About This Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
This pumpkin choccolate chip bread recipe is loaded with lots of pumpkin spice and uses a generous amount of fall spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. The chocolate and warming spices complement each other and ensures that the baked good is neither too spicy or sweet. Additionally, mini chocolate chips stud the cake’s crumb and top, ensuring you get chocolate with every bite.
Despite these bold flavors, however, the loaf cake remains light in texture and perfectly balanced in flavor. Finally, the recipe instructs you to finish the bread with a generous sprinkling of sugar and chocolate chips. Doing so gives the bread its signature crunchy, chocolaty crust!
Looking for more delicious, homemade loaf cake recipes on Hummingbird High? Check out my site’s Cake Recipe collection! Popular recipes include this Incredibly Soft and Moist Snickerdoodle Bread, Pumpkin Chai Bread, and Moist Banana Bread With Sour Cream.
Why You Should Make The Recipe
This pumpkin chocolate chip bread recipe is based on one of the most popular recipes in my cookbook, Weeknight Baking.
This recipe is based on the “Choose-Your-Own Pumpkin Spice Bread” recipe in my cookbook! The recipe is one of the most popular recipes in the book, with many readers sharing their take on the recipe on Instagram. I suspect that people love the recipe because it allows bakers to customize their pumpkin bread with different pumpkin spice mixes. You can choose to flavor your loaf with “Classic Pumpkin Spice”, “Vanilla Pumpkin Spice”, “Chai Pumpkin Spice”, and more.
Oddly enough, I didn’t include a chocolate variation in the book… so consider this pumpkin chocolate chip bread recipe my update to a beloved recipe!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Here’s your shopping list for the recipe:
Shopping List
- all-purpose flour
- ground cinnamon
- ground nutmeg
- ground cloves
- baking powder
- baking soda
- kosher salt
- canned pumpkin puree
- canola oil
- pure vanilla extract
- granulated sugar
- large eggs
- mini chocolate chips
And let’s talk about the key ingredients and their potential substitutions:
Ingredient Sources and Substitutions
- All-Purpose Flour. You can use a 1-1 gluten free all purpose flour replacer to make the recipe gluten free. I like Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour or King Arthur Flour Gluten Free All Purpose Flour.
- Spices. Don’t want to buy individual bottles of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves? Use 2 ½ Tablespoons of store-bought Pumpkin Spice mix instead!
- Kosher Salt. Kosher salt is the best salt for baking recipes—learn more in my post all about it. But if you don’t have any, you can use table salt instead. Just use half the amount listed in the recipe.
- Canola Oil. You can replace the canola oil in the recipe with any other neutral flavored oil (e.g. grapeseed oil, safflower oil, vegetable oil).
- Canned Pumpkin Puree. In the United States, most grocery stores sell canned pumpkin. Canned pumpkin consists of pumpkin that is de-seeded, peeled, roasted, and pureed. Many American recipes instruct you to use this pumpkin puree in both sweet and savory recipes. My favorite brand of canned pumpkin puree is Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin.
- Chocolate Chips. Check out The Best Chocolate For Chocolate Chip Cookies to see my recommended chocolate for baking!
I don’t have mini chocolate chips. Can I use regular-sized chocolate chips instead?
Absolutely! In a pinch, you can use the same amount of regular-sized chocolate chips instead. However, I used mini chocolate chips because I like the way the smaller chips distribute throughout the batter. It does so more evenly, ensuring you get a lot of chocolate with each bite!
How To Make The Recipe
Here are the basic steps to make pumpkin chocolate chip bread from scratch:
- Prep all the ingredients for the loaf cake. (Prep Time: 5 minutes)
Unless you’re making the pumpkin puree from scratch and grinding your own spices, prep for this recipe is fairly easy! All you need to do is measure out the ingredients to have them on hand. - Make the pumpkin chocolate chip bread batter. (Work Time: 10 minutes)
The batter comes together easily. All you need to do is prep the dry ingredients by whisking together the flour, spices, leaveners, and salt. Then, whisk together the pumpkin, oil, vanilla, sugar, and eggs. Gradually add the dry ingredients, then mix in the chocolate chips by hand. - Assemble the bread. (Work Time: <5 minutes)
Pour the batter into a parchment lined 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. If necessary, use an offset spatula to smooth its top. Now, make it pretty! Garnish the top with 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar and the reserved chocolate chips. - Bake the bread. (Bake Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes)
This recipe bakes for 1 hour and 15 minutes. However, check for doneness at the 1 hour mark. If the top of the loaf cake and its edges look too brown, loosely cover it with aluminum foil until done baking. Check out the baker’s tips below for tips and tricks!
Recipe Troubleshooting and FAQ
Can you freeze pumpkin chocolate chip bread?
Yes, but I don’t recommend it. Why? The sugar garnish gives this loaf cake a crispy, flaky, sugary top studded with chocolate chips. After freezing and thawing for reserving, this sugar top never recovers its crispiness. It’s best to serve this pumpkin chocolate chip bread as fresh as possible.
But if you insist, you can tightly wrap the entire cake or any leftover slices of cake in plastic wrap. Freeze for up to 3 months. To serve, transfer to the refrigerator overnight to thaw. The, let stand at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours before serving. Alternatively, rewarm individual slices in the microwave or toaster oven.
Best Recipe Tips
Ingredient Tips
- Although it can be unclear from the ingredients list, this pumpkin chocolate chip bread recipe uses 1 (12-ounce) bag mini chocolate chips. If you like to buy chocolate chips in bulk, you may need its cup and weight measure in grams. 1 (12-ounce) bag is equivalent to 2 cups (12 ounces or 340 grams) of chocolate chips.
- The bag of mini chocolate chips is then divided for use in the batter and as a garnish. You will use 1 ¾ cup (10 ounces or 283 grams) chocolate chips in the cake batter. You will then use ¼ cup (2 ounces or 47 grams) to garnish the batter. After opening the bag of chocolate chips, I immediately scoop out ¼ cup for garnish and set it aside. Doing so ensures I don’t accidentally use the entire bag of chips for the batter!
Baking Tip
- The Bake Time for this recipe is listed at 1 hour and 15 minutes. However, start checking for doneness at 1 hour. The best way to test for doneness is to use a wooden skewer and stick it in the direct center of the loaf. The skewer should come out with few crumbs. If you find that the skewer is plenty wet with batter but the top of the bread looks too browned to keep on baking, don’t panic! Simply cover the whole thing with a VERY loose sheet of aluminum foil. The aluminum foil will help prevent the top of the bread from browning further. Be careful not to press down on the sheet—doing so will smear the chocolate chips!
Get the Recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread Recipe
Ingredients
For the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
- 1 ¾ cup plus 1 Tablespoon (8.15 ounces or 231 grams) all-purpose flour
- 5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons (9 ounces or 255 grams) canned pumpkin puree
- 1 cup (8 ounces or 227 grams) canola oil
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 ⅓ cups (9.35 ounces or 265 grams) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups (10 ounces or 283 grams) mini chocolate chips (see baker's notes)
For Garnish
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (2 ounces or 47 grams) mini chocolate chips (see baker's notes)
Equipment
- a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan
Instructions
For the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
- Prep your oven and pan. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray and line it with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the long sides. Spray the parchment, too.
- Make the cake batter. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the pumpkin puree, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Whisk on medium-low until just combined, about 1 minute, using a rubber spatula to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the eggs one at a time, adding the next egg only after the previous one has been fully incorporated, scraping down the bottom and sides of the bowl after each addition. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl once more, and whisk on medium for an additional 15 seconds. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and use the rubber spatula to mix in the mini chocolate chips until evenly distributed throughout.
- Assemble the loaf cake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and use an offset spatula to smooth the top. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar for the garnish, then sprinkle with the remaining mini chocolate chips.
- Bake the loaf cake. Set the loaf pan on a sheet pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached. There will still be patches of sugar on top, but that’s totally okay, I promise! In fact, that’s the look you want. Cool on a wire rack.
- Serve and store. Serve warm or at room temperature. The cake can be stored at room temperature, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to 3 days.
This post was last updated on 10/13/2020.
get new recipes via email:
buy the book
Weeknight Baking:
Recipes to Fit your Schedule
Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.
Another winner!! This recipe had me at “5 teaspoons of cinnamon and 2 teaspoons of nutmeg.” So many pumpkin bread recipes are under spiced and this is just perfect. I don’t have a 9×5 pan (it’s on my wishlist) so I took a chance and made these into muffins. Baked at the same temp for about…20 minutes? I stupidly didn’t time them but baked til they were about 205-210 on a thermapen. But they came out soft and moist without being gluey and sturdy enough not to need paper baking cups. And that sugar muffin crust neverrrrr disappoints.
This pumpkin bread recipe is fabulous! I am making it for the second time in two weeks. My children absolutely loved it! I added pecans and used avocado oil in place of the canola oil. Amazing!
Made this last night as an antidote to pre-election anxiety..and the delivered! Really nice, aggressively spiced chocolatey recipe! I was very skeptical about the 5tsp of cinnamon, but I was of course wrong. The spices come through very nicely and give the loaf the perfect taste of fall. With the chocolate and 3/4c of sugar, the result is pretty sweet. So I wouldn’t be able to really eat more than half a slice at a time (which is NOT a bad thing!).
My husband doesn’t eat eggs so I replaced the 3 eggs with 1/2c of unsweetened applesauce and 1 flax egg. My loaf came out slightly more crumbly than I’d like and I’m assumed the replacers didnt do a great job of being good binders. If I were to make this again, I’d probably try 3 flax eggs instead of the applesauce.
My only gripe and general pet peeve with recipes that used canned goods is that the recipe doesn’t use the full can of pumpkin puree! Now I have about half a cup of leftover pumpkin puree that I need to find a use for…
This is your ticket to Autumn! Make it every year, never fails in its deliciousness.