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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This was the first time I had ever tried to make any sort of bread. I followed the recipe just as it is and it turned out amazing. I took it to work and now everyone wants me to bring more! Thank you for such a good easy to follow recipe.
Hi,
Your recipe calls for Pure Pumpkin. Will it work with pumpkin pie filling?
Thanks.
Unfortunately not — sorry!
Delicious bread, but unless you really like cloves, I would reduce to 1/2 teaspoon.
I made these yesterday. So easy and so delicious! I used pumkin pie spice for all the spices instead because I didn’t have the ground cloves but it still came out good. I also added chrystal sugar sprinkles on top for crunch and chocolate chips in one of the loaves. The chocolate chips complimented the pumkin flavor!
This turned out perfectly. Only changes I made were necessary to my availability of ingredients. I used self-rising flour instead of plain and omitted ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon baking powder. Also, instead of individual spices, I used 1+ tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice.
So very moist!
Mine did not come out as shown, never rose in pan and gummy
I’m sorry you had a problem with this! Did you use 8 x 4-inch loaf pans?
Tastes wonderful but did not rise but to about half size of loaf pan. Used fresh baking powder.
Hi Kathy, The pumpkin bread doesn’t rise a ton (it’s 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. (And glad you like the way they tasted!)
Hi Tina, If you only have 9 x 5-inch loaf pans, I’d increase the batter by 1.5 and bake in two 9 x 5’s. Bake time may be a touch longer. Hope that helps!
Same with me- I followed directions pretty closely. Though mine did rise in the oven a little bit, it looked like it fell or something as it cooled. The top of it was flat so it turned out very, very dense.
I realized I made a mistake. In Canada, they don’t have the cans labelled in oz, so I used 1 can of pumpkin here which is 796 ml instead of 15 oz which is apparently 443 ml. So I used way too much pumpkin! It would help to have the measurement in cups or mL in the recipe card so others don’t make the same mistake! I realized I made the mistake when I made the pumpkin pie from this website (which is absolutely amazing) which lists 15 oz can as 1 and 3/4 cups. Otherwise the flavour was really tasty!
Hi Paulina, Glad you figured out why the pumpkin bread had the texture it did. The great majority of my recipes (including this one) include conversions to metric/weight measurements. To view them, scroll down to the recipe, and immediately under the recipe title on the right side, you’ll see a little toggle. If you move it from “cup measures” to metric, you’ll see measurements that will work for you. Hope that helps!
That really helps- I plan on trying a bunch of recipes on your site since I had such success with the pumpkin pie, pie crust, and pumpkin bread the 2nd time around so will be sure to change to metric next time! Thank you Jenn!
Yes I had the same experience, followed to the letter
I agree that it’s too sweet. Would reduce sugar to 1+1/4 cup maybe. Also agree that I didn’t care for the amount of cloves. I made the recipe exactly as posted and it was very moist and yummy but a couple changes would make it a bit more to my taste. I absolutely love this chef’s recipes and even have her cookbook, but wanted to give my honest feedback.
My daughter-in-law made this pie and brought it over to share with me. It was excellent! Thank you Jenn!
They will be visiting me in a week’s time, so I am going to try making your pumpkin loaf to share with them. I’m having 2 friends in a couple of days to celebrate our Canadian Thanksgiving. Will try the pumpkin loaf served with whipped cream for dessert.
I found this to be overly sweet and bland.
Don’t know if my comment will add anything not already said! I found the equal quantities of spices really deepened the flavor. Most pumpkin bread recipes go lighter on ground cloves. Also, using butter, instead of oil, was new to me but the bread is still very moist. Just shows you that the tried and true recipes are still golden!