Chocolate-Walnut Pumpkin Bread

It's November and it's time to make as many pumpkin centered dishes and goods as possible. When you find a good recipe for moist, dense and delicious pumpkin bread, you better hang on to it, because it's the perfect jumping off point to make variations with additional ingredients. Pumpkin bread is also easy to make and it's a great little surprise gift for friends. I adapted this bread from this recipe. The extra sugar sprinkled on top adds a lovely crunch to the smooth bread. This bread tastes fantastic with some apple butter and tea or chai ice cream!

Chocolate-Walnut Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon of sugar
2 large eggs, fake eggs are perfect
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9x5 dish.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and baking soda together. Whisk in the melted butter. Gradually add in the eggs, pumpkin, vanilla and buttermilk until you have a nice consistency. Fold in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Transfer the batter to the dish and sprinkle the tablespoon of sugar on top.
3. Bake the bread until a toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let the bread cool on a rack for about 15 minutes before carefully loosening the edges with a knife and removing.