Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

This chocolate chip pumpkin bread bakes up incredibly moist with warm pumpkin spice and chocolate in every slice. It comes together in 15 minutes of hands-on prep, so it’s one of those recipes you’ll make on repeat all fall.

I made this on a Sunday afternoon and it was completely gone by Tuesday morning. The foil tent tip halfway through baking was a lifesaver — the top came out perfectly golden without any burning.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Renata

Pumpkin bread is one of those recipes I come back to every fall without fail, and this version has become the one I reach for first. It’s simple enough to make on a weekday afternoon and good enough to bring to someone’s door.

If you love baking with pumpkin this time of year, this loaf fits right alongside a slice of Pumpkin Zucchini Bread, or you can make these pumpkin pancakes for breakfast!

Ingredients & Substitutions

• Cinnamon and Pumpkin Pie Spice: Pumpkin spice mix already contains cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, so the extra cinnamon just reinforces that cozy depth without tipping into muddy territory.
• Granulated Sugar and Brown Sugar: Using both sugars gives you sweetness from the granulated and a deeper, molasses-y flavor from the brown. The brown sugar also holds a little extra moisture, which keeps the crumb tender for days.
• Pumpkin Puree: This is the heart of the recipe, adding moisture, flavor, and a beautifully dense-yet-soft texture to every slice. Use pure pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix, which already contains sweeteners and spices that would throw off the recipe’s balance. For more ways to bake with pumpkin all season, my Favorite Pumpkin Recipes page is a great place to browse.
• Vegetable Oil: Oil keeps the loaf moist and tender far longer than butter would, because it stays liquid at room temperature. Any neutral oil works fine in its place.
• Alternative Milk: A small splash of unsweetened oat milk or almond milk loosens the batter just enough to make it pourable without adding extra sweetness. Any non-dairy or regular milk you have on hand will work the same way.
• Semisweet Chocolate Chips: Most of the chips go into the batter, and a handful more go on top so every slice gets that melty chocolate on the surface. Semisweet is the right call here because the batter is already well-sweetened, and a darker chip keeps things from tipping into cloying.

Variations for Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

• Mini Loaves or Muffins: Divide the batter into a greased muffin tin or two smaller loaf pans and reduce the bake time to 20 to 25 minutes for muffins or 40 to 50 minutes for mini loaves. Start checking early with a toothpick, since smaller formats bake faster than you’d expect.
• Go Nuts: Fold some toasted and chopped walnuts or pecans into the batter along with the extra chocolate chips before baking. You can place some on top to toast as the loaf bakes, adding a satisfying crunch to every slice.
• Change the chocolate: Swap the semisweet chips for 60% or 70% dark chocolate chips if you want a more pronounced chocolate. Milk chocolate or white chocolate would also be lovely. You could even add some cranberries for a tart contrast.

Professional Tips for Perfect Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

• Don’t overmix the batter. Once the wet and dry ingredients come together, stir only until the flour disappears, leaving a few lumps. Overmixing develops gluten in the all-purpose flour, which tightens the crumb and leaves you with a tough, dense loaf instead of a tender one.
• Cool the loaf completely before slicing. It’s tempting to cut in early, but the crumb is still setting as the loaf cools, and slicing too soon gives you a gummy, wet interior.
• Use pure pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix. Pumpkin pie mix already contains added sugar and spices, so substituting it throws off the sweetness and spice levels in the batter. The label on the can is worth a quick check before you open it. If you have pumpkin pie filling, you can make this pumpkin dump cake recipe!

How to Make Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Use these step-by-step instructions to make a moist, warmly spiced loaf with melty chocolate chips in every slice. Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.

Step 1: Prep your oven and pan. Position your oven rack to the lower third of the oven, then preheat to 350°F. Line a 9×5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper and spray the bottom and sides generously with cooking spray. The parchment makes lifting the finished loaf out clean and easy, and the spray keeps the edges from sticking where the parchment doesn’t reach.

Make the batter

Step 2: Whisk the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice until the mixture looks uniform with no visible streaks of baking soda. (photos 1 & 2)

Step 3: Whisk the wet ingredients. In a separate medium bowl, whisk the eggs and both sugars together until the mixture looks smooth and slightly thickened. Add the pumpkin puree, oil, and milk and whisk again until everything is fully combined and the batter looks a uniform deep orange with no streaks of egg or sugar remaining. (photos 3 & 4)

Step 4: Combine wet and dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, stir gently until the flour just disappears and the batter comes together. A few lumps are completely fine here, and that’s exactly what you want. Stop stirring the moment you no longer see dry streaks of flour — the batter should look thick and scoopable, not perfectly smooth. (photo 5)

Overmixing is the most common mistake with quick breads. As soon as the flour is incorporated, put the spatula down.

Step 5: Fold in the chocolate chips. Gently stir most of the chocolate chips into the batter with a few slow folds of the spatula. You want the chips distributed throughout without deflating the batter or continuing to develop the gluten, so keep the folding motion slow and deliberate rather than vigorous. The batter at this point should look thick, glossy, and studded with chocolate. (photo 6 & 7)

Step 6: Fill the pan and top with chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread it into an even layer with your spatula, making sure it reaches all four corners. Scatter the remaining chocolate chips across the top of the batter — they’ll sink slightly as the loaf bakes, creating those melty pockets right at the surface that make every slice look and taste exactly as good as it should. (photo 8)

Bake the loaf

Step 7: Slide the pan onto the lower third rack and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean with no wet batter clinging to it. The top will be a deep golden brown, and the kitchen will smell warmly of cinnamon and pumpkin spice well before it’s finished. Keep an eye on the color starting around the 30-minute mark. (photo 9)

If the top of the loaf looks deeply browned before the center is done, tent it loosely with a piece of foil and continue baking. This keeps the crust from darkening further while the inside finishes cooking through.

Step 8: Cool before slicing. Lift the loaf out of the pan using the parchment overhang and set it on a wire cooling rack. Let it cool completely in the pan for about 1 hour before slicing — cutting too early will give you a gummy, compressed crumb that doesn’t hold together. The loaf continues to set as it cools, and that patience is what gives you those clean, soft slices. (photo 10)

Recipe FAQs

Before You Go

I hope this chocolate chip pumpkin bread earns a permanent spot in your fall baking rotation. Browse our Quick Bread Recipes or make this apple bread next!