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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This recipe is way too sugary, and too rich in pumpkin. 1 to 1 ratio in flour to sugar is enough to make a non-soda drinker cringe. I modified the recipe as follows, which makes one larger (and healthier) loaf instead of two small loaves: 1.5 cups flour, 1/2 stick butter, 4 tbs sunflower seed oil, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tbs molasses, 1 cup pumpkin, 1 tsp bp, 1/2 tsp bs, 1/2 tsp of clover, nutmeg, allspice, 1/4 tsp ginger, everything else the same. Also added a cup of pecans. Baked at 325 for 50 min. If you need it sweeter, add a little honey or maple syrup over a warm baked slice.
I’ve made this recipe from my 1973 edition of The New McCalls Cookbook for about that long—I bought the cookbook when I graduated from college. My cookbook is distintegrating so I looked to see if I could pull up the recipe on my tablet. And voila! Your grandmother’s recipe card looks as spattered as the recipe page in my cookbook. It is just the best pumpkin bread ever, and it’s also successful in smaller loaf pans. Bake at 325. One secret: beat the butter and eggs til very light & fluffy, don’t rush this step. Then quickly stir in the other ingredients, and you will have a velvety texture for this scrumptious bread. Thanks for sharing this!
Follow recipe exactly- Perfect every time!
Very good pumpkin bread and the recipe was pretty easy to follow! I did follow the recipe exactly as written, the only change was that I doubled it to make 2 large loaves.
The only thing I would change next time would be to decrease the amount of cloves down to half or a 1/4 because I realized we do not like the taste of cloves in this house.
I will try this again with less cloves. Thanks Jenn!
Very tasty – thanks for posting! I used the core recipe (flour, pumpkin, salt, soda, baking powder). Made a couple tweaks on the spices based on what I have on hand. Used pumpkin pie spice instead of nutmeg/cloves. (Pretty sure it’s got the nutmeg/cloves – but probably less than what this recipe calls for). Cut the sugar by half. (2c of sugar would have been too much). Added ginger (yum!) and 1/2 cup pureed cranberries. I also left it in the oven a little longer than an hour (but I do that with most things / not confident my oven gets up to desired temps).
None of the recipes say how much pumpkin? I would really like to make this recipe but again, how much pumpkin? Thank you
Hi Susan, One can of pumpkin is about 1-3/4 cups. Hope that helps!
I made this twice. First time I followed the recipe exactly. It came out amazing!! Second time I didn’t have enough butter so I used half crisco and half butter and I think it came out even better!! I will be using this recipe from now one!! My husband doesn’t eat sweets and this bread was GONE!!! And had him asking for more!! So Delicious!!!
I have made this recipe three times in the past week, it has blown everyone away. I followed the recipe exactly and it has come out perfectly every time. On the second two batches, I added a cup of dark chocolate chips, which made it even better. This is the first recipe that I have ever reviewed, but it and so many other recipes on this site are so good, that I just had to review. Thank you so much for this recipe Jenn!
Jenn, thank you so much for your wonderful recipes. I made it for Thanksgiving and it was easy, so moist, and so delicious. My 6yrs and 14 months old loved it as well. It will be my go-to recipe from now on.
Made it for Thanksgiving, absolutely delicious! I was a dingus and tried to fit it all into one Nordic Ware 93148 Wildflower Loaf Pan, but halfway through baking I realized the error of my ways lol. Pulled it out, scraped off the excess, and had to bake an extra 30 minutes, but it turned out wonderful and I received so many compliments! Making this a Thanksgiving staple in my house.