Sugar Swirled Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

I will be the first to admit that I have a sweet tooth, especially when it comes to breakfast foods. I have always been partial to donuts, muffins, and sugary baked breakfast foods. While banana bread is typically made, one of my favorite breakfast treats is pumpkin bread. 

I’m one of those people that loves everything about autumn: boots, sweaters, the smell of falling leaves, a roaring fire, but most of all, pumpkin spice. Sugar Swirled Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread is one of my favorite ways to welcome in fall, and it is an especially great treat to make for a festive Halloween breakfast. 

The best part about this recipe, is that it makes up a GIANT batch. While it can be easily cut in half, I prefer to make the full amount, because entire loaves can be easily frozen and taken out at other times, such as the other upcoming holidays. This makes for a great quick breakfast when the house is full of family on Thanksgiving and Christmas weekends. When wrapped in a double layer of first parchment paper, and then freezer paper, these loaves can last for up to six months in the freezer, but I doubt they will stay that long without being eaten! 

Ingredients

5 cups All Purpose Flour

3 tbsp and 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (divided)

4 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

2 cups Melted Butter

3 cups and 1 tbsp Sugar (divided)

3 ½ tsp Vanilla

1 cup Sour Cream

29 oz Canned Pumpkin

4 Eggs

4 Egg Yolks

2 cups Semi Sweet Morsels

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, then whisk the flour, 3 tbsp pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in the largest bowl in your kitchen. This bowl must be at least 6 quarts to fit the full recipe. 

Kitchen Tip 1: While pumpkin pie spice can be found at the grocery store, it is typically spendy. I recommend finding recipes for making your own instead. Pumpkin pie spice is made up of ingredients that are more commonly found at the store, and are possibly already in your spice cabinet. These ingredients are: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, all spice, and cloves. These spices are all a lot cheaper to buy in bulk than the small containers of pre-made pumpkin spice, allowing large amounts of pumpkin spice to be more affordably purchased. 

2. Melt the butter in your largest microwave safe bowl, make sure that it is at least 2 quarts, or it won’t be large enough to mix all the ingredients together. Then cream 3 cups of the sugar into the butter using a wire whisk. 

3. After the sugar is creamed in, mix in the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and sour cream; then fold in the pumpkin.

4. Combine the wet ingredients into the dry mixing bowl in 3 phases, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula when stirring.

Kitchen Tip 2: This mixing process is the hardest part since the mixture is so thick, and it is a large batch. Make sure to keep working at it, and make sure the bottom of the bowl is clear of flour before moving on to the next step.

5. Once the ingredients are combined, stir in the chocolate morsels.

6. Grease either 3 normal sized loaf pans, or 5 small loaf pans, and pour batter into each until they are ½ to ⅔ full.

7. In a small bowl, combine the remaining tbsp of sugar and tsp of pumpkin spice. Divide the sugar mixture evenly over the top of the loaves.

8. Swirl the sugar mixture into the loaves by tracing an S-shaped pattern into each. Make the S-shaped swirl twice side to side, and then complete the same S-shaped swirl twice up and down. It should look like the picture below when finished.

9. Bake the loaves for 45 to 55 min or until a toothpick can be stuck in and come out clean.

Kitchen Tip 3: Be aware that this bread is very moist because of the sour cream. It can be deceiving sometimes, but DO NOT leave it in the oven too long, or the bottom will burn.  If you choose to do this recipe in a regular sized loaf pan, it may not be fully cooked after 55 minutes, especially since this recipe was created in a convection oven. If you do not have a fan-powered oven, you may need to cook it longer. To avoid burning the bottom of the bread, turn the oven down to 325 degrees after the initial 55 minutes before adding more cooking time on.

10. Leave the bread in the pans on a cooling rack for at least half an hour before taking them out, otherwise they might fall apart.

This bread is so moist, sweet, and delicious. It is one of our absolute favorite autumn specials, and it is nice to always store a couple of loaves in the freezer. You never know when you might have company show up unexpectedly, and this is an easy way to please a hungry crowd. Whether you eat a slice for breakfast or savor a slice as a nighttime snack, this is sure to be a treat and not a trick! Enjoy!