Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

So I have a confession. Remember those wonderful sugar substitutes I recommended? I had never actually tried them on a large recipe, just in minor little things. So I decided to play around with them. I found a recipe for whole wheat pumpkin bread that I liked and decided to change it up and see how it turned out. I had been feeding the finished product to my husband for a day or two before I mentioned that it is actually healthy. He was shocked. Apparently it tastes too good to be healthy. Try it for yourself and see.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread (with chocolate chips for good measure)

Um, so some of my loaves didn't come out of the pan like I thought they should. I guess I should have taken a better picture of the ones that actually did turn out, but you get the idea, right? Isn't that bread pan cute? It's from my sister. You want to fill your bread pan about 3/4 of the way up, as shown in the picture.

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup molasses

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups pumpkin puree

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, preferably 60% cocoa 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with butter.

3. Combine flour, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Whisk and set aside.

4. In another large bowl, combine butter, honey, and molasses and beat for two minutes. Add the eggs and lightly beat until just combined. Mix in pumpkin and vanilla -- do not over mix. Gradually beat in the flour mixture in thirds.

5. Dilute baking soda in ¼ cup hot (not boiling) water, then beat into batter.

6. Stir in, by hand, the chocolate chips and nuts.

7. Pour the batter into the pan and bake at 325 for approximately 55 to 65 minutes. (test for doneness being careful not to over bake as it may dry out the bread) 

8. Remove from pan and place on a wire rack to cool. If you plan to serve this to guests and want clean slices, then allow it to cool for 30 minutes. Otherwise dig in after 5 minutes.

I got the original recipe from here. I baked a bunch of mini loaves for 60 minutes. They're perfect for the neighbor gifts we are giving out (although I did pair them up with fudge which is less than healthy, oops).