Moist chocolate pumpkin bread with cocoa powder and chocolate chips is delicious. Not just a fun Fall dessert loaf but year round it will make your mouth water. If you love moist pumpkin bread but really want to satisfy your sweet tooth too this is the best Fall dessert.
Ready for a loaf of chocolate pumpkin bread? I know, amazing right? Add chocolate chips and take it out of this world delicious. Muffins work too and don’t take nearly as long. Either way you slice it you have just got to make this quick easy dessert this week y’all. (affiliate links present, originally published 9/20)
Chocolate Pumpkin Bread
I mean you can call this bread or cake, either way when it is Fall I am all about every variety of pumpkin things! We’ve gone above and beyond the regular here and think you will think it is a winner too, plug tips on how to bake it to super moist and not dry it out. 😉 Once you’re obsessed with this one you can move on to others. 😉
You don’t have to “do plain” all the time though, throw in some chocolate or make pumpkin bread with apples for a twist. There are lots of add ins as far as that goes. From dried cranberries or crushed nuts and everything in between you can transform the “norm” into lots of different ways to satisfy your sweet tooth year round.
Ingredient Notes
- Pumpkin puree canned or make homemade Instant Pot pumpkin at home so you know what’s in it.
- Cocoa powder comes in dark or regular. You get what you pay for so go for the name brand and it will make your cake a deeper chocolate flavor overall.
- Butter should be softened at room temperature so leave it out about an hour before baking. Dairy free alternatives work just fine for this too.
- Sugar, white granulated will sweeten it, needed to counteract the bitter cocoa. I imagine you could use a sugar free alternative but haven’t tried that.
- Brown sugar, light not packed is required for a deeper sweet to this dish
- Eggs when baking breads should be added at room temperature
- Sour cream will add some fat which means it will be more moist. Substitutions would be plain greek yogurt or even mayonnaise works.
- All purpose flour, alwas make sure you measure flour properly
- Semi sweet chocolate chips are the best, with an extra 1/2 cup on the top too
- Loaf pan with non stick cooking spray or parchment paper lined
- Wire rack for cooling is helpful
Dairy Free Option
If you need dairy free you can find options for butter and chips at the store for that too. I have used a plant based butter product from Country Crock in the past and literally you will never know the difference.
What goes good in pumpkin bread?
There are so many possibilities. If you amp it up with some cocoa and chocolate chips though you will be blown away. Pumpkin banana bread is another favorite if I have overripe bananas to use.
with Cake Mix
If you wanted to do this easier and faster you could use our 2 ingredient pumpkin muffins recipe for the batter but instead of spice mix use devil’s food. I will make it this way often when it is snowy and the kids have been out skiing all day. When home and exhausted I like to have a little treat done to serve up.
As always you’ll want to have 2 bowls ready. One bowl needs to mix the dry ingredients and the other has the wet ingredients. Then incorporate the two gently without over-mixing the two. If you want to make these into muffins, bake time will just decrease to 18-20 min. Here’s what it looks like when it’s sliced. Use a sharp knife to slice and enjoy as a treat for breakfast, for Christmas brunch or a dessert.
How long do you bake chocolate pumpkin muffins?
Whether you make a loaf, regular, large or mini muffins you make the batter the same way. The only difference one the baking begins is you’d use a different pan and I like to use paper liners in this case so they lift out easier. Use the same baking temperature but for 18-20 minutes. Check at 17 min. Once the middle is no longer wet, gently touch, as soon as it springs back take them out, and out of the pan too to cool.
If you want to know how to half a recipe to make less, read this post. Tip: Spray your pan with non stick spray to clean a pot.
Other pumpkin recipes you’ll love
- Our pumpkin pie dump cake is out of this world delicious with a crushed pecan brown sugar crumble on top.
- Then try this pumpkin pudding cake that is moist beyond belief! With a bit of pumpkin pie spice inside and ice cream on top takes this over the edge.
And our MOST popular recipe is here. During the Fall season we make pumpkin zucchini muffins a lot! Below is a printable version of this recipe with nutrition facts too such as calories and saturated fat. This is true comfort food though so just ignore it all other than the YUMs. 😉
Chocolate Pumpkin Bread
Equipment
- 1 9×5 loaf pan
- 2 bowls
Ingredients
- 1 c pumpkin, puree
- 1/2 c butter, room temperature
- 1/4 c sugar
- 1/2 c brown sugar
- 1 egg, room temp.
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 c sour cream
- 1 c all purpose flour
- 1/2 c cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 c chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Whisk together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda together.
- Mix pumpkin, room temp. butter and egg, both sugars, vanilla and sour cream until smooth.
- Slowly add dry ingredients into wet until incorporated.
- Stir in 1/2 c chocolate chips.
- Pour batter into a loaf pan sprayed lightly with non stick spray. Top with remaining chocolate chips. Bake for 45-50 minutes until toothpick comes out mostly clean with some crumbs on it (meaning it's moist, but no wet batter on it).
- Take out, put on cooling rack. Do not remove loaf until cooled.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
We have made this twice, Good bread but we made a few adjustments and liked it even better!! We did 1/2 c pumpkin with 2 ripe bananas. We also decreased the sour cream to 1/3 cup and butter to 6 tbsp. It was not so underdone in the middle and set up a bit better with less butter and sour cream. If you really want some good fall flavor add 1-1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice. It was delicious. My kids adored it.