Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

I was CRAVING chocolate chip pumpkin bread this weekend.  It's becoming fall, the leaves are turning color, there is a crisper bite in the air, we burn a harvest scent candle at dinner.  This is the fall I love, the fall that is still summer lol I can still wear flip flops with the temperatures in the 70s.  Anyway I felt like making pumpkin bread so I made it! 
This is a Cooking Light recipe so it's semi-healthy.  There are still a decent amount of calories but it's healthier than it could be.  There are things you could do to lower the calorie amount.  You could replace some of the oil with apple sauce and you could use maple sugar in place of the sugar.  I wouldn't replace the sugar with artificial sweeteners but maybe Stevia could work?  I've never cooked with it though so I don't know.  One of the products I also like for replacing sugar is Whey Low.  It's a natural sweetener (more natural than Stevia) that is made from whey.  I didn't replace anything for this recipe because mom likes all her recipes just regular so they taste the same as what she remembers.  My mother also doesn't gain/lose weight like I do so counting calories for her isn't a big deal.  (Let me tell you, living on your own when you make all the dietary decisions is a lot easier on the waistline).  And of course this recipe has pumpkin so it's definitely healthy ;) All those antioxidants. 

Here are the ingredients needed:  flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, canola oil, eggs, milk, pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling), and chocolate chips.

I've recently started sifting my dry ingredients. I never used to, I thought it was all hokey.  I mean what does it matter if your flour is fluffy, you're just going to mix it all together anyway.  But then I read an Alton Brown book and he essentially said anyone who doesn't sift their flour is getting non-fluffy awesome baked goods.  So I'm trying sifting (he just whirls the dry ingredients in the food processor, I use a strainer) for the time being. 

My mound of sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice.  I put the salt in afterwards since I use Kosher salt and it doesn't fit through the strainer.

Next add the sugar, eggs (it called for egg substitute but never buy that stuff so I just used two more eggs in place of the half cup of egg substitute), canola oil, and vanilla (which I added in just for kicks because everything needs vanilla).

Mix them till everything is incorporated.

Then add a can of pumpkin (you can make you own as well) and 2/3 cup of water.  Mix till it looks like orange soup.

This is my favorite picture of the whole bunch.  The colors and the lighting look really good to me.

Then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients mixing just until barely combined.  Lumps are a GOOD thing.

Now dump a bag of chocolate chips in a bowl and add a tablespoon of flour.

Mix them around to coat the chocolate chips with flour.  This helps them float in the batter and not all sink to the bottom.

Add them to the batter and mix them in by hand.

Luciousness :)

Coat two baking pans with crisco (or butter) then dust them with flour.  You could also use parchment paper.

Then evenly divide the batter into the loaf pans and bake for about 50 minutes to an hour until everything is baked though.  Pumpkin is notoriously wet so it takes a long time to bake.  Fyi pumpkin cheesecakes like to tsunami over the edges of the pan. But that's another story for another day.  One that Sarah can tell.

See how the chocolate chips stayed incorporated throughout the whole loaf?  That's what the flour did.  Yummy chocolate :)

And here is a picture of the finished loaf.  The finished half a loaf.  Because we at the other half.  For which I am partly responsible.  I refuse to feel shame!

Here's the recipe!

3 1/3 cup flour
1 tbs baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp all spice
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup egg substitute (or two eggs)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup low-fat butter milk (or skim milk)
2 eggs
2/3 cup water
1 (15oz) can of pumpkin
1 bag chocolate chips
1/3 cup pecans (if you want to sprinkle them on top)

1.  Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice) together and then sift them.
2.  Mix sugar, eggs/egg substitute, canola oil, buttermilk/milk, and 1 tsp of vanilla in a mixer until incorporated.
3.  Add water and pumpkin to the egg mixture and beat until incorporated.
4.  Add the sifted dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix till barely incorporated (leaving some lumps).
5.  Toss a bag of chocolate chips in 1 tbs of flour then mix into the batter.
6.  Divide batter evenly between two greased and floured loaf pans.
7.  Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes to an hour (or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean).
8.  Once pans are removed from the oven let them sit for about ten minutes, the take the pumpkin bread loaves out and let them cool on a cooling rack.