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 love this recipe so much that I make it every fall. I would like to make pumpkin muffins this year. Do I need to adjust the recipe for muffins. Thank you for your response and for all your recipes.
So glad you like this! I actually have a muffin version of this recipe here. (And you can omit the streusel topping if you’d like.) Hope you enjoy. 🙂
Have usually made pumkin bars but decided to try a bread. I found your recipe and it is wonderful!! The only thing that I did different was cut the
amount of ground cloves to 1/2 tsp. and added plumped raisins. This will be a favorite in my recipe box! Thank you!
I made this tonight. One loaf bread and 12 muffins. I dropped the amount of sugar to 1 1/2 cups then sprinkled a bit of turbinado sugar and pumpkin seeds on top. It smelled wonderful and tasted delicious.
This is the best pumpkin bread I’ve ever made!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Hi! First time I made this I accidentally used too large of a pan (9×5 versus 8×4) so they didn’t rise as much as yours (they were a bit flat). I have bought the correct size pans now and plan to try again tomorrow, but I also realized last time, my crust was also not developed/there were no cracks on the top – very smooth and soft all around. Thought it could be underbaked, but it was cooked for the full time & didn’t have that gummy/gooey texture that comes with underbaking usually, but the crust was definitely nonexistent. Turned out more like a cake than a quick bread for me.
Any guidance would be appreciated as to why I’m not getting that crust like in the pictures! Only differences between the recipe and what I made was the pan size and I used dairy free margarine instead of butter due to a dairy allergy – but neither of those should have impacted the crust development that much from my experience (I could be wrong).
Taste was amazing though. Great ratio of spice-to-pumpkin.
Thanks!
Hi Natalie, this is more like a cake then a quick bread but if you feel like the texture of the top was not quite right, I suspect the dairy-free margarine may have had an impact. I’m not 100% sure but if that’s the only diversion you made from the recipe (aside from the pan size), that would be my guess. Hope that helps at least a bit!
Thanks! I made it with a different kind of dairy free margarine and the right pan and got the nice crust 🙂 so – for anyone who wants to make it dairy free, the country crock avocado oil bars work best!
Glad it worked out better this time! Good to know for other dairy-free readers too. 🙂
Amazing! Super moist and melts in your mouth. I made this for the kids I nanny (4 and 6 year olds) who are very picky eaters and they devoured it. They enjoyed it with a little butter on top while the bread was still warm! Thanks for an easy-to-make treat that kept these kids happy.
I’ve made this too for my 8 year old, and she absolutely LOVED it! Thanks so much for this recipe!
I really enjoyed this recipe, but docked a star as I did make quite a few modifications and agree with other reviewers that it would have been WAY too sweet as written. Otherwise such a yummy fall treat!
– used 1 cup AP flour 1 cup whole wheat
– used 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar (next time would reduce to 1/2 cup of each)
– added far more spice – probably 2 TBS pumpkin pie spice, 1 TBS cinnamon and 1 TSP ginger
– added walnuts
– made into one loaf, baked for 90 minutes
Could I use self rising flour and discard the salt and baking soda?
Hi Kayley, I would recommend sticking with the all-purpose flour here for the best results, but if you want to go with self-rising, here’s some guidance on the necessary tweaks. I’d love to hear how it turns out!
Hi Jenn
I made this according to the recipe except I reduced the sugar to 1 ½ cups. The loaves are delicious. I can’t figure out why there’s a thin grease separation, a thin darker area, in the bottom of the loaf. I don’t think it’s from underbaking as it’s at the bottom of the loaf. I have this sometimes when I make banana bread or shortbread cookies as well. Thanks for your help.
Hmmm… it’s hard to say why that would happen. Any chance you have pictures of the bread? That may help me troubleshoot with you. What brand of flour and butter do you use? Not sure it would have an impact, but not sure what else may be causing that (and I agree, that the loaves don’t sound like they’re underbaked).
I made this and I thought it was delicious. Instead of the individual spices I used Trader Joe’s pumpkin spice and added 3tsp. Turned out great, buttery and moist. However in my oven it was ready after only 50 minutes at 425 degrees. Check after 45 minutes for done ness.
Can you make with Splenda? How much?
Hi Linda, I wish I could help but I’ve never worked with sugar substitutes so I can’t say how it would impact this. (If it helps at all, I have read plenty of comments from readers who have said they’ve replaced some or all of the sugar in a recipe with a substitute like Splenda and have had good results.) Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!