Pumpkin Bread
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Kids love it, grown-ups love it…this pumpkin bread is hard to beat!
My grandmother clipped this pumpkin bread recipe from a magazine over 50 years ago, and it is my most-cherished family recipe. One of my clearest childhood memories is baking the loaves with my mom and carting them off to every neighborhood potluck and holiday party. Now I bake pumpkin bread with my own kids, and it’s just as wonderful today as it was back then. It’s easy to make — just a bit of mixing and stirring, pop it in the oven, and, in about an hour, you’ll have a house smelling of sweet autumn spices and two scrumptious, pumpkiny loaves.
Above, you can see the original recipe from my grandmother’s recipe box—it’s definitely seen its share of spills! After a bit of research, I discovered that the recipe was first published in the McCalls Cook Book (Random House, 1963). It is a typical sweet quick bread, similar to banana bread or cranberry nut bread, leavened with baking powder and/or baking soda instead of yeast. Quick bread batter can often be used to make muffins, and my pumpkin muffins are nearly identical to this bread, but with the addition of a pecan streusel topping.
Table of Contents
What You’ll Need To Make Pumpkin Bread
How To Make Pumpkin Bread
Begin by combining the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. I like to add everything in neat little piles in case I lose track of what I’ve added.
Whisk well and set aside.
Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl or in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Beat until just combined. It will look a little crumbly.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Continue beating for a few minutes until light and fluffy.
Add the pumpkin.
Beat until combined. It will look a little curdled or grainy — that’s okay.
Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture.
And beat on low speed until just combined.
Transfer the batter to loaf pans.
Bake for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Let the loaves cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
That’s all there is to it. Enjoy!
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Video Tutorial
Pumpkin Bread
Kids love it, grown-ups love it…this pumpkin bread is hard to beat!
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1½ sticks (¾ cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 (15-oz) can 100% pure pumpkin (I use Libby's)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Generously grease two 8 x 4-inch loaf pans with butter and dust with flour (alternatively, use a baking spray with flour in it, such as Pam with Flour or Baker's Joy).
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk until well combined; set aside.
- In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until just blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until very light and fluffy, a few minutes. Beat in the pumpkin. The mixture might look grainy and curdled at this point -- that's okay.
- Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined.
- Turn the batter into the prepared pans, dividing evenly, and bake for 65 – 75 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the loaves cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Fresh out of the oven, the loaves have a deliciously crisp crust. If they last beyond a day, you can toast individual slices to get the same fresh-baked effect.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The bread can be frozen for up to 3 months. After it is completely cooled, wrap it securely in aluminum foil, freezer wrap or place in a freezer bag. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (24 servings)
- Serving size: 1 slice
- Calories: 166
- Fat: 6 g
- Saturated fat: 4 g
- Carbohydrates: 26 g
- Sugar: 17 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Sodium: 117 mg
- Cholesterol: 31 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Followed the recipe exactly as written and the result was an absolutely delicious pumpkin bread!
I normally don’t write reviews but this pumpkin bread recipe was amazing. Next time I am going to experiment using sweet potatoes.
So good! Used GF flour instead of regular and it was still yummy!! Will make again. So good with my coffee this morning. Lol!
I am a big fan of the Starbucks pumpkin bread slice. This weekend I went to get a latte and I looked to see their pumpkin slices on display; OMG $3.25 plus tax…of course it’s California
Well I decided to make my own, found your recipe and it’s exactly the same if not more moist and tastes awesome!!!
Thank you so much for posting it!!! I will be a fan of your page look you up on insta and make more recipes from your website!
I made 1/2 the recipe (you know how it is, a cup of left-over pureed pumpkin in the freezer) and made 12 muffins (w/papers and a spritz of cooking spray). They are, without a doubt, the best pumpkin muffins I’ve ever tasted (and I’m nearly 70). I just threw all the ingredients into a bowl, mixed them with an electric beater and baked them.
This is Beulah again. BTW, I make muffins only now, and stopped making LOAVES of things like banana bread, cranberry bread, strawberry bread, pumpkin bread, etc. YEARS AGO because, as I see from some other comments, sometimes the centers end up as raw batter after baking and I’m not willing to waste good ingredients. Muffins : the wisdom of the ancients …
How long do you bake for muffins? Still at 325? TY!
Hi Caroline, If you want to bake this as muffins, I’d use this recipe (you can omit the topping if you’d like). Hope you enjoy if you try them!
Don’t know timing, sorry — I always bake muffins until I touch the top of a couple and the tops spring back. That’s how my Mom did it anyway.
Can you use a Bundt pan? Or a larger loaf pan?
Hi Carol, If you’d like to use a Bundt pan, I recommend this recipe from my first cookbook. It’s very similar.
Very good recipe. I tweaked it a little. I used 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of sugar. It gave it more of a deeper richer taste.
Maple syrup is a great sub too
Absolutely amazing! I’ve been making this for years. It turns out wonderful. I add a handful of raisins and I use mini loaf pans for holiday gift-giving. It’s delicious.
So good, more like a cake than a bread but loved it. I always look to cut sugar so I did 1 c white sugar and 1/2 c brown sugar. Probably could’ve cut the white sugar too 3/4 c. I also reduced the nutmeg and cloves. Although I don’t mind them my family definitely noticed them. I might replace them with pumpkin spice next time. Oh I also flavored the flour that lined the pans with cinnamon. So good. Recipe is a keeper for sure.
I halved the recipe and used 1/4 tsp of cloves.This is a dark, moist bread and really good! Better than other pumpkin bread recipes I’ve used. I used an 8 1/2 ” x 4 1/2″ old Glassbake loaf pan and it rose to a good height. I’m tossing other recipes and only using this recipe in the future.
This is an outstanding pumpkin bread recipe. I’ve made it several times, followed the recipe exactly, and it’s turned out perfectly every time. To anyone who is having problems, read the recipe carefully and follow the instructions. Don’t over mix. Use the specified pan size. Make sure your ingredients are fresh (baking soda and baking powder too). Use softened butter, NOT melted. The batter is very thick and you need to be patient getting it into the pans. Just take your time. Be sure to grease and flour the pans well. It’s actually a very simple recipe and makes a lovely pumpkin bread loaf IF YOU FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS.