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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If you’re looking for a good pumpkin bread recipe, stop looking, you’ve found it!!
I have made this recipe for years. Given as gifts, everyone loves it!!
You can’t go wrong with this!
Had saved this for a while to make and finally did! It is amazing! Did not have clove so did not use that. I am excited to make again with pumpkin seeds on top and then will be just like or better than Starbucks!
I just made this recipe for the first time today and it was so easy and tastes so good!! I did not use clove or nutmeg because my mother is allergic to those but with just the cinnamon it is so lovely. I also put a half cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips in half the batter. We have people who love plain and some people who love chocolate with it. Both turned out so beautifully! I am so excited to be adding this recipe to our family cookbook. Thank you so much for sharing this with everyone!
Thanks for the info about the chocolate chips. I haven’t made this yet but I really think adding chocolate chips would be a hit with my kids! 🙂
I love this recipe!! Question, could I make a cream cheese batter to go in the middle? All the cream cheese pumpkin bread recipes I’ve found have less sugar and use vegetable oil but I want to know if I could use this recipe and just add the cream cheese batter because this recipe is BOMB!!
Hi Katie, I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure, but I think it would work. Please LMK how it turns out if you try it! 🙂
I tried it and was a success! The cream cheese mixture I made was more of a “baked” cream cheese using a tablespoon of flour but want to try the swirl of creamy cream cheese.
So glad it came out nicely – thanks for reporting back!
I’d be curious to hear how using a cream cheese swirl turned out for you and what you used.
I used this one, it was great but not exactly what I was looking for, but still give it a try! I layered it so pumpkin on the bottom, cream cheese mixture in the middle, pumpkin on top with the remainder swirled on top. Here’s the recipe
4oz Cream Cheese, softened to room temp.
¼ cup Granulated Sugar
2 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Large Egg, at room temp.
I love this recipe! I’ve made several variations of cheesecake filling for it to mixed success, always tastes delicious but sometimes doesn’t want to quite set all the way, I think it’d be better as muffins! Or even mini loaves, as it’d set up a little easier.
Any instructions for high altitude? I’m at 7500 ft.
Hi Gina, Thanks for your note. I don’t have experience baking at high altitudes so, unfortunately, I don’t have any wisdom to share – I’m sorry! You may find these tips helpful though.
Made it today, used real pumpkin, the house smells wonderful, I added dark chocolate morsels. It tastes delicious
I love this recipe! But is it possible to make it vegan?
Hi Todd, Glad you like it! A few readers have commented that they’ve made this vegan and have been happy with the results. Please LMK how it comes out if you try it!
Alright sounds great! So I would only have to substitute the eggs and butter?
Yes, you could use (solidified) coconut oil for the butter (or a non-dairy butter substitute) and for the eggs,two of the best substitutes I’ve heard about (I haven’t personally tried either of them) are a combination of water, oil, and baking powder, and carbonated water. Scroll down to the bottom of this article for more information about both. I would assume it would also work with some kind of store-bought egg substitute. Hope that helps!
Great! Do you think that flaxseed would work for the eggs? I was thinking about just using vegan butter and flaxseed
Yep, I do think it would work.
Often fruit and vegetable purées are used as egg replacers in vegan baking so the pumpkin maybe work well as a vegan ‘egg’! I would just replace the butter with a vegan butter. Coconut oil is an option but I’ve found it can make loafs and muffins quite heavy and sometimes oily when used with something as wet as pumpkin purée. (My day job is vegan baking, so I’ve done a fair bit of testing and baking with vegan replacements)
Awesome! I had no eggs, so used Mashed Banana. The only thing that I would add are Walnuts.
Oh adding banana sounds great. I have many in my freezer to use up. How many bananas did you use?
I replace flour with gf flour ..
Perfect pumpkin loaf
Hi Jenn. We LOVE your recipes in our house. I made this pumpkin bread for the first time today and it didn’t rise properly. My bread is very flat. I check my baking soda and baking powder and neither are old. I am a fairly experienced home cook but I don’t have any idea why this happened. Do you have any advice?
Hi Sharon, Thanks for your kind words — so glad you like the recipes! The pumpkin bread doesn’t rise a ton (they’re more like a cake than a bread) so assuming you used two 8 x 4-inch loaf pans, I don’t think anything went wrong.
Thank you for posting this. Mine is also flat and dense, but really moist! A small slice goes along way! Can wait to have some with coffee!