Yeasted Chocolate-Chip Pumpkin Bread
A few times a month my husband goes paintballing, and though we have a number of things in common – a love of SciFi, an interest in cooking, among other things – paintballing is not one of them. He tried to get me into it, offering to buy me my very own Tippmann A5 paintball marker and a camouflage outfit. He sat next to me at the computer and showed me all the different camo patterns, exclaiming: “It’ll be such a good experience for you baby. You’ll be a warrior baking babe!” After a few weeks of this I caved, renting camouflage and a marker for the day then braving the wilds of upstate New York along with a handful of the teens in my youth group. I played for about five hours and I admit, there’s a certain allure to the adrenaline rush that comes with running like a bat out of hell, terrified that the next popping sound you hear will shortly be followed by the impact of a high velocity paintball smacking your bum. But ultimately, it wasn’t for me. I’d rather stay home and bake.
That’s what I did today, starting a batch of dough while my husband was assembling his various paintball markers (yes, he has more than one) and donning his battle gear. As he got in the car and drove off I waved goodbye, then made myself a honey-vanilla latte, put Oreo on the treadmill and watched the Sex and the City movie, on loan from Netflix. Much more appealing start to the day if you ask me. Originally I was going to watch Baby Mama, but because my husband wants to watch it too I magnanimously agreed to wait for him. He’s already seen SATC, so that was fair game… and now you see what I mean about our being kindred spirits, except when it comes to paintball. 
The result of this morning’s baking was the loaf of yeasted chocolate-chip pumpkin bread you see here. I’ve been working on the recipe for a couple weeks now, experimenting with bread flour vs. all-purpose, vegetable oil vs. butter, this spice vs. that, conducting all manner of trials in my kitchen until I arrived at the recipe below. I know pumpkins are the thing in October and though I love the traditional pumpkin ‘quick’ bread, I wanted to create a lighter alternative to those dense, heavily spiced loaves. This yeasted version is sweetened with light brown sugar and spiced with an aromatic combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. When I first created the recipe I was adding cranberries and pecans to the bread, but eventually I decided semi-sweet chocolate chips were the way to go. It was a spur of the moment modification, but let me tell you, chocolate and pumpkin make a sweet pair. You should feel free to modify the amount of chocolate in the recipe according to your taste – the more you add (up to 3/4 cup) the sweeter each bite of bread will be! Use the best quality chocolate you can find.
I hope you enjoy this recipe and don’t forget about the monthly book giveaway! September’s winners have been posted on the giveaway page and this month’s giveaway features two of my favorite books: Some Like It Hot: 50 Drinks to Warm Your Spirits by Holly Burrows, and Great Grilled Cheese: 50 Innovative Recipes for Stove Top, Grill, and Sandwich Maker by Laura Werlin.
Yeasted Chocolate-Chip Pumpkin Bread (My Recipe)
Ingredients: Makes 1 large loaf
- 4 to 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 heaping tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup low-fat milk, warm
- 1/4 cup melted butter (warm, not hot)
- 1 large egg, plus one more for the glaze
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, according to taste
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl, combine the warm milk, the yeast and 1 tablespoon of the flour. Allow to rest for 5 minutes.
Add the pumpkin puree, spices, light brown sugar, salt, egg, and melted butter. Mix until combined. Add the flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well between additions. After you have added 2 cups of flour, add the chocolate chips, then continue with the rest of the flour. When the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl switch to your dough hook, or a wooden spoon if making bread by hand.
If using a stand mixer, knead the dough for 4 minutes, adding extra flour 1 tablespoon at a time, if needed – just enough to keep the dough from sticking to the sides of the bowl. If making the bread by hand, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 4-5 minutes, sprinkling with flour as needed to prevent sticking. *Note: Although I generally use my stand mixer to knead my dough, I always turn it out onto a floured surface and finish the kneading by hand, for the last minute or so. It’s the best way to know when the dough has been kneaded enough. The dough is done when it’s smooth and bounces back when you press your thumb into it.
Place the dough in a deep container greased with 1 tsp of olive oil. Turn the dough once to coat the top and cover with plastic wrap. Allow dough to rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Spray a spring-form cake pan with baking spray (such as Pam) and lightly flour. Sprinkle the flour on the bottom and along the sides, then invert the pan and tap out any excess flour.
Divide the dough into 3 equal portions, and roll each portion out into a smooth, thick strip about 15 inches long, with the ends slightly thinner than the middle. Be gentle with the dough or you’ll tear it, which wouldn’t affect the final flavor but would influence the way the finished loaf looks.
Lay the ropes side-by-side, not quite touching. Beginning in the middle and working towards you, braid the lower half of the three ropes. To braid, alternately move the outside ropes over the one in the center – left over, right over, left over – until you come to the end. Now go to the other side of your working space and braid the other half, this time moving the outside ropes under the center one. Braid tightly – you don’t want any gaps. When you finish braiding each side crimp the tapered ends together, then tuck them under. Twist the braid around itself, pinwheel fashion, gently pressing the outside end against the larger body of dough. Transfer to your prepared pan.
Whisk together 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of olive oil, this is going to be the glaze for your bread. Gently brush the dough with it. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
About 30 minutes before baking, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Brush the dough with the egg mixture again. The dough will have stretched during rising, so be sure to get any spots that don’t have glaze on them.
Place the pan on a rack in the center of the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until browned and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it with your fingers. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then transfer the bread to a cooling rack. Allow to cool at least 20 more minutes before slicing.
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I was out of town when you posted this, but my goodness does it look good. Unfortunately I have had some issues with yeast before, so I’m kind of scared to try it. But I did go out and buy some yeast because I’m going to have to try again sometime, right? By the way, I was disappointed to hear your review of The Other Queen because I just got it and I usually love Philippa Gregory. We’ll see how it goes.
Ashley » I usually love Gregory’s books too, which is why I was so sad to write the review that I did. But reviews aren’t worth much if I’m not honest, so I shared my experiences as they were. Still, just because I didn’t like “The Other Queen” that doesn’t mean you wont! I’d be curious to hear what you think of it.
this bread looks so yummy, i’ve got to try it!
I think I know what I’m going to be making this weekend–thanks!
I wouldn’t necessarily have thought to put chocolate in with pumpkiny breads, but this sure looks good.
It is really exciting to find a blog where EVERTHING seems to be to my taste. Your reading list looks a lot like one I would have,if I would take the time to make one. Ditto for your recipes! Being a little older it is good to see I’m not out of the mainstream YET!!
Jo Schroder » Always a pleasure to meet a kindred spirit!
Jo
Glad to know that I wasn’t the only on who couldn’t get into “The Other Queen” Decided to try another of Gregory”s books “The Queen’s Fool”, it is starting out better. Now to try the Yeasted Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
My boyfriend loves all things pumpkin and i’ve been searching for a new pumpkin recipe for weeks that wasn’t a pie or the traditional quick bread. Thanks a bunch I think I found it! and i’ve been hearing rumblings about this pumpkin-chocolate combination, smitten ktichen mentioned it too, guess i’ll see if it works!
Oh wow. Pumpkin and Chocolate, together, in bread!
I cannot wait to try this recipe, pumpkin is a favorite of mine. This would be lovely at Thanksgiving dinner.
This bread sounds delicious, and I’d love to try it because I have some leftover pumpkin puree in the fridge to use up. I’ve already made pumpkin muffins and pumpkin waffles (both delicious) but this sounds like a nice light treat!
I just have one question – I’m not sure I understand the step that comes after the braiding – the twisting it pinwheel fashion. I can’t really visualize it. Can you help? Thanks a lot.
Wanted to let you (and your readers) know that I tried making this in a bread machine last night. It came out great, but huge. (I have a 2# Zojirushi machine.) If I make it again, I’ll try to make a 1.5#. Could probably use less yeast, too. It didn’t come out as orangey as yours, but I also used dark brown sugar and the machine breaks up the chips a bit.
AnnMarie – Thanks for the report! I’ve never used a bread machine so I’m not sure what adjustments you’d have to make, but I’d love to hear how the bread comes out the 2nd time around.
Just made this and it was a hit! I used Ghiardelli 74% cacao baking chips which turned out to be uber large chips. I was going to chop them up and said what the heck and just threw them in. My house is way too cold to let it rise at room temp so I always preheat my oven to 100F for about 5 min then stick it in there with a bowl of hot water. Anyway, the chips got all warm and gooey so when I punched down the dough and kneeded it a few times before forming the ropes it created a lovely swirled pattern. So instead of pumpkin chocolate chip bread it was more pumpkin chocolate marble bread. Really pretty! and tasty!
Sarah – So glad you liked the recipe! I love the idea of the chocolate swirled throughout the bread, yum.
Here’s a picture of the bread I made where the chocolate chips went all swirly:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=36024924&l=be924&id=11008072
Sarah – I would love to see the photo but the link isn’t working.
Do you want to email it to me?
As I started packing up my cupboard, I discovered a can of pumpkin. The snowy day inspired me to take a stab at a yeast bread instead of a quick bread. I am waiting through the second rise. I hope it turns out!!
Asta – Let me know how it turns out!