Pumpkin Love

Slowly but surely, I am turning my husband and daughter into pumpkin lovers. They "oohed" and "aahed" when they tasted my pumpkin muffins and I pretty much got the same reaction after they had a slice of my latest pumpkiny treat- a warmly spiced pumpkin loaf with tiny chips of pure chocolate! I made this one last Friday and froze it so that we could enjoy it for Sunday brunch together with my mother- in- law who was visiting for Thanksgiving. Just before serving it, I quickly popped it into the oven along with some rolls I had also baked for that purpose. It smelled pretty darn good when I set it on the table, but before they asked me to cut them a slice, they questioned what it was made of. My answer was simple, "first taste it". Well, it went down pretty well because even my pumpkin hating husband declared it "really good"!
And it was good! So good that I'm already looking forward to making another loaf.

Here's the recipe:

Pumpkin Loaf with Chocolate Chips

*125g butter, softened
*125g unrefined brown cane sugar
*2 eggs
*225g flour
*1 ½ tsps baking powder
*½ tsp baking soda
*¼ tsp salt
*1 ½ tsp cinnamon
*1 tsp ginger
*200g pumpkin puree
*2 tsps rum extract
*100g pure chocolate chips
*50 ml milk

Preheat oven to 180C and line a loaf pan with baking paper. Beat the butter and sugar until creamy and add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger over the eggs, butter and sugar. Fold this in and then add the pumpkin puree, the rum extract, the milk and the chocolate chips. Incorporate well. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Makes about 10 slices