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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Thank you for sharing your recipe it was delicious!! Incredibly moist.
I made this today. Using regular butter and no salt. Used 6 mini loaf pans. It came out great nice and moist. Even though I put the eggs in the bowl too soon and mixed all together. I also coated the pans with spray and sugar. Will be making another batch for the holidays.
can brown sugar be used in place of the regular sugar?
Hi Grace, while I would recommend sticking with the regular sugar, a number of readers have used half brown and half white sugar and have been happy with the results.
I have never had pumpkin bread before so I was a little bit unsure about the taste of it. But I am so glad I did!! The combination of the spices and the pumpkin purée was unbelievable! My family devoured it less that 5 minutes and that recipe made two pans! I had to make another batch the next day cause they begged for more!
Came out very heavy. I wouldn’t make it again.
I made this tonight and I hate baking!
Your receipe is superb. I really love the spice flavor and how moist it is. It will be my go to now.
Thank you!
I made this yesterday and it is really wonderful.
I added some walnuts and swapped out one cup of the white flour for almond flour.
I am so glad that it yielded two loaves because boy oh boy is it good!
This was a first time for me to make a pumpkin loaf and I will definitely be making it again!
I had to increase baking time to 80 minutes, but maybe it is because of my swap, or maybe due to my oven.
Thank you for sharing!
I just made this for a work breakfast and the loaf is now gone, 5 hours later. I doubled the recipe, which made three large loaves. I kept one at home — it will not go to waste.
A bit disappointed with this recipe. I followed it perfectly, and it didn’t come out bad, just not the best pumpkin bread I’ve ever had. The spices were a bit overwhelming and it didn’t really taste like pumpkin, even though I added extra. Texture was perfect. If I were to do it again, I would cover it with foil to keep it from getting too crispy and add much more pumpkin (and thus add more flour)
Its October and I really wanted pumpkin bread in celebration, even if it is still very hot outside. I tried another recipe I got elsewhere last night and it was terrible. No flavor. We wound up throwing it away. But I still needed that pumpkin bread. I came looking on Jenn Segal’s site, hoping she had one. Every recipe I have tried of hers has really be great. Yeah! She had one waiting for me. She probably wondered what took so long… So I tried again today to get my pumpkin bread fix. Oh my, my house smells so good. The pumpkin bread is moist and wonderful, very flavorful. I did two things differently. I substituted Earth Balance Buttery Spread for butter, and instead of dusting the loaf pans with flour, I used sugar. This left a wonderful sugary crust on 3 sides. Yummy!