Loafing around during midterms leads to A+ pumpkin bread

During midterm week, Columbia can be a pressure cooker, so in protest of this atmosphere, I decided to become a leisurely baker yesterday and craft my favorite seasonal baked good from scratch: chocolate-chip pumpkin bread.

Because I never fully trusted those generic pumpkin concentrate cans that invade supermarkets in November, I made my pumpkin bread the old-fashioned way and pureed a pumpkin myself. This two-day process involved slicing up, roasting, and pureeing the pumpkin flesh, then straining it overnight.

I used Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate, broken up into chunks, in place of generic Nestle chips. Despite a recent takeover by Hershey, the Berkeley-based Scharffen Berger continues to impress chocoholics with high-quality artisanal bars.

When the bread was finished I topped it with mascarpone cheese and ate it for brunch with my morning espresso. Midterm procrastination has never tasted this good.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and oil two bread loaf pans. Mix 3 1/2 cups of flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice in a bowl. Fold 1/3 cup oil, 1 2/3 cup granulated sugar, 1 1/3 cup light brown sugar, and 2 cups pumpkin puree with a large paddle until completely blended. Beat 4 eggs and fold into wet ingredients combination. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and then add 1/3 cup water. Keep folding until fully blended, then add the remaining dry mixture and 1/3 cup of buttermilk and mix until fully blended (make sure there are no clumps of flour). Finally, fold in chocolate chips, and divide equally into loaf pans. Bake for 60 to 75 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.