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 is by far the best pumpkin bread I’ve ever had, thank you!
Finally found the time to make this tonight. First time eating pumpkin as a sweet as opposed to a savory. Have never been able to come to grips with the idea of pumpkin pie but, l loved the sound of this. Because using pumpkin to make baked goods isn’t a thing here in Aotearoa/New Zealand, there’s no such thing as canned pumpkin puree so, l made my own. I chopped and baked the pumpkin in the oven and mashed it when cool.
Made the recipe as directed but, had to halve the quantity as l hadn’t baked enough pumpkin -rookie mistake that l won’t make again.
I absolutely loved this, it was much lighter than l was expecting as well as moist, not overly sweet and a great flavour. Loved the mixture of spices and it reminded me of a gingerbread loaf l make, which is another favourite old recipe. Will 100% be making this again but, next time l won’t make the mistake of having to halve the recipe – as it is, this loaf will be lucky to last til morning. Thank you so much for sharing.
40 minutes in a 9×13 cake pan
I’m not rating this recipe because I didn’t follow it exactly. I substituted oil for butter, reduced the sugar by half and added a few tablespoons of honey. I also used freshly milled soft white while wheat flour, which is quite different from normal all-purpose flour. The result was good, although it needed less time in the oven than the recipe stated. The reason I’m commenting is because I didn’t think this recipe made enough batter for two full-size loaves. If I made it again, I would use one regular loaf pan and one mini loaf or maybe a couple of muffins. Just leaving the comment for future reference.
I made this recipe as muffins today and they are delicious! I did not have butter on hand, so used plain Greek yogurt, reduced cook time to 30 minutes for muffins. They are very moist and taste wonderful! Thank you!
I have used the Libby’s kits for several years, and now I’m trying to duplicate that taste and texture. I increased the size to do 3 loaves but they were still smaller than the Libby’s kits so I made sure to check on the doneness much sooner and they were finished at 55 minutes instead of the typical 65 of before. But I usually add 50 grams of peanut butter per total batch and didn’t think of that until I was making a delivery. So I’ll try that next time and my mother detected the cloves which was not part of her usual pumpkin bread mix. Definitely enjoyed it.
I also used a bread flour instead of general purpose because that’s all I had on hand.
Made this with squash that I processed myself, in a Coleman camp oven. Made two 9x6x2 cakes. Cut baking time to 35 minutes. Used palm oil in place of butter. Looks and tastes great!
Very good at first i was like a pumpkin bread but turns out it’s so good and I get to recommend people to it
Made this tonight, even though it’s out of season, I had a hankering… this is without a doubt the best pumpkin bread recipe I have EVER used. Tender crumb inside crisp outside. I used 1 c. sugar & 1/2 c. brown sugar and added 1 teaspoon vanilla. Wow! Delicious!!
Absolutely perfect. Very moist and the taste reminded me of gingerbread cookies.