ksmith | Saturday

Dreary day. Cloudy. Drizzly. Never got much above 40F. A good day to hang out in the kitchen. Currently marinating a sirloin tip in red wine/garlic/pepper. Baked a loaf of pumpkin-chocolate quick bread, which came out yummy:

Pumpkin Chocolate Loaf

Butter and flour for pan
1 3/4 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsps pumpkin pie spice**
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into pieces (I used Ghirardelli semisweet chips)

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9x5-inch loaf pan (they say nonstick, but I used glass and didn't have a sticking issue).

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a mixing bowl and stir together.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter in a large bowl until softened. Add the sugar and continue beating. Add eggs and beat until well-blended. Add pumpkin, vanilla, and finally the flour mixture, beating until just well-blended.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over medium-high heat until totally melted, about 5 minutes. Or melt in a glass bowl in the microwave for about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, or until completely melted and smooth.

Spoon half the batter into the loaf pan. Drop spoonfuls of half the chocolate on top of the batter, then swirl the chocolate into the batter with a wooden skewer. Repeat with the remaining batter and chocolate, making sure to swirl the chocolate into the batter well.

Bake the loaf for about one hour or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the loaf cool for at least 15 minutes and then invert onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temp.
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I don't think the skewer worked too well. I thought I had swirled the hell out of the chocolate, but as you can see from the picture, not much happened. I may try a butter knife next time.

There's another recipe following in which you use a loaf of this bread to make pumpkin-chocolate bread pudding. More chocolate is added, among other things. I may try it later.

I made my own pumpkin pie spice with cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, and allspice. Can I find the exact recipe I used--no. But I found it via Google and there are a million more of them out there.

Page proofs arrived for "8 rms full bsmt", along with a very pretty cover, some of which is cut off because I couldn't save the rotated version for some stupid reason. I think I need to cough up for proper image software.

Anyway, cover: