Pumpkin Chocolate Bread with Pecan Crunch and Orange Glaze
Tis’ the season to use your pumpkins, so when I was stuck with a bunch of leftover purée from a brownie recipe I thought …….hmmmmm…….this might just work in my banana bread (instead of the bananas).
And ya know what? It did.
I baked this up on the weekend and lo and behold yesterday was National Pumpkin Day.
Geez, there is a DAY to celebrate everything on Instagram AND I usually miss it.
Seeing as it is fall, and winter is still a couple of months away, it’s time to throw in a pumpkin theme into your favourite recipes.
Not gonna lie, I’m always a little leery about subbing ingredients and had to hold my breath with this one, but to be honest and to quote my youngest son – “THIS PUMPKIN BREAD WAS LEGIT”.
It was moist, delicious and that glaze? Oh my. That glaze was just the icing on the cake….uh….I mean bread.
Lesson learned. Don’t be afraid to experiment in the kitchen. There’s nothing wrong with trying something new with something old.
Can you smell this?
Get up closer.
Now can you smell this?
Hang on.
Close your eyes.
Imagine……..
Cinnamon.
Pumpkin Pie Spice.
Chocolate.
Brown Sugar and Toasted Pecans.
I think you get the picture.
This is a NTIYLR.
(need this in your life recipe)……..do it.
- ½ cup butter, softened*
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ¾ cup white sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1½ cups pumpkin puree (fresh or canned is fine, just don’t use pumpkin pie filling)
- ½ cup sour cream or Greek yogurt – optional but adds richness to the bread
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 cup semi–sweet chocolate chips
- *If you want to keep this dairy free omit the butter and use ¼ orange juice instead.
- For the topping:
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar
- Mixed together and set aside
- For the glaze
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 2 – 3 tbls orange juice
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- Mix together butter, oil, sugars and eggs.
- Add pumpkin puree, sour cream or yogurt and vanilla, stirring together well.
- Mix in flour, baking soda , baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and salt, stirring until it is well blended.
- Pour half of batter into 1 greased large loaf pan or 3 small loaf pans or line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Sprinkle chocolate chips over batter and top with remaining batter.
- Sprinkle batter with pecan/brown sugar mixture, using your hand to gently pat some of it into the batter.
- Bake large loaf pan for about about 60 - 75 minutes , smaller loaves for about 45 minutes. (check with toothpick to see if done) - mine was done in about 70 minutes.
- Allow bread to cool in pan for about 20 minutes, then run a sharp knife around the edges, tap the pan on the counter several times to release the bread from the bottom of the pan, then invert pan over a wire rack and let the bread fall onto the rack to finish cooling completely. The nice thing about using parchment paper is that you can just lift it out of the pan. I highly recommend it.
- Once bread is completely cooled, mix together your glaze ingredients and pour over bread.
- Quick tip. If you want to omit the glaze and have a really really really super moist bread. Wrap it up in foil while it is still warm. This locks in the moisture. Cool right?
Follow
Follow
