2cupschocolate chips(we like milk chocolate chips in this recipe)
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish well with butter or cooking spray and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl add the butter, applesauce, and brown sugar. Stir to combine well, about 1 minute. Beat the full minute to help the sugar to start to dissolve and get worked into the butter.
Add the egg, vanilla, and pumpkin puree and mix to combine.
Add the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, and salt to the bowl on top of the pumpkin mixture.
Stir until the mixture comes together and there are no dry spots left.
Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine (if you'd like, reserve 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips to sprinkle on top of the batter after it's in the pan, highly recommend, it makes the cake pretty).
Place the batter in the prepared pan.
Bake in the hot oven for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let the cake rest in the pan for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Notes
You can use light oil like avocado or canola oil for the butter if you like. I tried both options and the butter did have a better flavor, but the oil still worked well.
You can sub the butter for more applesauce or you can sub the applesauce for more butter, they all work great.
You can use Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat flour in this recipe, it works great too and I do it often.
You can add oatmeal to this recipe by subbing 1/3 cup of the all-purpose flour for 1/2 cup of rolled oats.
You can reduce the sugar in this recipes to 1 cup with success if you like a less sweet treat.
You can use whatever chocolate chips you like. We like milk chocolate chips with our pumpkin treats but semi-sweet or dark chocolate would also work great.