By End of January and I find I'm in good shape. The stock is made, the freezer is filling, the recipe booklet has found all its homes, the table at Bernice's Table is running with structure now — the organizing committee met for the first time last week, four people including Odalys and Deontay and a new member named Pastor Hendricks's wife Vivienne, who has been coming for a year and brings an organizational mind that complements Odalys's warmth and my cooking. We set a schedule and a budget and agreed on a rotation of lead cooks for the weeks I am away. The table is becoming an institution. That word — institution — would have frightened me three years ago. Now it feels like shelter.
I made gingerbread this week. Not for any reason except that January needs gingerbread — something dark and warm and spiced, something that cuts through the gray of the month with its insistence. I made two pans: one for the house and one for the Bernice's Table organizing committee's first meeting, because starting something new requires something sweet on the table and gingerbread with cream cheese frosting is exactly sweet enough.
Vivienne asked me at the meeting how long I envisioned the table running. I said, until there is no one hungry in Tuscaloosa. She laughed. I said, I'm not entirely joking. She looked at me and said, I know. That's why I wanted to be on this committee. Some people, when they commit to something, commit all the way down — past the convenient part, past the manageable part, all the way to the part where it becomes who you are. I think Vivienne is one of those people. Good. We need those people. The table needs all the fully-committed people it can get.
The gingerbread I made that week was exactly right for the moment — dark and spiced and insistent against the January gray — but when I think about what I want to pass along to you, it’s this Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread that lives in the same spirit: warm, deeply flavored, the kind of thing you bring to a table where something new is beginning. It has that same quality of being both humble and generous at once, the way a good community project should be. Make it for the people in your life who commit all the way down.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 60 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 10 slices
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat and prepare. Heat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and lightly dust with flour, or line with parchment paper.
- Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger until evenly blended.
- Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk the pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla until smooth and well combined.
- Bring together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently with a spatula until just combined — do not overmix. A few streaks of flour are fine.
- Fold in chocolate chips. Reserve a small handful of chocolate chips, then fold the rest into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and scatter the reserved chips over the top.
- Bake. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs. Tent loosely with foil after 40 minutes if the top is browning too quickly.
- Cool. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Allow to cool fully before slicing — this helps the crumb set and the flavors deepen.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 340 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 47g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 210mg