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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I baked this like a cake. Texture was good. Replaced the butter with unsweetened applesauce. Worked well. Only complaint: far too many spices. Next time I will completely eliminate the cloves. You cannot taste the pumpkin at all.
Made this spiced-pumpkin bread this afternoon. It is absolutely delicious! Had some golden raisins that I threw in. They made a nice addition. Maybe, next time I will try some kind of chopped nuts.
I have not made yet, but will. A baker once told me to get muffins or breads to rise, to set your oven to 500 degrees and heat up. Once loaf is ready to go in, turn down to normal temp. Works on my blueberry muffins so may on this too for those experiencing flat bread.
I’ve been using your recipe for a few years now and it’s truly perfect! I usually make and freeze these as Christmas gifts for my family as well. I follow the recipe exactly, I just omit the cloves as a personal preference. 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
I just made this because I was bored and craving pumpkin bread. I didn’t use any cloves because I was feeling impatient and didn’t have any at home but it tastes great anyway.
I had to use bread flour, instead of all purpose since it is was I had. For the spices I did a 1 tsp. pumpkin spice, 1 tsp. clove, 1/2 tsp ginger. I will definitely make again.
Perfect loaves, although it only took 45 minutes. I’ll definitely make this again.
Made several loaves of this bread for Mother’s Day and got rave reviews from my mom, my daughter and my daughter in law (and the rest of the family!) It was so loved, my son in law has requested some for his birthday! At the time I made it, I only had 9×5 pans so I increased the ingredients to 1.5 times the amount. I did have to bake a little longer than 75 minutes but could be my oven. Followed recipe exactly and only addition was adding pumpkin seeds to top of batter before baking.
We loved this bread so much, I have now ordered 8×4 pans because I plan to make this bread a LOT more.
The recipe tasted like I was straight up eating cloves. I only added 1/2 teaspoon, but I didnt taste any of the pumpkin. This should not be classified as pumpkin bread and rather a spice bread. Disappointed I used my one can of pumpkin on this.
Mine doesn’t rise anymore. 🙁
First time I made it, it was perfect! Fluffy and very impressive. A week later (and a few more time since), I made it again, and it didn’t rise nearly as much. Same ingredients, used a scale. Thought- the first time, I did notice substantial separation in the wet ingredients after adding pumpkin as written. Subsequent attempts, there was less separation. Possibly because I tried to whip the butter/eggs thoroughly before adding pumpkin? I don’t know… help! I yearn for the texture of my first attempt.
Hi Elaina, sorry to hear you’ve had a problem with this! Because it sounds like the only thing that has changed is the amount you’ve beaten the butter and eggs, I suspect the batter may have been over beaten. (It’s actually OK if you see a bit of separation in the batter once you add the pumpkin; that’s normal.) Hope that helps!
I was looking for a pumpkin bread recipe to try out that got good reviews but wasn’t full of oil. I made this last night and the flavor was great! I added a tiny bit of ginger and vanilla but otherwise did everything the same. Though mine turned out very flat and didnt raise at all. My baking powder and soda were brand new so I know they weren’t defective. It turned out flat enough that I could have baked the entire batch in one loaf pan, which is what I will try and do today. I’m no rookie Baker but I’m not sure why it didn’t rise. Either way this recipe yields a delicious bread. Does anyone have a suggestion for giving the bread more rise?
Hi Onifares, This doesn’t rise much as it’s more like a cake than a bread.
Have made this recipe twice. Love it. Had no problems whatsoever. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thank you for this great recipe. Just made it and it turned out so well!
Just made it now. It didn’t rise at all… how long should I mix the butter after I put in the eggs? I tried to mix it for 2 minutes. And I only made half of the recipe and only use 100 gr sugar since I don’t want it to be too sweet. Please help because I want to try to make this again. Thx u
Hi Lily, This bread doesn’t rise a ton — it’s more like a cake than a bread. That said, was your loaf pan 8 x 4“? Also, you mentioned that you cut the sugar in half — the bread would have had a bit less volume which may have contributed to it being flatter. Hope that helps!
This bread baked up so beautifully! I replaced half of the sugar with light brown sugar. By far the best recipe I ever tried. Raises nice and high and even.
I made this today here in Australia 🙂 and it turned out nicely. I used fresh butternut pumpkin that I steamed & mashed. I contacted the chef beforehand and she kindly wrote back & told me to squeeze the water out prior so the cake wasn’t too wet. To be honest I have absolutely no clue how to squeeze water from cooked pumpkin – I do know how to do it from spinach though! 😀
I want to try this recipe again with Libby’s canned pumpkin that I can order here but it’s expensive $8.50 plus $8.50 for shipping. Recipe was lovely and I combined it with an apple cider recipe. Nice on a cold winter’s day like today here in Oz.
Do you have a Costco near you? Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney have Costco! You can get Libby every year in Oct /Nov, I stock up!
I moved here from the US and am struggling to squeeze water out of cooked pumpkin! I made this all the time in the US and we are enjoying it again now, but the batter is too wet. Fresh pumpkin is much nicer than canned, though, so you might be disappointed. Did you weigh your pumpkin after it was cooked (and squeezed?)?
It’s better to bake the pumpkin instead of steam it. That way you preserve better the flavor and its way less or no water to squeeze.