Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

I'm not sure if any of y'all have noticed, but there's this rather notable obsession with pumpkin in the American sphere these days. And by notable I mean in-your-face-all-the-time-everywhere-you-go-everything-is-pumpkin-and-pumpkin-spice-and-it's-insane-from-September-to-Halloween. I like pumpkin. I like pumpkin spice. I am not nearly as head over heels for the stuff as many other folks.

I do adore pumpkin bread. Apparently I always have. The recipe that I use is one that my mom requested from my marvelous preschool teacher, Harriet, who was my saving grace at the JCC. I was a rather difficult kiddo there. Mostly because I couldn't stay still.  I had my own way of doing things. Like playing with crayons by standing on a table and throwing them around the room instead of, y'know, drawing. One of my earliest memories is having to spend the school-wide shabbat celebration in the hallway instead of in the social hall with all of the other preschoolers, because I got just a little too enthusiastic about the prayers and songs. Harriet could have made me sit quietly and not participate at all in order to reinforce that I needed to follow the rules if I wanted to have fun. Instead, she came out to the hall with me and said "We'll do our own shabbat." We sang the songs. We celebrated. 20ish years later, I decided to become a rabbi. Thanks, Harriet. And thanks for the best pumpkin bread in the world.

Ingredients (modified slightly from the original)- makes 2 loaves

• 4 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 can pumpkin (or about 2 cups fresh cooked)
• 2 1/2 cups white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon (or more if you love cinnamon)
• 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 6 oz mini chocolate chips

Procedure

This is a quick bread, which means that wets and dries are mixed separately and then combined. You'll need 2 loaf pans for this, and I imagine these could also be made as muffins. You might have to adjust the baking time. 

• Grease your loaf pans well and pre-heat oven to 325°F
• Beat the eggs and sugar together and stir in the oil, water, and pumpkin
• In another bowl, mix the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices



ok, ok, so I cheated and put it all in the bowl with the wet stuff. 



• Stir the flour mix into the egg mix, taste (yes, I know there's raw egg-- get over it), and add more spices if you'd like. I almost always end up adding more cinnamon.



before



after

• Stir in the chocolate
• Divide the batter between the two loaf pans, dot the tops with chocolate chips if you'd like, and bake for about an hour and fifteen minutes. A knife should come out clean. Depending on your oven, it may take significantly more or less time. I'd check after an hour. Mine usually seems to take more time than expected.
• Remove from the pans after about 5 minutes, but don't try to slice more than the piece you're gonna gobble warm from the oven. It'll be much easier to slice once it's fully cooled. 
• Try not to eat it all in a day. It's tough.