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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The Pumpkin bread was delicious and very easy to make.
I also wanted to add that I think it is really awesome that this was a recipe that your Grandmother came upon. Those recipes that are passed down through the years are unbeatable.
I omitted the cloves and put in 1.5 cups of sugar instead of 2. It was still delicious and very sweet. I think next time I will use half the sugar and see how it turns out. I like things lightly sweetened.
Hi! I was wondering if you could give me the ratio of this recipe to make cookies. I loved this recipe so much that I wanted to see if I could turn it to another one of my favorite desserts.
Hi Ella, I think it would be a very different recipe for cookies, but I have a pumpkin cookie recipe you can try here. Hope you enjoy if you make them!
Hello! I don’t have nutmeg or cloves, what could I use as a substitute for those that would still make it taste good? I am super excited to try this recipe! Thank you so much!
Hi Calli, Do you have pumpkin pie spice?
I agree. Followed it exactly and it was just meh…. so I don’t understand the high reviews. There wasn’t enough batter for 2 full loaves.
I made this recipe today and it was absolutely delicious! Although for mine I didn’t have a bread pan so I used a cake pan and it looked like a giant cookie. I also added chocolate chips to this recipe and it made it even more yummy!
Would like to make this, it looks so yummy! Can you substitute with almond flour ?
For the best results, I’d stick with regular flour. Sorry!
I made it with GF flour and it was delicious. Just FYI.
What type of gluten free flour did you use? I tried it today with one and it came out so gummy/raw inside. I love this recipe but have just found out I have a gluten sensitivity.
The flavor was great but it was far too sweet. Even my children couldn’t eat more than a few bites. (I didn’t even put any frosting on it)
Had to throw it all out. But as I said flavor was great. I’ll definitely use this recipe again but will be cutting the sugar in half!
This was delicious. I loved the texture, spice and moisture level and that it was not overly sweet; however, even though my toothpick came out clean after 60 minutes, two of my slices had a little bit of the top portion underdone. Do you think I just needed to have left it 3 minutes longer without drying it out? All the other slices cooked perfectly throughout. I also feels like it needs a very light glaze on top, do you recommend just water and icing sugar for it or what glaze would you recommend?
Yes, it sounds like it just needed another 2 to 3 minutes in the oven. And if you want a glaze, you could use this recipe from my cookbook for guidance. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the prompt reply! I will do that next time. I have your cookbook (and love it) and will be sure to try making it using my bundt pan and glaze as in your book. Can’t wait for your upcoming book too!!!
🙂
Made this into one big loaf tonight for dessert after dinner. It’s good but in my opinion, spices are a bit too overpowering so might reduced it to half a teaspoon next time cause I feel like the pumpkin taste gets lost with all the spices but texture wise, it’s wonderful.
I have made this loaf twice now and I absolutely love the flavour, however, I can’t seem to get it to rise quite to the point of the photos. It always comes out very flat but I follow the recipe to a T. Any suggestions or solutions?
Hi Fiona, Are you using the correct sized pans? If so, then you’re not doing anything wrong — this bread is more like a cake so it doesn’t rise very much.
Perfect!!!!
Super easy!!!
No Fail!!!
I just made this for the second time and it is delicious. I think I cooked it too long the first time as my pans were bigger than the recipe called for and the bread dried out a bit. This time was perfect. I added a maple glaze to it from another recipe and I am going to ship it to my daughter in her birthday box ! Thank you Jenn. I always love seeing the original recipe clipping
Can you share the recipe you used for the maple glaze? 😍