This Chocolate Chip Bread is one of the easiest dessert recipes, but no one will ever know that it’s a short-cut, cake mix recipe with a brief list of common ingredients. For as simple as it is, this Chocolate Chip Bread is a complete crowd-pleaser and show-stopper! Thoroughly smattered with chocolate chips, and heavily frosted.
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This Chocolate Chip Bread is perhaps more accurately called a ‘loaf cake’ because let’s face it: it’s dessert. It’s in the shape of quick bread, yes, but it’s….. cake. I’m sure you’re not mad about it, right??
If you leave off the frosting, this could be bread, but NEVER leave off frosting! Who would not frost something that could be frosted? Especially if that frosting is chocolate cream cheese frosting — so silky, rich, and wonderful.
Take a shot every time I wrote ‘frosting’ in this post so far. 🙂
This Chocolate Chip Bread is such an easy, fuss-free recipe. It’s a really simple, arguably boring idea, and yet soooo delicious and impactful. Moist vanilla loaf cake, MANY chocolate chips, and chocolate cream cheese frosting. That’s it — quite basic — but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
All in all, the ingredient list is short and simple, and prep time is quite fast too. It’s always great to add another go-to, easy recipe to one’s repertoire, and you can definitely file this away in your quick & easy recipes file.
My Chocolate Chip Bread recipe is yet another offshoot of Grandma’s Pistachio Bread, which I’ve made into these Pistachio Bread Cinnamon-Streusel Muffins, this Triple Chocolate Pistachio Bread (with tons of cocoa streusel!), this Maraschino Cherry Pistachio Bread (a stunning flavor combo), this Cheesecake-Stuffed Pistachio Bread (also topped with cream cheese frosting – yay), and even a White Chocolate Cranberry Pecan Pistachio Bread (which sounds like it has a lot going on, and it sorta does, but is lovely and festive for the holidays).
I’ve done a lot with Grandma’s Pistachio Bread recipe over the years. Most of my variations of Pistachio Bread were actually unplanned, spontaneous ideas, and this Chocolate Chip Bread was no different.
What usually happens is I spot a container of sour cream in the fridge that I bought for one reason or another and never used, and that I now need to use up. Pistachio Bread is always the first recipe that comes to mind! It calls for 1 cup, and I tend to buy 8 oz. containers, so it’s perfect.
I then scan my pantry for what kind of cake mix and pudding mix I have on hand, which is how you can get super creative with the bones of this recipe! Use any kind of cake mix flavor, and any kind of pudding mix flavor, and your possibilities are nearly endless. Then you can mix in whatever you want as well, and you’re really creating variety.
In the case of this Chocolate Chip Bread, I obviously kept it utterly basic. I grabbed a white cake mix and vanilla pudding mix. I thought: you know what, I’ll just throw a ton of chocolate chips in this bread, and top it with a chocolatey frosting, and simple as that. Sometimes simplest is best.
To summarize, this Chocolate Chip Bread was born out of the need to use a container of sour cream before it expired, and we can all thank my Grandmother for the Pistachio Bread recipe that inspired it.
I almost forgot, and I feel obnoxious listing a million more links, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Grandma’s Pistachio Bread has also been the inspiration for a good many bundt cakes, most of which are collected in this Easy Bundt Cake Recipes post.
Some of the best and most-loved on the blog are this German Chocolate Bundt Cake, this Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake (by far the most popular!), and this Coconut Pistachio Bundt Cake (my personal #1).
Oh… this easy cake mix Lemon Blueberry Bread is also a permutation of Pistachio Bread actually. Okay, that’s it.
Chocolate Chip Bread with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
For Chocolate Chip Bread:
- 1 box white cake mix
- 3.4 oz. box instant vanilla pudding mix
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup sour cream reduced-fat is fine
- 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
For Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 4 oz. cream cheese softened
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 - 3 tbsp. heavy cream
- 2+ cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips optional garnish
Instructions
For Chocolate Chip Bread:
- In a large bowl, stir together cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips. Batter will be thick.
- Line a 9-inch loaf pan with foil or parchment paper, allowing the edges to hang over the pan.
- Lightly coat with non-stick spray.
- Spoon batter into prepared pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until edges are golden brown, and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven, cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
- Run a knife around edges of the bread that are in contact with the pan to loosen.
- Carefully lift out by the edges of the foil or parchment paper, remove the foil or parchment paper, and cool bread completely on wire rack.
- Prepare frosting.
For Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:
- In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and 2 tbsp. heavy cream until smooth.
- Add 2 cups powdered sugar and the cocoa powder, beating until smooth and creamy.
- Add additional heavy cream or powdered sugar, as needed, to achieve desired consistency. Thick enough that it won't run off the bread, but not stiff or heavy, and still very creamy and spreadable.
- Spread frosting evenly over bread.
- Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips, for garnish, if desired.
- Cut and serve.
Notes
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