Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

I currently have 6 open bags of chocolate chips. SIX. And they're all different- white, milk, semisweet, mini, etc. I decided it was time to use some of them up because honestly this is insanity! I remembered this pumpkin bread recipe and decided to whip it up since I had all of the ingredients on hand. I halved the recipe to yield just one loaf because I don't have two loaf pans. This came out really well. It's moist and light with a nice blend of contrast between the cinnamon and chocolate. Quite tasty if I do say so myself.

I checked my bread after about 55 minutes and the skewer (I used wooden skewers since it's longer than a toothpick) came out perfectly clean. I checked it in 4 areas because I didn't get how it could be done 20 minutes early. They all came out clean so I took it out for fear of over baking it. Ehhh- the bottom is SLIGHTLY undercooked so even though my toothpicks came out clean I wish I had let it keep going. It won't kill us (or I certainly hope not!) but I wish I had trusted the cook time.

Source: Adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 large egg whites
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup milk chocolate chips
Cooking spray

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I am going to go out on a limb and say that my favorite baked good scent is pumpkin. I love the way pumpkin smells when it is cooking. Straight out of the can leaves something to be desired, but as it's baking away with spices and other delicious ingredients it is just so aromatic. I decided to make these more so out of necessity than anything else. I had 1 cup of pumpkin that needed to be used immediately and this recipe looked pretty good. I should have trusted my instincts when I saw that it called for nutmeg as the only spice. I don't like nutmeg. Bleck. However when it's combined with cinnamon, all spice, cloves, etc. I can deal with it. But alone it's just not my thing. I should have omitted it or substituted cinnamon because the nutmeg killed these muffins for me! John still liked them a lot but I just couldn't get past the nutmeg.

The muffins were so easy to make and didn't need the stand mixer which is a bonus- less clean up! They are dense and hearty yet still somewhat moist. I like the base of this recipe but would make some modifications. I think I'd add 1/4 cup of vanilla yogurt to give them some additional moisture. I'd also swap the nutmeg for cinnamon or omit it all together. I look forward to making them again with these alterations.


Source: Adapted from All Recipes

INGREDIENTS

1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/3 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, sugar, salt and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, beat together pumpkin, eggs and water. Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture; beat until well blended. Fold in chocolate chips.

Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. (The original directions say 30 minutes. Mine were done around 22.)

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Nothing screams fall quite like pumpkin. Around early September the food blogosphere goes wild over pumpkin goodies. Add to it that this year there is a slight pumpkin shortage (actually quite severe in some areas) and pumpkin has become all the rage. I honestly wasn't interested in purchasing any pumpkin just yet but after hearing about the shortage I thought I should investigate my local stores to see if it was affecting my area. Surprisingly it was! I quickly added to the hysteria by buying the last two cans even though I didn't have any immediate need for them. It reminded me of when people go and buy milk and bread because the news is forecasting 2 inches of snow- unnecessary hype, but hey- even the strong fall weak at times.

These little delicious pumpkin cookies were on the cookie platters I made for my dad and uncles party. They were delicious and I was able to make them using just the ingredients I had on hand (big bonus!) I didn't have any ground clove so I just added extra cinnamon and they were so tasty. The texture was cakey and soft. I highly recommend this recipe.

Source: All Recipes

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonful.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork or squeeze bottle.

To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.