Running for the Hills: Decadent Chocolate & Pumpkin Bread

I love the idea for tonight's kitchen experimentation. Partly because it is delicious, and partly because I made up the recipe for chocolate bread on my own. No internet recipe contribution, just my brain and I.

I'm not a fan of cold weather. I would be perfectly happy if it could be 70+, or even 80+ degrees all year round. But that doesn't mean I dislike autumn. The scenery is gorgeous, and the food is pretty good too. My favorite parts of autumn: apple cider and pumpkin everything.

I've been looking forward to pumpkin bread for awhile now, but I didn't just want to make pumpkin bread; I wanted to make something new and exciting. I wanted to make pumpkin bread layered with chocolate bread. In order to do this, I needed to come up with a chocolate bread recipe.

I skimmed through my blog archives, and it appears that I have never actually put my pumpkin bread recipe on here. Tragic. (Of course it's possible it is there and I just didn't find it) But just in case, I'll list it here. And later I will make a post devoted to pumpkin bread.

This evening, I made a batch of pumpkin bread, and also made a bunch of chocolate bread, which I made up on the spot. And then I layered them in a loaf of breakfast bread and a bunch of muffins. Breakfast for the next week is going to be awesome.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

1 c pumpkin

1 stick butter

2 eggs

3/4 c brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 stp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c whole wheat flour

1 1/4 c flour

chocolate chips

Chocolate Bread Recipe

1 square baking chocolate

1/2 stick butter

1 egg

1/4 c apple cider

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

3/8 c brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c wheat flour

1/2 c flour

walnuts

I've been thinking about this bread for quite a few days now. I bought the canned pumpkin when I went grocery shopping over the weekend, and have been itching to make pumpkin bread ever since. But I didn't want to just make pumpkin bread this time.

A day or two ago, I decided that I wanted to make a layered chocolate/pumpkin bread. But I had no idea how to make a chocolate bread. I looked on google today, but didn't like anything that I saw. So I decided to wing it (my favorite thing to do while playing in the kitchen!). Throughout the day today, various ideas flew through my head. I was thinking about using cocoa powder with a breakfast bread recipe to somehow come up with a chocolate bread that didn't involve yeast (the recipes I found online involved yeast). Then, shortly before I started baking, I remembered that I had some squares of baker's chocolate in my cupboard. And I realized that baker's chocolate would probably produce a much better flavor than cocoa powder.

I was thinking about using 2 squares, but I discovered that I had a box with one square left in it. (I also had an unopened box, but I'll save that for brownies).

I also wanted to use cider somehow, so I threw some cider into the recipe. I actually used my banana bread recipe for the chocolate bread, but substituted a square of baking chocolate and a 1/4 c of cider for the 2 bananas, and added cinnamon.

The Making of the Chocolate & Pumpkin Breads