Chocolate Orange Pumpkin Bread

This easy pumpkin bread recipe with orange and filled with chopped chocolate is a winner. Not too sweet, extremely moist and perfect for fall! Jump to the Pumpkin Bread Recipe or read on to see our tips for making it.

Chocolate Orange Pumpkin Bread Recipe

If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ve probably noticed our love for quick breads and muffins. There’s good reason for that — they are easy! We’ve shared zucchini bread, a ridiculously good banana bread recipe, extremely popular blueberry muffins, peach muffins … I could go on.

You see all of those recipes call on the “muffin method” — that means all you need to do is mix the dry ingredients together, mix the wet ingredients together then gently combine the two. Spoon the batter into your muffin tin or loaf pan and bake.

No fancy equipment, very few dishes to clean and only minutes in the kitchen. This orange scented pumpkin bread packed with chocolate is no different — it is absolutely a must make.

You Need This Chocolate Orange Pumpkin Bread in Your Life

How To Make The Best Pumpkin Bread

We’ve already talked about how easy this is, but let me show you.

Step 1, Prepare the dry ingredients. Whisk flour with baking powder and warm spices — we love the combination of cinnamon, ginger and cloves.

Step 2, Flavor the sugar. Grab another bowl then use your fingers to rub orange zest and vanilla extract into the sugar. Sure you could just stir everything together, but by rubbing the zest into the sugar, you release the oils and make what could be considered the most fragrant sugar, ever.

Rub orange zest and vanilla extract into the sugar for extra flavor

Step 3, Prepare the wet ingredients. To the bowl with the sugar, add some melted butter, eggs and pumpkin puree — go for the pure pumpkin, not the stuff with spices already added. You can also use homemade pumpkin puree, here’s our recipe for making it.

Step 4, Make the batter. Now you have a bowl full of dry ingredients and one with the wet ingredients. It’s time to combine them.

How to Combine the Wet and Dry Ingredients

Here’s where we need to be delicate. Grab a rubber spatula and gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet. We only want to mix until combined — any more than that and we risk over mixing which means heavy pumpkin bread — no good!

As a final step, we add chocolate chunks — just mix them in with a few swipes of your spatula. Then after spooning the batter into the loaf pan, we add an extra handful of chocolate on top. You probably should too!

Adding the chocolate chunks to the pumpkin batter

Once the pumpkin loaf has baked, we leave it in the pan for about 15 minutes before transferring it to a cooling rack. Once the loaf has cooled, find some pumpkin loving friends and dig in. Enjoy!

Chocolate Orange Pumpkin Bread

More Pumpkin Recipes

Chocolate Orange Pumpkin Bread

  • PREP
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  • TOTAL

This easy pumpkin bread scented with orange and filled with chopped chocolate is a winner. Use homemade pumpkin puree or canned puree for these cupcakes. When buying canned pumpkin, make sure you buy the can with “pure pumpkin” on the label and not one that says “pie mix” or that already has spices mixed in. For the chocolate, we love using a dark chocolate, but milk or white chocolate would also be delicious.

Makes 1 loaf (10 slices)

You Will Need

8 tablespoons (115 grams or 1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar

1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 scant cup (215 grams) pure pumpkin, see our homemade pumpkin puree recipe

3 ounces (85 grams) chocolate, roughly chopped or chocolate chips (about 1/2 cup)

Directions

    1Heat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8 1/2-inch by 4 1/2-inch loaf pan. You can also line the bottom and two sides with parchment paper. If you leave an inch or two hanging over two sides, it makes for easy removal after baking.

    2In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves to combine.

    3In a large bowl, rub the sugar, orange zest, and vanilla together until fragrant then add the butter and whisk to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking well after each egg. Stir in the pumpkin.

    4Switch 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 over mix the batter. Fold in most of the chocolate, leaving about a tablespoon to scatter on top.

    5Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan, smooth the top then scatter reserved chocolate on top. Bake until the loaf is golden brown, pulls slightly away 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.

    6Cool the loaf in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove from the pan and transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely. Store loaf loosely covered at room temperature 2 to 3 days or wrap well and store in the refrigerator up to a week.

Adam and Joanne's Tips

  • Since it’s just the two of us, we store in the refrigerator then when we want a slice we’ll give it a couple minutes in our toaster oven to warm up.
  • Nutrition Facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values.

If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste

Nutrition Per Serving Serving Size 1 slice / Calories 297 / Protein 5 g / Carbohydrate 42 g / Dietary Fiber 2 g / Total Sugars 25 g / Total Fat 13 g / Saturated Fat 8 g / Cholesterol 80 mg
AUTHOR:  Adam and Joanne Gallagher
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34 comments… Leave a Review
  • Ginger Pruden October 20, 2023, 1:28 pm

    This looks yummy. Is 325 the correct cooking oven temperature? Please respond – I am ready to make this bread! Thanks Ginger

    Reply
    • Joanne October 20, 2023, 2:48 pm

      Yep, 325F is correct.

      Reply
  • Nat June 13, 2022, 9:13 pm

    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!

    Reply
  • Me December 10, 2021, 12:51 pm

    2nd recipe I’ve made from your page and instant hit again! Can’t wait to try some more of your recipes!

    Reply
  • M Small October 29, 2020, 10:47 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Dina November 13, 2020, 12:59 am

      Love this site! Can I replace the butter with oil? Thanks

      Reply
      • Joanne September 23, 2022, 12:02 pm

        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.

        Reply
  • Ellen October 1, 2020, 5:14 pm

    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 🙂

    Reply
  • Smruti May 29, 2020, 6:58 am

    The only site where i get no fail recepies

    Reply
  • Eleanor G April 23, 2020, 3:32 pm

    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.

    Reply

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