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Pumpkin bread is really a cake baked in a loaf tin: moist, gently spiced and easy to slice. The chocolate chips are what persuade children to try it, and the pumpkin keeps it soft for days.
Tinned or homemade pumpkin
Tinned pumpkin purée is the easy route and gives consistent results. In the UK it appears in larger supermarkets in the autumn; check it is plain pumpkin, not sweetened pumpkin pie filling.
For homemade, roast chunks of a culinary pumpkin or butternut squash until very soft (the same method as our pumpkin soup), then blend until smooth. Homemade purée is often wetter, so if it looks loose, simmer it for a few minutes to thicken it before you measure.
The spice mix
Cinnamon, ginger and a little nutmeg is the classic warm combination. If you have mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice, use 2 1/2 teaspoons of that instead. Keep it gentle for young children and add more next time if everyone likes it.
How to tell it is done
Dense loaves are easy to underbake. Push a skewer into the middle: it should come out clean apart from streaks of melted chocolate. If there is raw batter, cover the top loosely with foil so it does not over-brown, and give it another 5 to 10 minutes.
Better on day two
Wrapped and left overnight, the crumb settles and slices more neatly. It keeps for 3 days in a tin and freezes well: slice it first, then freeze, and a slice goes into a lunchbox frozen and thaws by lunchtime. Our banana bread works the same way.
