Greek Yogurt Pumpkin Bread With Chocolate Chips

Back in college (forever ago), my favorite treat was when my best friend would make me a loaf of her banana bread with chocolate chips. I still love banana bread, and have even been known to “accidentally” buy too many bananas so that I have to make some banana bread, but my favorite bread treat these days is Greek Yogurt Pumpkin Bread, with chocolate chips, of course.

It is not that pumpkin bread is better than banana bread, I love them both equally. But pumpkin bread is a seasonal treat that I only bake in September and October. Even more elusive than my BFF’s banana bread once was.

Have you ever baked with greek yogurt? It is an easy way to add extra moisture and nutrients to your baked goods without adding a lot of extra fat and calories. Often you can cut down on oil/butter used in the recipe by using greek yogurt. And when you add Yoplait greek 100, you are only adding 100 calories for all that goodness.

And, just like I had to promise my daughter. You won’t even taste the difference. My seven year old was very leery when I first offered her Greek Yogurt Pumpkin Bread, but one bite and she was singing a different tune. So good!

You will notice that this recipe does not call for a whole can of pumpkin. (If you used a whole can of pumpkin, your bread would turn out soggy.) So what to do with all of that left over pumpkin? You could make a double batch, always advisable. Or you could enjoy Nutella Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. Or you can freeze the leftover pumpkin in an ice cube tray and toss frozen pumpkin into Pumpkin Smoothies. I recommend all above options!

Greek Yogurt Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted (substitute vegetable oil)
• 1 container of vanilla Yoplait Greek 100 (approx 2/3 cup)
• 1 cup + a few more chocolate chips, dark

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk sugars together, be sure to break up any brown sugar clumps and set aside. Add room-temperature eggs, vanilla and pumpkin puree and blend until smooth.

If your kitchen is cool, you will likely need to melt your coconut oil. You can melt in a small saucepan on the stove or in the microwave for a few seconds. The reason you want room-temperature eggs is because if your eggs are too cool, they could solidify your coconut oil. Add warmed coconut oil to the mixture.*

*If substituting vegetable oil, you can skip this step.

Add Yoplait Greek 100 and mix well. (I don’t like to leave yogurt out too long, but I did get it out before I started everything so it wasn’t too cold for the coconut oil.)

In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, pumpkin spice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet until there are no traces of dry ingredients.

Fold in a cup of chocolate chips.

Pour into greased bread pan. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top of the batter.

Bake for 45 – 50 minutes.

The result is a moist, flavorful and delicious pumpkin bread with yummy chocolate chips.

Notice that the recipe doesn’t call for a whole can of pumpkin.

Greek Yogurt

Greek yogurt pumpkin bread is a great way to add yogurt to your fall snacking. Another great greek yogurt snack idea is a peanut butter greek yogurt dip paired with apple slices.

Other Yoplait yogurt make for a great snack any time of the day too like Frozen Yogurt Covered Strawberries and frozen Go-Gurt. 

Enjoy!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of General Mills. The opinions and text are all mine.