The 13 Days of Pumpkin, Continued--or, My Misadventures with Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin recipe number three is chocolate chip pumpkin bread.  Here's the deal: it's delicious, and it's still baking.  How does this work, you ask?  Well, I followed the instructions and baked the loaves at 325 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick came out clean, specifically 50 minutes and the toothpick came out clean.  So I removed the bread, let it cool, and when I went to cut a slice, figured it'd be easier to remove said slice if I had the bread out of the pan.  So I flipped the pan over, the bread slid out, the slice came off, I ate it, and it tasted like manna from heaven.  And then I went to pick up the loaf to wrap it in foil.  And the bread fell apart.  By the time I finally managed to flip it over into the foil, there was a massive gaping oozing hole in the middle of the loaf--the outer regions of the bread were done, but the middle was still as liquid and unbaked as the batter I poured in the pan. 

So I cranked the oven back on, threw both loaves back inside for 15 minutes.  Still gooey.  10 more minutes.  Gooey.  Up the temp to 350, 10 more minutes.  4 minutes in, I start smelling burning.  Run into the kitchen.  The sliced end of the one loaf is getting overdone.  The rest of it?  Goo.  Stress eat a pumpkin popper.  Let the bread go the last 6 minutes on the timer.  Slightly less goo than before, but still goo.  10 more minutes on the timer. 

Oh praise cheesus.  This seems to have done the trick!  Let's see, that was an hour and 10 minutes at 325 and 20 minutes at 350.  My recipe was communist lies!  Basically, just bake this puppy till it decides to be done.  At least you get your exercise getting up and down to check on it.  You won't have to feel guilty about eating a lot of this bread.



I would have been angrier if the unbaked part wasn't so tasty.

All right, so what goes into this delicious yet annoyingly difficult to bake creation?  3 1/2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons baking soda and 1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted together into a mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, cream together 2 2/3 cup sugar and 2/3 cup butter (this is equal to one stick plus 2 2/3 tablespoons).  To this mixture, add a total of 4 eggs, but add them one at a time, mixing after each egg.  Then add 1 can pumpkin.  Now alternate mixing in portions of the dry ingredients you sifted together in the beginning and 2/3 cup water.  Add in 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.  This is your lovely batter that just doesn't seem to want to bake after you pour into greased loaf pans (makes two loaves).  My suggestion?  Forget the baking.  Just eat the batter.