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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This recipe is fantastic. I cut the sugar in half.
This pumpkin bread is amazing!!! Only thing I would change is to add chopped pecans to the batter.
I had a recipe for pumpkin bread that used oil and I just did not want to use that. Butter is so much better!!!
I did add pecans, a handful of dried cranberries, and about a tsp of vanilla. Next time I will bake at 350. 325 was no fun as it took longer than 75 mins but results were VERY good. Will try less sugar next time mainly because I don’t need it, not because I didn’t like the sweetness level. I did use cane sugar and the flavor was off the charts good.
This tasted like a eating a spoon full of suger. I’m so bummed that I wasted fresh pumpkin puree on this mess of a recipe.
Try being a bit more civil…Eat the sugar you can use the sweet.
What the world needs now is kindness
I made this recipe and it tasted delicious. However, the loaves stuck to the pan and I lost some of the bottom. I normally don’t experience this. Any suggestions?
Hi Amy, Sorry you had a problem with the bread sticking – Did you thoroughly grease and flour the pan? If so, next time I’d suggest trying a baking spray with flour like Baker’s Joy.
I need a pumpkin cupcake recipe for an upcoming fall party and was wondering if this recipe might work for cupcakes? If so, could you please provide an estimate for an appropriate baking temperature and amount of time? Thank you!
Hi Cathy, If you want to make cupcakes, I’d suggest this recipe. Because they have a streusel topping, the muffins themselves contain less sugar (which would be good if you will be icing them). You can skip the streusel and ice them instead. The recipe makes 12 muffins, but I’d put less batter in each well and make a total of 18. Hope that helps!
Perfect! Thank you so much!
I made this yesterday and I am so proud to say that it came out perfectly! I totally forgot to read the beginning of the instructions so I set my oven to 350 on accident and baked for 65 minutes. I also used fresh pumpkin that was very liquidy in the batter, so I ended up gradually adding around a 1/2-3/4 cup of flour to the batter. I also used about a cup of organic brown sugar and 1/2 of organic honey in place of sugar. I also used one big 8×8 pan instead of the little loaf ones, since it covered the exact same area. In the end, the bread came out extremely nicely. Often I have mess ups with anything I bake, but this recipe was so nice and easy to follow and alter. Thank you so much! I shared the bread with my whole family, even my very picky and healthy eating parents, and they adored it! Thank you so very much once again.
Great recipe! I halved it to make one pumpkin bread and it came out really well.
I did modify this based upon another person’s review. First of all, I am at my vacation home and found out I do not have a loaf pan! So, I put it in an angel food cake/tube pan. As another person suggested, I cut the sugar to 1 1/2 cups and used 1 stick butter and 1/2 cup applesauce. I added 3/4 chocolate chips and 1 cup chopped walnuts. I sprinkled a few more finely chopped walnuts mixed with brown sugar over the top before baking. Baked at 325 for 1 hour. PERFECTION!
Turned out great! I only have one 2lb loaf pan so made one large loaf, 300F (on fan assist) for 75 minutes, it is really good! I cut 1/4 cup sugar out and glad I did, it was sweet enough, would definitely make it again!
Fabulous pumpkin bread! I make pumpkin bread often but because your recipes always come out so delicious, I thought I’d give this one a try. Glad I did, but I did make a few changes. As with the zucchini bread recipe (yes, that too was unbelievably good) I struggled with using so much butter. So for both, I cut the butter by 1/4 cup and subbed 4 ounces unsweetened applesauce, still both breads were so moist! Didn’t miss the 1/2 stick of butter at all. I also cut back about 1/4 cup sugar because I just don’t like things too sweet. I tweaked the spices because some people really don’t care for nutmeg and/or cloves. Used 1/4 tsp each of nutmeg and cloves and upped the cinnamon to 1 & 1/2 tsp. Also added 1/4 cup raisins (which also helped with using less sugar). Everyone who has tried it has said best pumpkin bread they ever had.
Thanks,
Vivian