This beautiful and easy to make marbled pumpkin chocolate bread is bursting with Autumn flavor! (Jump directly to the recipe.)
“Wait, you’re taking off? What about the after party?” exclaimed my friend Yvonne of Tried and Tasty as I hugged her goodbye on the way to the airport. I was in Austin for the BlogHer Food conference where I had given a 20-minutes inspirational TED-style talk on creativity during their “Lightning Lesson” main stage. It was a quick 2-day trip for me, as I had to head back to San Francisco to speak at the Eat, Drink and Be Literary event of San Francisco’s Litquake on Sunday. In all the whirlwind traveling, I found time to bake up a marbled pumpkin chocolate bread for my ceramics class potluck critique. For someone who always professes to be an anti-social hermit, I sure was getting out there a lot.
It probably will come as a surprise to many folk that I am a natural introvert. For new folks who meet me, I come across as pretty gregarious and (I have been told) rather energetic. But as much as I enjoy getting out and meeting folks and doing public speaking, it takes a not insignificant amount of mental and emotional energy for me to do it. For some folks who are natural extroverts, they gain energy from being around people. But for those of us who are introverts, going out and meeting and being with folks takes energy away. It doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy it or don’t have fun, it just means we need time to recharge from all that energy spent.
But right now I’m on the move, hitting up as many conferences and events that will have me, as well as meeting as many people as I can. And it’s not because I’m a glutton for punishment, it’s because I have my very first cookbook coming out! The book Marbled, Swirled, and Layered, has been in the works for nearly 3 years and I can’t wait for everyone to look at it. I got to show a few folks at the conference the one single copy that my publisher sent me in advance (the rest of my copies are slowly coming over on a ship from Asia where it was printed). The glee and joy when my friends flipped through the book made me so very happy. I can only hope that everyone that goes out and buys the book will feel that way as well.
The book comes out November 1st, just in time for the holidays but it is available for pre-order. And because I want to make sure EVERYONE knows about this book, I am putting myself out there, more than I have ever before. That mean back-to-back events like BlogHer Food and the San Francisco Litquake’s Eat Drink and be Literary event. But to keep myself from going crazy I’m also giving myself a little bit of “me time”. If you were one of the 300+ folks who were at BlogHer Food and watched me on the main stage, you heard me explain how doing things OUTSIDE your profession (whether it’s food, photography, or writing) can foster your own creativity. Doing things you love and enjoy, that seem almost like self-indulgences, can feed your soul. Doing a yoga class, going for a run, visiting a museum, or even just getting coffee with friends are so important to all of us and keep us sane.
And that’s why, even though I knew things were going to be crazy for me this fall with my book release, I opted to take a ceramics class at the local community college. I needed something to distract me from the chaos of cookbook promotions. And it has worked. There is something really nice and relaxing about playing with clay, slip and glazes. Mentally engaging in something that has NOTHING to do with what I do for a living nourishes me in ways that I didn’t even realize I craved. Learning something just to learn something, is immensely satisfying and empowering. With a pottery critique happening on the Monday after the back-to-back events, I knew that I wanted to also bring something for folks to nibble on as the class shares what everyone made for our first projects. And since Fall is officially here, a marbled pumpkin chocolate bread were the perfect autumnal treat.
Marbled Pumpkin Chocolate Bread
By Irvin Lin
This recipe is a perfect example of the sort of recipes I developed for my cookbook Marbled, Swirled and Layered. It seems that I can’t stop marbling, swirling and layering my desserts, even though I turned that manuscript in ages ago and the book is already printed and ready to be bought! I used Kahlua, a coffee rum liqueur because it helps bring out the chocolate flavor, but if you don’t have any on hand, you can just use strongly brewed coffee that has been cooled to room temperature in it’s place.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (300 g) white granulated sugar
1 1/3 cup (270 g) canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice blend
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cup (245 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup Kahlua (or strong brewed coffee, cooled to room temperature)
1/2 cup (45 g) natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with cooking oil then line the sides and bottom with parchment paper.
2. Place the sugar, pumpkin puree, oil, vanilla extract, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a large bowl and mix with a spatula until well blended. Add one egg, mixing with the spatula until incorporated, before adding the additional egg and repeating.
3. Add the flour, baking soda and baking powder to the wet ingredients and fold together until just moist.
4. Combine the Kahlua (or coffee) and cocoa powder together in medium size bowl until a paste forms and the cocoa is dissolved. Scoop out 1/3 the pumpkin bread batter and add it to the bowl with the cocoa paste. Mix together until uniform in color.
5. Scoop 1/3 of the pumpkin batter into the lined loaf pan and spread evenly on the bottom of the pan. Scoop 1/2 the cocoa batter on top and spread evenly to cover. Repeat with 1/3 more of the pumpkin batter ,the reminder cocoa batter and rest of the pumpkin batter, alternating batters. Don’t worry if you can’t spread the batters completely on top of each other. Swirl a knife through the batter to marble and then bake in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
Makes 1 loaf.
heather (delicious not gorgeous) says
congrats on your book! can’t wait to see it (: love that you used kahlua instead of the coffee in the bread, and love how that swirl came out!
Bonnie says
What a fabulous idea to use Kahlua instead of brewed coffee, which I never have. Congratulations on your book!
Marisa Franca @ All Our Way says
I know exactly how you feel about putting yourself out there. My knees knock and instead of speaking up I kind of start to speak softly which is NOT my normal way. Now I have a suggestion or favor or whatever. I would love to have an autograph sticker to put in the cookbook I’ll be purchasing. Do you think that could be a possibility? I’d be glad to send in a SASE to get one. Your recipe above sounds fantastic!
Priya says
Thank you for this great recipe. I used gluten free flour instead and puréed fresh pumpkin. Simply divine!
Thank you once again for sharing your amazing recipe.
Priya
IGU Meerpur says
Love this recipe. It was actually pretty easy and yummy!
Sondra Priestley says
hey you!
I am just seeing your blog for the first time today! looks absolutely lovely…. 🙂 I will be bookmarking it for future references.. 🙂
so… a couple of questions for you, hoping you have time to read my novelette below:
1. do you know of any other way of making quick bread soft and moist without using copious amounts of oil? I find that all the ones that advertise as as being the ‘best breads or muffins’ always have .5-1 cup of oil in them…now, don’t get me wrong, I am ok with a bit of oil in stuff… but I am a tried and true buttah girl. I use only made from scratch stuff and like a buttery taste to stuff…. so adding a load of veggie oil is just about killing me…. ideas?
2. I live up north. like really north. like on the same latitude as Moscow. Thankfully? NOT Moscow. I am in northern Canada… and we have issues with baking with stuff that you guys down south can make with no problems! I find that I have to cut back on flour and add water/milk/Bailey’s/rum…. whatever (!) to recipes to keep them from being crumbly masses of ickiness… some things are ok.. and no issues.. but generally, due to our altitude and dryy climate? we struggle.
any ideas you share will be greatly appreciated!
oh, and congrats on 16 years together! <3
~Sondra
Irvin says
Hi Sondra,
So I’m a HUGE fan of butter as well. But the reason that a lot of quick breads and muffins use oil instead is because oil stays liquid at room temperature, while butter is a solid. Because oil stays liquid, when you bake with it, it leads to a more moist baked good. Butter, while a great fat, will lead to a more solid and dense baked good. This is why cookies use butter instead of oil because you want the cookies to hold together more. Brownies are an in-between baked good, and you’ll find recipes that use butter or oil or a mix of the two.
That said, if you really love butter, try using a mix of half melted butter and half oil. For instance, my recipe above uses 1/2 cup of oil. Try using 1/4 cup of oil and 1/4 of melted butter and see if you like those results. It might require some tinkering on your end to find the right balance. But that’s the reason why oil is often used in quick breads and muffins.
Finally I’m not an expert on high altitude baking. That said, my friend Jen over at Use Real Butter lives at a high altitude, so you might want to check out her blog and see what her recipes are like. I also usually refer people to King Arthur Flour’s webpage on high altitude baking. They are a really great resource. Good luck!