Sweet Pumpkin and Choc Chip "Bread"

I love Pumpkin!  It's one of my top 3 vegetables (is it strange that I rank my favourite veggies?)  Here in Australia pumpkin is used mostly for savoury dishes (unless you are making Lady Flo's famous pumpkin scones).  In North America it's used mostly for sweet cooking and baking, roast pumpkin and pumpkin soup are not that common or popular from what I have seen and heard.  I have many friends from the US who enjoy the idea of Pumpkin as savoury - I wonder if I can help us Aussies (pronounced Ozzies - like Ozzy Osbourne) to learn to love Pumpkin as a sweet as much as our northern friends do.

I heard about Pumpkin Bread many years ago and was intrigued by the idea and had to try it.  The first recipe I tried had a whopping 3 cups of sugar in it!  It was so sweet it was off putting.  This recipe is sweetened with sugar, but as pumpkin is naturally sweet, I feel it doesn't need any more.  This isn't served with any frosting or icing, hence the name "bread".

I make this when pumpkins are cheap (there is no Libby's canned Pumpkin here in Australia), that being said.  Pumpkins aren't really seasonal here and regularly on sale.  So I buy a whole pumpkin (I am most fond of Butternuts), peel and de-seed it then boil and mash the whole lot.  I measure out 2 cup quanitites and freeze them in ziplock bags.  This is perfect for this recipe, or adding flavour and colour to casseroles, risotto or soups.

This can be served warm with lashings of butter or cold with butter or without.  My children love this and regularly have it in their lunch boxes.  Choc chips can be omitted or swapped for sultanas/raisins if you so wish.  This will keep in a Tupperware type container for up to 3 days and will give you roughly 16 slices. 


1 cup sugar
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2 cups mashed pumpkin - no butter or milk  (or a 16 oz can of pumpkin puree)
3 cups SR flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup choc chips (or up to a cup)

Pre-heat your oven to 180oC or 350oF
In a large bowl beat the sugar, oil and eggs together.
Add the pumpkin and beat again, until well combined.
Add the flours, bicarb, spices and choc chips.
Fold thru and pour into a well greased large flute ring tin.
Bake in the prepared oven for 55-65 minutes OR until a toothpick comes out clean when tested.
Leave to cool for a full 10 minutes before you turn out on a wire rack to cool.

Happy Cooking!
Elizabeth x