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.
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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Recipe reminds me of my mother
Oh my goodness! Absolutely the best pumpkin bread I’ve ever made. Just sliced myself a piece still a touch warm and so delicious!! This will be my go to recipe from now on. Thank you Jenn!!
This is absolutely the BEST pumpkin bread recipe ever! My kids and I love pumpkin bread and I have tried dozens of recipes over the years and this one is definitely the best! Thanks!
I’m not great in the kitchen ; I don’t have a well-stocked kitchen when it comes to spices and equipment. So, for those of you out there, for example, who don’t have a mixer, or don’t want to buy cloves: I’m with you and YES you should make this recipe.
Changed a few things purely based on what I didn’t have/didn’t want to pay for 😉
– subbed salted butter for unsalted
– subbed brown sugar
– subbed allspice for cloves
– creamed sugar and butter by hand–it was super easy
– stuck butter in microwave for like…20 seconds–again super easy
– halved the sugar
– made one loaf
This is the best pumpkin bread I have ever had. Thank you for sharing something so yummy and easy to make!
What a fabulous recipe. The aroma from the oven was tantalizing. We doubled the receipe first time out and are so glad we did. For fun we sprinkled in mini chocolate chips in two of the pans. Wow! But we enjoy with and without.
Good pumpkin bread. It was moist and dense which was exactly what I was looking for. A little too much spice for me with the cloves, next time I would do 1/2 tsp of cloves or less. I also swapped 1 cup of the sugar for brown sugar and added a tsp of vanilla. I only had one large loaf pan so I put it all in and cooked it for 75 minutes at 350. Very good ! It’s not allowing me to give stars but I would give it 4 stars.
Absolutely delicious. My husband almost finished a whole loaf himself and kept saying how good it was. I made this with 1 3/4 cup pumpkin puree, that I made from scratch. I was running low on white sugar so I used 1 cup white and 1 cup brown sugar. Amazing recipe, thanks for sharing, I will be making this again soon.
Made this recipe, just halved it because it’s just me and I WILL eat both loafs in time if they’re just there lol. Absolutely perfect recipe! Love the history and story behind it too! Also Your website is stunning…Thanks so much for sharing!!
This pumpkin bread is AMAZING. I made it with some adjustments—GF and at high altitude. I made most of the traditional adjustments for high altitude (reducing baking powder, reducing sugar and increasing oven temp by 25 degrees) and just substituted a GF baking flour (King Arthur Measure for Measure) and this turned out beautifully. I made two loaves and both of them were gone in a couple of days. Thank you so much for this recipe—it rocks!
I followed the receipe exactly and it took forever to cook and still was not cooked instead you could see the pumpkin purée when I cut it.
Never had this happen in baking so i tried it again, same thing mushy and not cooked. I divided it in two metal pans cooked for over 90 minutes still the same. Not sure why??
Hi Liz, I’m so sorry to hear you had a problem with this (twice)! This recipe is usually pretty predictable- did you use two 8 x 4-inch loaf pans?