Pumpkin Chip Bread

December’s cookbook of the month is a classic – Joy of Cooking. Originally written  and self-published by Irma Rombauer in 1936,  this quintessentially American cookbook has sold more than 18 MILLION copies. We don’t own it, but I knew someone in my family did, so we borrowed a copy of the 1997 edition from my aunt. I’ve never cooked out of it before… It’s quite the behemoth! The tiny font and the lack of pictures makes it hard to approach, but the sheer number of recipes in here is amazing. I’ve decided that the best way to cook through JoC is to pick an ingredient you want/need to cook with and see what recipes in the book use that ingredient. Chances are, there will be several! That’s exactly what I did here. We had leftover roast pumpkin from our Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie, so I decided to let that be my guiding ingredient for my first JoC foray.

The biggest modification I made to the book recipe is the addition of the chocolate chips. Selim thinks everything is better with chocolate chips, so we had to add some. It turned out well. It’s a perfect use of leftovers and a quick pathway to an easy treat!

Pumpkin Chip Bread

(Adapted from Joy of Cooking, 1997 edition)

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 cup AP flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 stick (8 tbsp) butter, room temperature
• 1 cup turbinado sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 small baking pumpkin (or 1 cup pumpkin puree)
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Place halves facedown on a cookie sheet. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the flesh is tender and skin easily peels back.
3. Decrease oven heat to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan.
4. Sift together the first 8 dry ingredients (flour though baking powder).
5. In a different bowl, whisk together the milk and vanilla.
6. In a third bowl, cream the butter with the sugars. Now beat in the two eggs. Follow that with 1 cup of pumpkin.
7. Now add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, alternating each, while beating on low speed.
8. Once well-combined, fold in the chocolate chips.
9. Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for ~1 hour, until a toothpick comes out cleanly.