I am probably the only person who does not crave that slice of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.  But that being said, I do enjoy other things that have pumpkin in them.  And now when with the beautiful fall weather and pumpkins everwhere…it is enough to put me in the pumpkin mood.  

“Made by Michelle” is a blog by my sister’s friend that I read all of the time.  She is inspired by seasonal foods that she uses in her cooking and baking.  Lately she has been posting recipes that call for pumpkin.  I was intrigued…  Then when I saw her recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread and I was hooked! I just had to give it a try.  This past summer in her blog, she referred to my strawberry bread recipe on my blog that she transformed into strawberry muffins… so not I want feature an inspiration I had from her to create my Pumpkin Bread recipe.  

It’s a cloudy fall day, and baking up fresh loaf of pumpkin bread sounds better than reading the law books that are looming in the corner of my room.   

I have never made pumpkin bread before.  The recipe I used called for walnuts and chocolate chips.  I then changed it up a bit and I used Whole Wheat flour and plain yogurt.  It makes one loaf which is perfect.  And of course you can always omit the nuts and chocolate chips if you want a plain pumpkin bread.  I think it would be fun to use mini-chocolate chips.  Or you could also omit them all together and use golden raisins with chopped walnuts.

The bread is so moist and it’s delicious without anything on it.  Now that’s when you know it’s good bread. It doesn’t need anything becauses it’s so good all on it’s own. 

Well that being said, I urge you all to expand beyond that pie, muffin, cookie or cupcake recipe that you were planning on making sometime soon. Just give this bread a try.  That fall-sented candle you usually burn is no match to the smell of this bread baking in the oven!

Pumpkin Bread

• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• ¼ teaspoon ginger
• ¼ teaspoon cloves
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1  ½ cups sugar
• ½ cup nonfat plain yogurt (I used greek yogurt)
• 2 eggs
• 1 can plain pumpkin  (Use plain pumpkin, NOT the canned pumpkin pie filling. The recipe called for 1 cup, but I used the whole can which was about 1 and 1/2 cups)
• ½ cup chocolate chips 
• ½ cup walnuts

- In large bowl beat together sugar, yogurt and eggs until well blended. Stir in the pumpkin and add a little water (¼ cup)

- In another bowl add whisk together the flour,all of the spices, baking soda and baking powder. Add to the wet ingredients and blend together with a spoon.  Add the chocolate chips and nuts.

- Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray (or you can fill  mini loaf pans or muffin tins)

 - Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour to 70 minutes or until it looks done (I did 45 minutes and then kept checking it every 5 minutes)  To check if it is ready, you can put a toothpick or knife in the center to see if it will come out clean.