Pumpkin Chocolate Nut Bread

I absolutely love sweet breads. They make me want to make a frothy cappuccino and relax with a warm slice. I recently made several banana bread loaves for co-workers and having seen pumpkin puree in my pantry, I wanted to give this combo a try. It came out better than I thought! As much as I love pumpkin everything, I was rather pleased that this bread didn't have a strong pumpkin flavor. Sometimes pumpkin can overpower other ingredients... but this bread was wonderfully balanced. I had to throw some walnuts in for crunch and of course my favorite ghirardelli chocolate chips! 

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Servings: 2 loaves (about 12 slices each loaf) 

Ingredients:

• 2- large bread loaf pans
• 1- 15oz can unsweetened pumpkin puree
• 1 cup softened butter (2 sticks)
• 2 cups Florida Crystals sugar
• 3.5 cups flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp pumpkin spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1.5 cups semi-sweet ghirardelli chocolate chips
• 1 cup walnuts 

Directions:

• Grease your pans with butter. Set oven to 350 degrees. 
• You will need to mix your dry ingredients separately from your wet ingredients as usual, so grab two bowls! 
• In the wet bowl add softened butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, and pumpkin. 
• In the dry bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda, pumpkin spice and cinnamon. Add to wet ingredients. 
• Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts. 
• Sprinkle some chips and nuts on top of the bread. 
• Sprinkle a little bit of extra sugar on top as well!
• Bake in 2 loaf pans for about 65-70 minutes. You can tell that the bread is done if you stick a wooden toothpick in the middle and it comes out clean! 

Enjoy this bread with a coffee or a cold glass of milk, but most definitely warm it up a bit before digging in... it is so perfect when the chocolate gets gooey. This is a strong competition to my banana bread!