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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Excellent recipe and technique. The texture is fantastically moist and light at the same time. At first it didn’t appeal to wait for butter to soften and bring out the mixer for a quick bread, but the results are more than worth it. I can’t wait to try this with bananas as another commenter mentioned. I reduced the amount of sugar to 1.5 cups and found the level of sweetness to be good for me. Next time I will play with the spice levels to reflect the ratios in my favorite pumpkin pie recipe (less cloves, more cinnamon, a little ground ginger). When mixing the butter, sugar and eggs I was a little dubious because they didn’t look quite “light and fluffy” to me, but I stuck to the mixing instructions and the results are better than I anticipated. Lastly, my one loaf pan is 9×5, so I filled it 2/3 full and the small amount of batter left made three muffins (baked for 30 minutes). This recipe is a definitely a keeper for me. It’s no wonder it’s stayed in your family through the years. What a lovely treasure to have from your grandmother, both the recipe and the memories of making it with her. Thank you so much for sharing it!
Can I use a bundt pan instead of 2 loaves?
Hi Rebecca, I’ve never made this in a bundt pan for fear it would stick, but a number of readers have commented that they’ve done it successfully. Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!
Works perfectly and garners all the praise mentioned in article. An excellent way to put pumpkin to use in the kitchen!
This was delicious and very moist. I was going to throw away some leftover pumpkin after a day of baking and was looking for recipes in which I could use it. I am so glad this recipe came up! I made NO changes. Thanks for sharing
I’ve made this 3 times in the last week. It hasn’t lasted more than a day. It’s a simple recipe buts it’s so good. I like to wrap it in foil overnight and eat it the next day, giving the flavors time to meld.
I should add that I hate cloves with the fire of a thousand suns so I put substituted it with additional cinnamon.
Baked this yesterday with low-carb substitutions: almond and coconut blend + vital gluten for the regular flour and powdered xylit for the sugar; halved the recipe but kept the 2 eggs because of the super absorbent coconut flour; used my own pumpkin spice blend. Turned out beautifully!
First of all, I’m not a baker. I tried this recipe this weekend and it turned out so delicious. In fact, I got the recipe from a colleague who brought in pumpkin bread to share. I took a risk and substituted bananas (added 1/2 tsp of vanilla) instead of pumpkin puree and the spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves) and the banana bread turned out just as delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I just made it. It is INCREDIBLE!! I tried a different recipe yesterday and it was…ok…but I knew there had to be better out there. It is amazing. And I made a cream cheese spread with vanilla and powdered sugar to go on it. Thank you! Grandma knew what she was doing when she saved this recipe..
The loafs didn’t rise well and were not cooked at 65 minutes or 75 minutes. This is the second time I attempted this recipe with the same result. Next time I will increase the baking powder to 1 tsp and increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
maybe an oven temperature issue
So awesome! This came out perfect! Pumpkin Spice everything 🙂 Can’t wait to share with co-workers.