Pumpkin Bread (with Chocolate Chips!)

I've been plotting this pumpkin bread for about two weeks now. I have no idea WHY I wanted to make it - I've never made pumpkin bread before. No idea where the thought came from, but it was almost an obsession. I downloaded recipe after recipe, comparing and contrasting and here's what I finally came up with. It's good stuff!

Mix together the wets. 4 eggs, 1 cup oil, 2/3 cup of water and 1 can of pumpkin puree.

Stir in the drys. 3 1/2 cups flour, 3 cups sugar, 2 t. baking soda, 1 1/2 t. salt. I normally don't add salt to recipes, but I've found that with bread products, it really makes a difference, so I actually just put in a few sprinkles of sea salt.

And don't forget the cinnamon! I found two full jars of cinnamon in the cupboard. Two. Why? No clue. At least I checked before I went to the grocery store, or I might have bought another one. I put in 2 teaspoons. It called for one. And some of the recipes added nutmeg and some called for cloves. I thought that for the first time around, simpler would be better, so just added twice the cinnamon. And God said it was good. I always do what God says.

Stir, stir, stir. I have a mixer, but it's too much work to haul out of the bottom cabinet. Plus, I've been trying to win a Kitchen-Aid from The Pioneer Woman, but she hasn't seen fit to grace me with one yet. A whisk had to suffice.

I sprayed the shit out of my loaf pans because I hate scrubbing them. And yes, that is the pink Pyrex that I JUST HAD TO HAVE when I graduated from college and set up my first kitchen. I have all the pieces. Yes. I. Do. It makes food look hideous, FYI. This recipe makes three loaves of bread, so grease 'em up!

I almost forgot to tell you that I added about 3/4 cup of chocolate chips to two of the loaves. I wanted to try some with and some without. Both are good. And no, I didn't just leave them in a pile on the top, I stirred them in. Otherwise? Burned blobs of chocolate. Yuck.

Then I baked them in a 350 degree oven for a little over an hour. The recipe said an hour, but the oven that Gay Boyfriend snagged off someone's lawn for my kitchen doesn't hold the heat very well and the gas kicked on about every five minutes. Just watch it. When a knife comes out of the center clean, and the tops are brown and perhaps cracked, you know it's done.

I cooled them most of the way before I dumped them out and immediately cut one to pieces, slathered it with butter and crammed it in my mouth.

Then I did the dishes, because I'm a little OCD like that. I don't have a dishwasher either. Feel sorry for me. This bread is awesome! Super awesome for a first try. In fact, I think people are going to be getting some for Christmas!