Chocolate Swirl Pumpkin Bread
I make a lot of breads around here. Is it because there’s something more socially acceptable about having a piece of “bread” for breakfast rather than a cookie, brownie, or piece of cake??? Yep, mostly that. It’s also because I only have what I lovingly refer to as my “adult easy bake oven” to cook out of for now (sorry KitchenAid, you make a lovely toaster oven). That's all to say, the recipes I bake are easy and able to be cooked in a mini oven and this pumpkin chocolate swirl bread is no exception.
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup butter, softened to room temperature
2 large eggs
1 14 ounces can of pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground clove
1/2 teaspoon all spice
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 8- by 4-inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
Mix sugar, oil, butter, eggs, pumpkin, and salt in a large bowl until combined. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, and clove to the batter, and then gently stir until just combined.
Spoon 2 cups batter into pan. Spoon 1 cup batter into measuring cup and reserve.
Whisk cocoa and milk into remaining batter and spoon into pan. Using a butter knife or small offset spatula, swirl the batter a few times, lifting pumpkin batter from the bottom. Then spoon reserved pumpkin batter over the top and swirl a few times more. Do the swirling gently and sparingly- otherwise you'll have a chocolate bread instead of chocolate swirls!
Bake until top is just set and skewer inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs, 60 to 75 minutes (although in my mini oven it takes more like 90 minutes!). Let cool in pan 45 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.