of this recipe. The first version is classic chocolate chip pumpkin bread, with refined sugar as one of the ingredients, and no sneaky extra vegetables added in. The second version is the wild and woolly version that I make for my family when I want the kids to happily scarf down lots of nutritious delicious food. That version has no refined sugar and lots of added veggies.
Travel tip: Frozen slices of CCPB make good freezer bricks that you can put in a lunchbox and take along on an airplane or other travel, to help keep your other food fresh. And then you can eat the CCPB for breakfast (or lunch, or dinner, or a snack!) while you travel, or at your destination. Though one time I got stopped by the TSA’s scanners because they detected slices of frozen pumpkin bread in my luggage and incorrectly thought that they were liquids in more than a 3 ounce quantity. Oops. But once the TSA agent saw that it wasn’t a liquid, he let me right through.
Chocolate chip pumpkin bread is easiest to slice neatly and it tastes best once it has been refrigerated.
If you cook your own fresh pumpkin for this recipe, you can decide whether to puree it or leave it chunky. I like it chunky, but my picky kids prefer it pureed. Either way, the result is a really delicious loaf.
You can also bake the batter as muffins. Pour the batter into muffin cups and bake for about 19-20 minutes. Check for doneness the same as for a loaf.
I’ve also made a mug cake version, but I haven’t posted that recipe. If you’d like that recipe, please post a comment to let me know, and I’d be happy to post it!
First, here is the more traditional version of the recipe, with refined sugar:
- 2 cups sugar (see other version of recipe for refined-sugar-free version)
- 3 1/2 cups flour (I use my gluten-free flour mix, plus 1 3/4 teaspoons xanthan gum or guar gum)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup canola oil
- 2 cups pumpkin (either canned or fresh)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Stir all ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Oil and flour two 9×5 inch loaf pans. (Use rice flour for the flouring if you are gluten-free.)
- Divide the batter evenly between the two pans. Smooth out the tops with a spatula.
- Bake for 75 to 80 minutes.
- Loaves are cooked when a knife comes out clean (except for some melted chocolate chips), or when a thermometer says it’s 195 to 200 degrees inside.
Now, here is the super-healthy version of the recipe. The refined sugar is replaced with ground up raisins and dates — which tastes sweet and not raisin-y or date-y. I’ve added a ton of blended veggies, more flour mix, and cut the spices in half because they taste much stronger when you’re not using refined sugar. Also I use ground flaxmeal to replace the xanthan or guar gum.
If you are feeding this recipe to picky kids, I suggest starting with the original recipe the first time that you serve it, then the next time you bake it add only a few tablespoons of additional pureed veggies, and increase the amount gradually from there. Don’t start out right away with six cups of kale for your supertaster kid.
- 1 1/2 cups raisins (or dates)
- 1 1/2 cups dates, with no pits or stem pieces (or raisins)
- 5 eggs
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup quinoa flour (if you are not gluten-free, you can use regular flour for all the flour)
- 1 cup teff flour
- 1 cup garbanzo flour (if you like it, or replace with another flour if you’re not sure)
- 1 cup brown rice flour
- 1 cup potato starch
- 2 cups pumpkin (either canned or fresh)
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup canola oil
- 4-6 cups assorted veggies such as frozen broccoli, fresh or frozen berries, the flesh of a mango, a beet, and/or greens — defrosted, drained of any liquid, and pureed smooth for several minutes in a food processor
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place raisins, dates, and eggs in a food processor. Blend until the raisins and dates are shredded into small bits.
- Add the baking soda and spices to the food processor, and blend again.
- Place the mixture from the food processor and all of the other ingredients in a big bowl. Stir until everything is mixed thoroughly.
- Oil and flour three 9×5 inch loaf pans. (Use rice flour for the flouring if you are gluten-free.)
- Divide mixture evenly between the three pans and smooth out the tops with a spatula.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 80 minutes.
- Loaves are done when a knife comes out clean (except for melted chocolate chips), or when a thermometer says the temperature inside each loaf is 195 to 200 degrees.