Pumpkin and chocolate: a match made in confectionery heaven. In this pillowy vegan pumpkin bread recipe, the sweet, aromatic pumpkin purée intermingles with the rich, dark chocolate and melty semi-sweet chocolate chips. Together, the two create a delicious, beautifully swirled dessert bread centerpiece that goes excellently with tea and coffee on cold fall and winter days. If you’re looking to bake a pungently pumpkin-y and audaciously rich and elegant pumpkin and chocolate flavored bread, then this is the one for you.

Table Of Contents

Defining Elements of this Vegan Pumpkin Bread Recipe
How to Create the Perfect Swirl
Foiled Plans
The Temptation to Overmix
Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Swirl Bread

“I like reality. It tastes like bread.”
– Jean Anouilh

Defining Elements of this Vegan Pumpkin Bread Recipe

This bread may look rather baroque upon first appearance, but it’s actually quite simple to make, and doesn’t take all that many ingredients to bring to fruition. Really, the main elements that really define this bread are

– 100% Pumpkin Purée

– Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

– Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips

This trio is what makes this bread unique, and what lends it most of its duality of flavor.

Essentially, all you need to do is split the dough in half, and add to one half the cocoa powder and mini chocolate chips. This will give one of the halves of the bread dough a chocolatey, rich flavor, and will also stain it a beautiful contrasting dark brown, so that the swirl design on top shows up more distinctly. And there you have it: two halves of a delicious vegan pumpkin bread recipe!

“The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

How to Create the Perfect Swirl

Evidently, the eponymous main feature of this vegan pumpkin bread recipe is the swirl on top. This signature swirl is a key aesthetic for this bread, and indeed any bread where you have different flavored and contrasting doughs. By swirling and therefore blending the bread doughs together, it gives the impression that the baked goodie itself is more cohesive and integrated, rather than just separate doughs plopped on top of one another willy-nilly.

So as to avoid any confusion, I’ll walk you through how to create the most idyllic swirl for your vegan pumpkin bread recipe.

Step 1: Divide the Dough

After having flavored the dough with the pumpkin purée, divide it into two equal portions. This is allows us to additionally flavor one of the doughs with cocoa powder and chocolate chips, whilst the other remains purely pumpkin, the perfect balance for this vegan pumpkin bread recipe.

Step 2: Checkerboard It

In the 9×5 baking dish, dollop some of each dough into alternating positions back and forth, so that you achieve what appears to be a checkerboard-like pattern. In this vegan pumpkin bread recipe, you should have enough dough to layer the 9×5 twice with alternating dollops. On the second layer, dollop the pumpkin dough where the chocolate dough is, and dollop the chocolate dough where the pumpkin dough is.

Step 3: Swirl Using the Figure 8 Technique

Last but not least, the swirl is what defines this vegan pumpkin bread recipe. The trick to a good swirl for the top of your dual-flavored bread is to imagine yourself drawing three to four big figure 8’s (a.k.a. the sign for infinity) up and down the 9×5. This works best if you use a long, thin toothpick, skewer or knife.

Don’t overdo it with the figure 8’s, or the definition of each dough will become too muddy and unidentifiable. You basically want to swirl it enough to where the bread begins to look like it’s melding together, but not so much as to where you lose the definition of each color too much.

Foiled Plans

When you’re baking something for a long time, it’s best to think about how the outside will bake in relation to the inside. In the case of this vegan pumpkin bread recipe, the outside is going to be more done than the inside, because it’s more exposed in the oven and so to the direct heat. Therefore, it’s best to cover the top of the bread with aluminum foil, about halfway through the bake.

Covering a bake with aluminum foil after the top has already baked for awhile is an excellent way to ensure that the top doesn’t burn or get too crispy before the inside of the bread is baked all the way through.

As it relates to this bread in particular, I quickly removed it from the oven at 30 minutes, covered it in aluminum foil, and then baked it for another 22 minutes or so. I took the aluminum foil off for the last 5 minutes because I wanted to top to get a bit more crispy and golden brown.

Really, it’s up to you when you want to put the foil on. Above stated would be my suggestion for this vegan pumpkin bread recipe, but if you want more crispy, golden brown peaks on the bread, then leave the foil off for 35 or 40 minutes instead.

“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.”
– Jim Davis

The Temptation to Overmix

Not overmixing is one of those skills that is easily acquired when someone concedes that baking is more than science, but also art.

There are no set number of stirs, or spatula folds, or particular technological advancements that’ll tell you when to stop mixing. When it comes to knowing when to halt the stir, it’s all about intuition: how it looks and feels when rolled around in the center of the mixing bowl; the viscosity as it dribbles or plops off the spatula; the forearm strength required to wade through it with a spoon; the kind of second-nature confectionary spidey-sense that you can obtain only by taking the plunge and baking without formulas, or complete exactitude, or fear of outcome.

Even so, for this recipe, there are some telltale signs that you can recognize beforehand of a good – and of a not so good – vegan pumpkin chocolate chip bread.

If this vegan pumpkin bread recipe is light, fluffy, and loose, then you’ve done something right. But if it’s dense, doughy, and tough, sadly those are all symptoms of an overmixed dough. However, if you’re reading this now, you’re likely not to experience the flatter latter scenario, because you’ll know what to do.

Let it be said that there is definitely a very real possibility to overmix this batter, especially because you have to divide the dough in half after mixing it once, and then mix one of the halves even more. Thankfully, the solution is simple: only mix until everything is incorporated. Once everything looks cohesive, it likely is, and you’ve probably done enough folding, stirring, turning and maneuvering for now.

Frankly, as long as you have the intention not to overmix, you’ll likely be successful. It’s when we forget and mix well past incorporation that things can become tough. So.. don’t worry! You’ve got this.

“All sorrows are less with bread.”
– Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

This vegan pumpkin bread recipe is an amazingly tasty, flavorful, unique and fun bread to bake. The duality of doughs – pumpkin and chocolate chip – create a cohesive loaf that is lusciously rich and perfectly pillowy. I would recommend this baked goodie to anyone who loves a freshly baked slice of sweet (but not overly so) bread to give this recipe a try. Personally, I loved it, and I think you will too.