My Favorite Pumpkin Bread (Kabocha + Dark Chocolate)

When I’m baking pumpkin bread, this is my go-to recipe. It’s not the simplest, it’s not a “one bowl” recipe, and tbh it’s a bit extra on all fronts. But it’s really, really decadent and delicious. If you have Gjelina: Cooking from Venice, California (2015) you’ll recognize it as a version of the Kabocha, Olive Oil & Bittersweet Chocolate Cake – page 342. You use roasted kabocha squash, shards of bittersweet chocolate, and an olive oil glaze peppered with seeds and crushed cacao nibs. It’s complex. I have thoughts, strategies, and shortcuts that have evolved from baking this popular recipe over the past decade, and we’re going to dive into the details today. But, for starters, if, like me, you tend to keep a kabocha around on the counter for weeks on end – just know, this needs to be one of the things you do with it.

I talk through my thoughts and preferences in detail in this post. So even if you tend to be a jump to recipe person, a scan of these details before diving into the recipe is going to be helpful on a number of fronts. And will help you have an exceptional bake.

Pumpkin Bread: The Ingredients

Some notes related to the ingredients called for in this recipe.

• The pumpkin component: You’re going to use kabocha squash here. It’s arguably richer, more dense, sweeter than many pumpkins, and the color is gorgeous. I like to carefully cleave the squash in half (to one side of the stem), then with the flat side down, slice off the stem. Then proceed with de-seeding, etc. You can use canned pumpkin, but I’m going to encourage you to roast your own here.
• Olive oil: this recipe is heavy on olive oil, it’s part of what makes the cake incredibly moist. Use a good-quality version that has a mild flavor profile, nothing wildly spicy, or over-the-top assertive.
• Nutmeg: I always use a microplane to freshly grate my nutmeg for this recipe. It’s a game changer, and worth swapping in freshly grated nutmeg for the ground nutmeg called for. Actually, that goes for just about any recipe calling for nutmeg.
• Chocolate: I use the Guittard Organic 74% bittersweet chocolate baking wafers for this recipe. And really give it a good chop, no big chocolate pieces. Can you use another percentage chocolate? Of course, but  I feel like a chocolate in this range has enough edge to counter some of the sweetness from the squash, sugar, and icing. And the chocolate really shines if you do a version without the icing. Depending on my mood, sometimes I just dust the cakes with a but of powdered sugar.

Pumpkin Bread: Technique

• Decide on cake size: I prefer to bake this cake in smaller pans. The original recipe calls for a 9×5-inch loaf pan resulting in a gorgeous, massive, chocolate-flecked creation. It takes forever (sometimes 90+ minutes) to bake, and it can be tricky to decide when the deep center is fully baked. But(!) if you nail it, the whole situation is amazing. I prefer to bake 3 smaller cakes, using one of the quad mini-loaf pans I inherited from my dad. There is enough batter in this recipe to yield 3 perfect pumpkin breads using smaller loaf pans. And although it seems like the quad pans might be discontinued, in general, with this batter, I’ve found you can fill whatever pan you’d like to use to within about 3/4-inch of the rim and you should be fine. Adjust the baking time accordingly, and note the photo (below) to get a sense re: how full you can go with the batter.
  
• Roasting the kabocha: I love the depth of flavor you get from deeply roasting the kabocha / pumpkin here. And because we roast vegetables 4-5 nights a week (especially in colder seasons), it’s a breeze to toss the kabocha in alongside everything else for use the next day. Can you use canned pumpkin? Sure. But if your heart is set on a special pumpkin bread, this is a step to hang on to.
• Straining pumpkin/squash in cheesecloth: This, on the other hand, is a step I skip. The original Gjelina recipe has you strain your roasted puree – four hours to overnight. I rarely got much liquid coming off the squash, so I started skipping this time-intensive step, arguably to minimal ill effect.
• Baking: You’re in for a long bake on this one, whether you’re doing a single large loaf, or a series of smaller loaves. To set yourself up for success, make sure your oven is accurately calibrated. The bake happens at 325°F, so if your oven runs cold by 25 degrees, the large version of this cake may never fully bake lol. Use a toothpick or skewer to test for doneness. Of all the cakes I’ve baked in my life, this one can be tricky, especially if you’re baking the large, single version. And if the top of your pumpkin bread gets too dark over the course of the bake, cover it lightly with foil to give it a bit of protection. I rarely have to do this in my oven, but there have been times when the top gets pretty dark, especially when baking in the large single loaf pan.

Pumpkin Bread Video

Pumpkin Bread: Step By Step

This pumpkin bread comes together much like many others out there. The main exception is you roast roughly half a kabocha squash ahead of time and then pulse it in a food processor to make a puree. That puree is combined with other wet ingredients in this batter and then folded into the dry ingredients (below).

You mix the batter until it just barely comes together, add the chocolate, and you should have a batter that looks like the photo below. Look at that color!

The batter goes into your parchment-lines pan (or pans). You can see a version of a trio of small (but still sizable!) pumpkin breads below.

And a much larger single loaf pictured below, the scale is hard to gauge. The larger loaf is baked in a 1-lb loaf pan.

Once the cakes have cooled completely, it’s time for the olive oil glaze. The glaze is whisked up with hot water, olive oil, and powdered sugar. And then the whole situation is sprinkled with pepitas and cacao nibs. The seeds stick in the glaze and are left to set for a while.

You can see (above) how I place the cakes on a rack, over a parchment-lined baking sheet to catch any drip and overflow of the icing. It makes for quick cleanup. And below is the olive oil glaze before mixing well and pouring over the cakes.

Below you can see the icing on the cakes starting to set. 

And below you can see the end result, ready to share.

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