Vegan Pumpkin-Chocolate Bread with Homemade Candied Pecans

Okay, look, I am normally not one to be overly effusive about my own baked goods, but I have to tell you that this is, without a doubt, one of my favorite things that I have ever baked. Now, I am not the most accomplished vegan baker. In fact, many of my attempts at baking vegan goodies have resulted in things that are not exactly appetizing. My “vegan chocolate-mocha-oatmeal” cookies, for example, were thrown away after I spit out the first bite. This pumpkin bread, however, is 100% vegan and 1000% delicious. I riffed on a recipe from Joy The Baker and added some dairy-free chocolate, some homemade candied pecans, and a whole lotta love.

            I baked these baby loaves for my two friends, Jade and Alyssa. You might remember Jade as the inspiration for Jadey Cakes, which can be found here: ()

            When Jade and I planned on grabbing some dinner together I was like, “I have to bake something for her and Alyssa!” because there are some people who you just wanna give love to! And I have watched that Sarah Michelle Gellar movie Simply Irresistible enough times to know that if I bake something while feeling positive, the people who eat it will feel that way, too.

            So, I highly suggest grabbing your favorite whisk and jumping into the kitchen to make this recipe. You will be so glad you did.

Vegan Pumpkin-Chocolate Bread with Homemade Candied Pecans

Ingredients:

3 ¾ cups all purpose flour

2 cups packed light brown sugar

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice

½ tsp cloves

1 15oz can of pumpkin puree

1 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup maple syrup (and, like, actual maple syrup, not a creepy chemical version)

1/3 cup water

1 cup chopped + 8 whole halves of candied pecans (recipe below)

1 cup dairy-free chocolate chips (or carob!)

Candied Pecans

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups pecans (that’s right, kids, you’ll have extras! This means awesome snacking made by you!)

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup water

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Spray a nonstick cookie sheet with baking spray
3. Over medium-low heat, stir together the pecans, sugar, and water in a medium-sized saucepan.
   
4. Once those ingredients are all nicely mixed together, add your cinnamon and salt.
5. Keep stirring this pecan mixture and watch it get all syrupy and goopy and lovely.
6. Stir in the vanilla.
7. Keep a’stirrin. As you continue to stir, the syrup will begin to reduce. Now, you don’t want anything to burn, so watch carefully and keep an eye on how your ingredients are doing with the heat (if you need to turn down the flame, do so)
8. After about 5-6 minutes take the pecans off the flame and spread them out evenly onto your prepared cookie sheet.
9. Bake for around 3 minutes. Seriously pay attention during this, though, because all ovens are different and nuts can go from toasted to burnt in, like, a second, and once you smell the burning smell, it’s too late.
10. Remove the pecans from the oven, let them cool, and then remove them from the sheet!
    

Back to the Pumpkin-Chocolate Bread!

 Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Place a piece of parchment in the bottom of two 8x4x3 (mine were actually 8x 3 7/8 x 2 15/32, but it ended up being fine) loaf pans. Butter and flour the parchment and the insides of the loaf pans, shake out excess flour.
3. In a medium bowl, use a whisk to mix together the pumpkin puree, oil, maple syrup, and water.
4. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and all of the spices.
5. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and use a spatula to make sure all the ingredients are evenly mixed (but not overly) including running the spatula around the sides and across the bottom of the bowl, to make sure all the dry ingredients have mixed with the wet ingredients.
6. Use the spatula to fold in the chopped candied pecans and the non-dairy chocolate chips. Make sure they’re all evenly incorporated.
7. Evenly divide the batter between your prepared loaf pans and take the 8 pecan halves you were saving and place four evenly on the top of each loaf.
   
8. Bake the loaves side by side for about an hour and twenty minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.
9. Once the loaves are removed from the oven, allow them to cool in their pans (preferably on a cooling rack) for about half an hour before inverting and then reverting them onto their serving plates.
   
   
10. EAT EAT EAT!

Ps. These little suckers are so good that you might forgo sharing them at all, and keep all the love inside of them for yourself…as in…that’s what I did…I wanted to just try one to make sure it was up to snuff and then give them both to Jade and Alyssa. However, after one slice I was like, “welp, guess this is staying with me!” And I ate a slice every morning with some Chai tea (how bougie, right?) until it was gone…luckily this recipe makes two…

Til next time,

D