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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Why do you use baking soda?
Hi Jeanie, The baking soda combined with the baking powder in this recipe provides leavening and helps the bread to rise. It also helps the bread to develop that lovely golden-brown color.
I have made this pumpkin bread twice in the last week- It is that good! I adjusted the spices a little based on some of the reviews and used light brown sugar but otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly. It is so moist and delicious. About 60 minutes in the oven is perfect for me. Making a few loaves to give to family. Thank you!!!
This pumpkin bread recipe is one of my favourites. My family loves this. It gets better every time I try baking it. Thanks so much for sharing this.
I like all your recipes! Keeping going Jen!
Regards
Shilpa
Didn’t have cloves or nutmeg so just used a teaspoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, and it tasted amazing. This recipe is a keeper!
SO GOOD!!
This is superb. I’m at 4,800 feet above sea level. The first time I made this bread, I followed the recipe exactly and both loaves fell–it was ugly, but delicious. For the second batch, I used a few high altitude quick bread tricks: subtract 1/4 t. baking powder and 2 T of the sugar (1 T for each cup), add 25 degrees to oven temp. My loaves were beautifully rounded and done in 50 minutes. Note that some canned pumpkin, such as Trader Joe’s, has a lot more liquid than Libby’s. I used Libby’s.
This looked great when I took it out of the oven… but it fell while it was cooling. Taste is wonderful. What went wrong???
Glad to hear it tastes good, but sorry to hear it fell! There are a number of reasons that cakes can fall when cooling. Oftentimes, it’s because they’re a bit underbaked, but this article may help you to narrow it down a bit.
Just stumbled upon your website when searching for an awesome pumpkin spice cake recipe. Would you say the texture of this pumpkin bread is more on the dense/heavy side or is it more cake like? Bottom line is, I’m needing something that would work for a wedding cake. Do you think this recipe would work for that? Thanks!
Hi Sarah, It’s cake-like and tender, but not quite as light as your typical layer cake, if that makes sense. Hope that helps!
Mine didn’t rise and needed to be thrown away. The only substitution I made was using splenda instead of sugar. This shouldn’t have caused it not to rise.
Hi Emily, sorry to hear you had a problem with the recipe! This bread is actually more like cake than bread, so it doesn’t rise much. That said, changing the sugar when baking can definitely change the results.
There should be a way to make this delicious sounding loaf without all that sugar.
Less sugar might actually allow one to taste the pumpkin.