A classic quick bread with pumpkin and spices, chocolate chips and 2 secret ingredients.

We aren’t even half way through September and I’m already making things with pumpkin. But in my defense I have to tell you that I HATED pumpkin growing up ~ or at least I thought I did. I never really tried it. So I don’t know how I can say I hated something when I was too afraid to even swallow it.

But pumpkin, much to my surprise, doesn’t TASTE the way it SMELLS if that makes any sense. It’s a very mild, nice, lovely flavor. It’s not overpowering like I always imagined it would be. If you haven’t jumped on the pumpkin ban wagon yet you are truly missing out.

HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN BREAD:

Our bread recipe today is made with both unbleached white whole wheat flour and whole wheat flour. It adds a nice depth so the bread isn’t as light as you might expect.
We begin by sifting the dry ingredients into a bowl and setting that aside.
Next add the wet ingredients to another bowl. Our 2 secret ingredients can be found here. The first is orange juice. We are using orange juice because the combination of the flours can be quite dense. The orange juice helps balance that. The 2nd ingredient is Greek yogurt and that is going to add lots of moisture.
Combine the wet and dry and add the chocolate chips if you are using them.
Pour it into a bread loaf pan that is lined with parchment paper or sprayed with cooking oil and bake the pumpkin bread for about an hour. I always start checking at 45 minutes and every 5 minutes after. My bread is almost always done at the 50 minute mark, but every oven is different.