Easy to make chocolate chip pumpkin bread

I love to bake mostly because I love to eat sweets (let’s be honest about motives here). But baking sometimes gets the best of me because I have two babies. In order to get my homemade sugar high, I need to be FAST. And even though my mom taught me to NEVER share recipes (she wouldn’t have been a very good social-mediaer… is that even a word?!?) I’m going to SHARE with you my most favorite – and fastest – recipe in the spirit of Halloween! Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. That’s right: CHOCOLATE. CHIP. PUMPKIN. BREAD. But be warned: Your toddler might make it disappear before your very eyes. Enjoy! Mwaaa-ha-ha.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, then get your kids to dump the following ingredients into a big bowl:

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs (well beaten beforehand)
2 cups canned pumpkin
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder

STIR & MIX UNTIL CREAMY.

Then dump about 3/4 of a 12oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips into the mixture. MIX AGAIN.

Now here’s the fun part — SOME OPTIONS FOR BAKING:

1) For bars, you can bake in a greased 9×13 Pyrex for about 25 minutes at 350 (I like to sprinkle more chocolate chips on top about halfway through baking). Test done-ness with a toothpick (should come out clean). Cut into bars when cool.

2) Or, you can pour batter into a greased loaf pan… but this is tricky since it takes longer to bake and I had to keep toothpick-testing to see when it’s done. It took me almost an hour to bake it this way when I tried (in a 350 oven). But it was gooooood when it was finally done. Slice like bread when cool. (And eat for breakfast!)

3) OR… you can pour batter into a greased heart-shaped cupcakes pan (see my picture below) and bake for almost 20 minutes (again, in a 350 oven). Do the toothpick-test at 15, then judge from there…

Y.U.M.M.M.M.M… YUM. I. HEART. CHOCOLATE + PUMPKIN.

And don’t be afraid to tell your toddler that there’s only so much to go around… they’ll get enough sugar on Halloween. Enjoy!