This pumpkin chocolate chip bread recipe is so delicious thanks to a generous amount of pumpkin, homemade orange sugar, and lots of chocolate chips!
When pumpkin season hits, we jump at the chance to make this pumpkin chocolate chip bread. I’m convinced that the homemade orange sugar makes this the very best pumpkin bread you’ll ever taste.
Add some chocolate chips, and you really take this quick bread to the next level! This is one of my favorite pumpkin recipes, and I cannot wait for you to try it!
Key Ingredients
- Pumpkin: I recommend using pure pumpkin puree for this bread. Libby’s or Whole Food’s 365 are reliable store-bought options. If you have access to baking pumpkins, feel free to make your own pumpkin puree. Here’s our easy pumpkin puree.
- Chocolate: Use chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or chopped chocolate bars. I especially love dark chocolate in this pumpkin bread.
- Flour: I use all-purpose flour, but this recipe works with whole wheat or white whole wheat flour (whole wheat makes the bread a bit denser). A few readers have used 1:1 gluten-free flour in our recipe with success.
- Baking Powder: Helps the bread rise nicely.
- Butter: Makes the best pumpkin bread and adds a buttery, rich flavor. You’ll melt your butter for this recipe.
- Spices and Vanilla: A variety of pumpkin pie spices add flavor and make it taste amazing. I use cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and vanilla extract.
- Sugar and Orange Zest: I use granulated sugar and rub the orange zest into it with my hands. It’s easy and means all the essential oils in the zest infuse the sugar.
- Eggs: Provides structure and stability to the bread. We use three eggs.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
Tips for Making the Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
Tip 1: Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately. This pumpkin bread uses a similar method to other quick bread recipes on Inspired Taste (like this chocolate chip banana bread). You whisk your dry ingredients in one bowl and combine the wet ingredients in another. To make the batter, you fold the dry ingredients into the wet, and then you are ready to bake!
Tip 2: Make homemade orange sugar. To infuse extra flavor into the batter, rub orange zest with the sugar before incorporating into the batter. It’s a quick and easy step that makes a big difference in flavor. I use the same trick with lemon zest and our blueberry scones.
Tip 3: Add chocolate chips on top. For this chocolate chip pumpkin bread, we add chocolate to the batter and scatter it on top of the loaf just before baking. This way, you’ll have chocolate throughout the bread.
Tip 4: Let your bread cool. Once the pumpkin loaf has baked, we leave it in the pan for about 15 minutes before transferring it to a cooling rack. From there, wait as long as you can for it to cool, and then dig in! (I rarely make it and end up slicing the bread warm!).
More Pumpkin Recipes
Easy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This easy pumpkin bread, scented with orange and filled with chopped chocolate, is a winner. You can use homemade pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin puree. When buying canned pumpkin, make sure you buy the can with “pure pumpkin” on the label, not one that says “pie mix” or already has spices mixed in. For the chocolate, we love using dark chocolate, but milk or white chocolate would also be delicious.
When measuring the flour for this recipe, either weigh it or use the “spoon and level” method: Fluff the flour, spoon it into the measuring cup, and level off the top with a flat edge.
You Will Need
8 tablespoons (115g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 ½ cups (195g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 scant cup (215g) pure pumpkin or homemade pumpkin puree
½ cup (85g) chopped chocolate or chocolate chips, 3 ounces
Directions
1Preheat the oven to 325°F (162°C). Butter and flour an 8 ½-inch by 4 ½-inch loaf pan. Or grease the pan and then line it with a sheet of parchment paper. See tips for pan sizes.
2Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves together and set aside.
3In a large bowl, rub the sugar, orange zest, and vanilla together until fragrant, then add the melted butter and whisk to combine.
4Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking well after each egg. Stir in the pumpkin puree.
5Switch to a spatula or large spoon, then fold the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture in two parts, folding just until combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter.
6Fold in most of the chocolate, leaving about a tablespoon to scatter on top.
7Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan, smooth the top, and then scatter the reserved chocolate on top.
8Bake until the loaf is golden brown, pulls away slightly from the edges of the pan, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs, 55 to 75 minutes.
9Cool the loaf in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove it from the pan, transfer it to a cooling rack, and cool completely.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Store homemade pumpkin bread loosely covered at room temperature for 2 to 3 days, or wrap it well and store it in the refrigerator for up to a week. To freeze it, double wrap it with one layer of plastic wrap and one layer of aluminum foil, then freeze it for up to 6 months.
- Butter: Use salted or unsalted butter in this recipe. I like my pumpkin bread when made with salted butter, which adds an extra ¼ teaspoon of salt to the batter.
- Room temperature eggs: To quickly bring eggs to room temperature, add the cold eggs to a bowl with lukewarm water for a few minutes. Drain and repeat.
- Best pan: I use an aluminized steel 1-pound loaf pan, which is 8 ½” x 4 ½” (from USA Pans). For glass loaf pans, consider decreasing the oven temperature by 25 °F and baking a little longer. Stoneware pans may also need temperature/time adjustments, but it is hard to say without testing the specific pan. If using a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan, the bread will not be as tall, and the baking time will be less by 5 to 10 minutes.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
I’ve made many of your recipes and they have all been great. I am diabetic so I need to cut the carbs and sugars and was wondering about recipes with less of the carbs etc in them. I do use splenda and try to cut it other ways but was hoping you have more ideas. Anyway, thanks ,love the recipes, especially veggie dishes.
Found this recipe thru a Google search since I had just pureed 8 cups of pumpkin. Made this bread last night. Yummy! Made exactly as written. Loved the citrus tone. Forgot to add nuts, but I plan to next time and maybe omit the chocolate so more of the pumpkin flavor comes thru. Already signed up for the newsletter and looking forward to more yummy dishes.
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I have added ingredients such as pecans, walnuts, banana, and switch almond flour instead of all purpose flour. It was really good. However, I find the recipe so sweet. I think 1 cup of granulated sugar was too much. I should have just put 1/2 a cup. Overall, I really like the orangy zest flavor and how moist the bread turns out. I would recommend this recipe!
This is chocolate-orange-pumpkin bread is a fantastic recipe. I loved it. I did modify it because we eat a low fat, low sugar, low salt diet. So I used no salt, halved the sugar, replaced the butter with 100g of olive oil, used wholemeal bread flour and increased the pumpkin to 325g. It tasted absolutely delicious. Thanks.
This looks yummy. Is 325 the correct cooking oven temperature? Please respond – I am ready to make this bread! Thanks Ginger
Yep, 325F is correct.
Incredible! Made this for the first time last night and it was absolutely delicious. The only thing I changed was reduce the sugar by half. Will definitely be making it again!
2nd recipe I’ve made from your page and instant hit again! Can’t wait to try some more of your recipes!
I love love love this bread. It is the best. I have made this for my coworkers and they loved it too. My husband does not like pumpkin but he loves this bread.He has raved about this bread to his workers so I made it for them as well and everyone that tried it loved it.
Love this site! Can I replace the butter with oil? Thanks
Hi Dina, I bet that you can, but we have never tested it ourselves. You might need slightly less oil that butter in this recipe.
This recipe is one of THE best things I have ever baked, and I bake a lot. The Creamsicle aroma of the orange zest and sugar is delightful, the texture of the baked loaf is amazing, and it keeps well for a few days. I cannot recommend this recipe more enthusiastically- Go bake! Make 2! Enjoy 🙂
The only site where i get no fail recepies
This recipe is so amazing, I have made it for 2 or 3 falls/Christmases in a row now. People go nuts for it at work. I have mailed loaves as holiday gifts. This is such a standout, excellent recipe.
Thanks for the recipe. Although I’m yet to try this recipe, it promises a fun-filled experience. And, may I ask: “Can this bread be prepackaged for extended periods?”
Store homemade pumpkin bread loosely covered at room temperature for 2 to 3 days, or wrap it well and store it in the refrigerator for up to a week. To freeze it, double wrap it with one layer of plastic wrap and one layer of aluminum foil, then freeze it for up to 6 months.
This was so yummy!! I used almost 2 tsps of orange zest and next time I’ll add a little more. The orange is there, but subtle and I personally want a little more of it. But didn’t make any other changes and it was amazing! Definitely making it again.
Hi Adam and Joanne-
This was such a great recipe. I added 1 cup of craisins (presoaked then drained) and Gherridelli white chips instead of chocolate (no chocolate in the house ?). I baked 3 mini loaves at 40 minutes. So good. Love your recipes. Keep them coming. I also used 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and half white unbleached four. Again- fabulous recipe!!
Really good – my favorite flavor combination!
OMG – this is soooooo good! I’m in love w/this flavor combo. Thanks for the tip of mixing the orange zest w/sugar and vanilla. I loved this bread. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
As I was scrolling thru pumpkin bread recipes online, your’s caught my eye because of the orange zest ingredient. I wish to use coconut flour and brown sugar instead. Do you know how this would change the measurements to your recipe?
Hi Sue, You may need to do some testing on your end. We have never played around with different flours for this recipe.
Where is butter in this recipe??? How many in grams? ?
We call for 1 stick or 115 grams of butter in the recipe. You can find the full recipe above.
it is possible to use natural pumpkin pure instead of the canned one?
I have lot of them growing in this moment and I would rather use the fresh ones
THank you
Yes, homemade pumpkin puree should work nicely.
Is there any way I can reduce the amount of sugar in this recipe?
Hi Aline, We recommend experimenting with less sugar. I would not go beyond 1/2 cup less at first. Reducing the sugar will make it less sweet, but it will also change the texture of the bread. So reduce in small amounts until you find a good balance for you.
Thanks for your answer. By the way the bread is delicious. Do you think I can substitute honey for the sugar?
Hi Aline, Since we have never used honey in place of the sugar in this recipe, I really cannot speak to how much to use or how well it will turn out. If you try it yourself, I’d love to hear the results. Happy baking!
I make a lot of pumpkin goodies and from my experience I can say that for this recipe I would use with a 1 3/4 cup flour 3/4 cup of brown sugar the most (or the combination of granulated and brown) … as a matter of fact, we don’t like desserts, especially coffee cakes too sweet … I also mix two-three tablespoons of sour cream into batter … exquisite 🙂
Have just made the batter and placed cakes in the oven!! I could just eat bowls full of the batter on its own!! Seriously good!!! Can’t wait to taste the cakes!!!
This recipe looks awesome! Can I substitute flour with almond meal? if so would that be the same amount? Thanks!
Hi Emma, Since we have only ever made this with all-purpose flour, we cannot comment on how the bread would work out with almond meal. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
The recipe was so go and it came out great. We love anything with pumpkin and chocolate. I made them into individual breads for Thanksgiving and they worked out great for for name cards. Everyone loved the settings.
Mage Fox
You did not mention the number of eggs for this recipe
Hi Lisa, If you scroll to the recipe box, you should see we call for 3 large eggs in this bread. If you try it, we hope you love it! – Joanne
I just had a slice of this pumpkin bread and it is K— A– AWESOME I sprinkled pow. sug. on top and made it better w/o choc. on top. Fabulous tasting also. Next one will be w/o choc. as you have inspired me to make more. I have 10 cans of pumpkin and went thru my other recipes and yours was the BEST TO USE FOR GIFT GIVING IN SMALL LOAVES.lol lol. BIG ONES FOR HOSTESS GIFTS FOR HOLIDAYS. TKS AGAIN
I JUST MADE THIS AND WAITING FOR IT TO COOLDOWN. IT WAS EASY TO MAKE. I LOVE the TIP ON MIXING ZEST AND VANILLA with sugar. I’m getting ready for HOLIDAY BAKING and made 10# of van. sugar and homemade vanilla. The mixture of orange zest along with van. and van. sugar is to DIE FOR. My house smells awesome with the pumpkin bread and will be making more of it for sure. I love pumpkin and ginger. You gave me some great ideas for your tip. Also took 1 hr. at 350 deg. LOVE PUMPKIN RECIPES MORE GIRL MORE TKS
This is really a true autumn cake! Believe it or not, I have never cooked or baked with pumkin before, something you do in the US a lot but not really in Europe. A little while ago I discovered canned pumkin, so your recipe will be the first one I am going to try out. Love your recipes and I made the Heavenly Chocolate Truffels Recipe and brought them with me to a dinner invitation. What
should I say, heavenly is just the right word for them, a chocolate dream came true! And really easy to make, also dark chocolate is really good for you!