Last year, in an effort to keep my Aeroplan account active I ordered a subscription to Canadian Living (something about a partnership between Aeroplan and Rogers Magazines). I figured I’d go for Canadian Living because they have recipes. Maybe not the BEST recipes, but recipes all the same. Every month I find a recipe or two to clip for my files but I rarely get around to making them. As I was flipping through the February 2008 issue I came across a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Bread.
I made it the next day.
I have a love affair with pumpkin flavoured things. Earlier this fall I bought a few pumpkins, cooked them and froze the pureed pulp for moments just like this. The canned stuff isn’t bad but If I can have fresh I vote for fresh. For the most part I had the rest of the ingredients lying around with the exception of an orange and the chocolate. But that was remedied by a quick trip down the street.
This loaf is kind of amazing. The recipe calls for grated orange rind — normally I hate the orange/chocolate combination but in this bread it’s heavenly. The only substitution that I made was using half whole wheat flour and half white flour. I meant to throw in some ground flax seed, but I totally forgot.
One thing that annoyed me about the recipe is that it calls for semi-sweet chocolate, chopped. I didn’t read the recipe through before going shopping so I just bought those one ounce chocolate squares and chopped them up. You could easily just use chocolate chips and call it a day. Not a big deal but would have made things a tad easier.
This loaf is going into my regular rotation!
PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE LOAF
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp grated orange rind
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
pinch ground cloves
6 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
In large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Stir in pumpkin and orange rind.
In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and cloves. Stir into pumpkin mixture alternately with 1/4 cup water, making 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of water. Fold in chocolate.
Spread in parchment paper-lined or greased 8- x 4-inch (1.5 L) loaf pan. Bake in centre of 350 F (180 C) oven for about 1 hour or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Turn out onto rack; let cool completely. (Make Ahead: Store for up to 3 days or overwrap with heavy duty foil and freeze in airtight container for up to 1 month.) Makes 1 loaf, 12 slices.
Source: Canadian Living Magazine, February 2008.
