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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Delicious! Easy! Great recipe and instructions. Yay!
This pumpkin bread recipe is absolutely divine!!!!! Will definitely be making again:)
Smells fantastic but it didn’t rise quite as much as I thought it would… seems a bit flat
Hi Lydia, This bread is actually more like cake than bread, so it doesn’t rise much. Hope it tasted good, though!
This recipe was the best pumpkin bread recipe I ever made!!!
Swapped 1 cup brown sugar for white sugar. Yum!
Hi Jenn! Absolutely love this pumpkin bread, everyone always says it’s the best they’ve ever had! I wanted to make pumpkin cupcakes for a fall baby shower, and I was wondering if I could somehow modify the recipe to make it more light and cake-like? Please let me know, thank you!!
Hi Ashley, glad you like this! If you want to make a cupcake version, I’d use this recipe instead. Because they have a streusel on top, the muffins themselves contain less sugar (which would be good if you will be icing them). I don’t think you will need to make them any lighter as they will already be fairly cake-like. The recipe makes 12 muffins, but I’d put less batter in each well and make a total of 18. Hope that helps!
I had some cans of pumpkin to use up from last fall so did a search for pumpkin bread. Came across this recipe and decided to try, given the positive reviews. OMGEEEE! This recipe is fantastic – no need to search again. The recipe is super simple with very basic ingredients. The result is the perfect texture, flavor filled pumpkin bread. This recipe is a keeper and I anticipate lots of requests from friends and family for this bread. Perfection!
I made this and it turned out amazing!! Super moist and delicious!
Made your loaf today and it was delicious. Very easy recipe with a moist crumb and lovely flavour. I look forward to toasting a piece and slathering it with butter. Yum!
I made this the other day and followed directions to the letter. With such a range of cooking time, I set my timer to 65. The tester came out clean and I took the loaves out of the oven! After I cooked them, I cut one loaf and ughhh – it was undercooked! The taste was great, but I can’t eat undercooked breads or cakes!!! Not sure if a clean cake tester is best way to know if this is done or not! Have most people cooked it for the full 75 minutes? Thanks!!
I came across the same problem, I did test it at 75 minutes, the tester didn’t come out clean. I ended up cooking this bread for over an hour and a half. The top was cooked the edges were cooked but when you cut into it mush. The flavor was good but I ended up throwing it away.
Hi Jess, I’m so sorry that you (and Geri) had a problem with this! This bread is generally pretty predictable — Is there any chance you could’ve made a measuring error?
It might be a good idea to place a hanging thermometer in your oven to see if the temperature is actually what it says? The oven could be miscalibrated.(not sure if that’s the correct term)
It’s possible that your altitude has something to do with cook time and oven temperature. Make sure you research and compare what your altitude allows for.