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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Taste is great but mine didn’t rise at all, any idea why? I made sure to add the correct amounts of baking soda and baking powder but the bottom didn’t rise at all. I even cooked it an extra 10 mins. Any thoughts?
Hi Dana, this is more like a cake than a bread and doesn’t rise very much. You mentioned it didn’t rise at all though – was your baking powder or baking soda very old or expired?
Mine also didn’t rise at all. I had new baking soda and the baking powder was less than 6 months old. What did I do wrong 😑
Hi Tahnee, How much height does it have? (Keep in mind that it doesn’t rise a lot.) Also, did you use 8 x 4-inch loaf pans?
Can I bake in only one 9×5 loaf pan?
I don’t recommend it as it will turn out very dense. If you want to use 9 x 5-inch pans, I’d make 1.5 times the recipe.
Mine didn’t rise munch either. I’m wondering it baking in a Bundt pan would work. Or a9x5 loaf. I wanted a nice big slice!
I’ve already made this recipe three times this month! SO good! I even added some semi sweet chocolate chips to one loaf and homemade vanilla cream cheese frosting to another. My only adjustment is cooking them for 60 min so get them denser/more moist. All in all though DELISH!!!
Wow! Perfect, so yummy…. we loved it!!!
The pumpkin bread was delicious. My neighbors really enjoyed it. For me I might cut back a little on the sugar. I will be making this again. Thank you!
We made the recipe as written. Bread turned out very well, but was a bit crumbly. Maybe a little dry on the outside of the loaf. I baked it for 60 min in a 325 convection oven. Do you think I over cooked it? WHat should I change to make it more moist throughout the loaf. Taste was incredible! Used fresh roasted pureed pie pumpkins.
Hi Jeffrey, I think the problem was that you use the convection setting and it was overbaked. If you make this again, I’d either use the standard setting on your oven or reduce the oven temperature by 25°. Glad you enjoyed the taste though!
I have cooked this two fall seasons in a row. Like one other person said on here, the cloves should be halved, which I did this time and worked great. This bread is absolutely delicious, but I agree with the person who says it’s so fluffy that it becomes crumbly on the plate and not loaf-like. Any experienced baker on here know a way to make it a tad denser, so it keeps the consistency of bread when cut?
This is a bit more like a cake than a bread so you won’t really find that there’s a way to make it dense. If you’re looking for one that’s a bit more dense, I’d poke around for a different recipe. Glad you like the taste of it, though! 😊
Can this be used for muffins? I only have one loaf pan and was thinking of using the rest of the batter for muffins
If you want to make muffins, I’d recommend this recipe (and you can omit the topping if you’d like). Or, if you’d prefer to have a loaf and some muffins, that would be fine too. Hope you enjoy!
Omg, this turned out so so good. I’ve been on a baking high lately and it sounded fantastic. I made this yesterday since I really needed to use some leftover pumpkin puree from my pumpkin muffins.
Way to sugary cut down on sugar
This recipe was absolutely amazing. The two loafs were eaten in less than 24 hours by 4 people 😂 easy instructions as well. I’m wondering— I have two pumpkin silicone cake round cake molds. Can I put them in there? Will it affect the bake?
So glad you enjoyed it — sounds like they disappeared quickly! What size are the round cake pans you have?
Baked as is and loved the moist result. (Except I top with salted pepitas and sesame seeds cuz looks and tastes good). This will be my go-to pumpkin bread recipe! Not too sweet IMO.
For those who said that they got a dry crumbly result, maybe flour was packed too densely or scooped flour instead of fluffing and spooning when measuring?? I find recipes that also are in weights to be more helpful for the above reason. More foolproof. That would be my only suggestion.
Hi Tanya, So glad you liked it! And I just wanted to let you know that 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.