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 was by far the BEST pumpkin bread I’ve ever made! Everyone loved it and I plan on making it again this weekend. The texture, flavor and aroma are all perfect.
Thank you.
SJM, from NJ
This recipe was fabulous! We have a nutmeg allergy in our home so we substituted ground allspice, and added 1 tsp of bourbon vanilla extract to cut back on the peppery taste of the allspice. The kids love it 🙂 Thank you for sharing this. 🙂
Just made this. Made one loaf plain and one with walnuts. Mmmmn…just had a piece of the plain. Nice fall pumpkin spice cake. (More cake consistency than bread, to me.) I used 1/2 white sugar and 1/2 coconut sugar, and didn’t have ground cloves but had some Pumpkin Spice powder that has cloves in it. All good. After reading Nutritional info on regular sugar & coconut sugar…not sure the benefits yet…maybe lower in glycemic index, that’s why I started experimenting with it. I need to research that better, but it didn’t effect the recipe badly in anyway…tasted like using all regular sugar to me. I’ll definitely make this again…light, fluffy, moist, delicious.
I’m getting ready to make this bread. I’m going to use pecans. How much? Using recipe as given. Thank you.
I’d use anywhere between 1/2 cup and 1 cup. Hope you enjoy!
This recipe was absolutely wonderful and my 11 year old daughter, my mom and I have made several batches and given to people. We want to give it to a lot more people. My question is if I use muffin pans or smaller loaf pans, how do I adjust the temperature and time for baking? Thank you so much!
So glad you like this and it’s nice that you’re baking and giving them to others! For mini loaf pans, I’d start checking them at 35 minutes. And if you’d like to make muffins, I’d use this recipe (and you can omit the topping if you want). Hope that helps!
what are the cooking directions if you use glass pan
Hi Ruth, You don’t need to change anything, but the loaves may take slightly less time to bake in them, so just keep a close eye. Hope you enjoy!
Thank you for posting this recipe, it is without a doubt the best pumpkin bread I’ve ever had! I followed the recipe to a T, except I added 1/2 tsp chili powder. The bread was moist and flavorful! SO SO good!
This pumpkin bread was delicious! However, it came out flatter than I expected. What would cause this?
Hi Christine, this is more like a cake than a bread and doesn’t rise that much, so you probably didn’t do anything wrong. 🙂
Do I need eggs for this recipe? If I do, what can I use for an egg replacement?
Hi Jo, You do need either eggs or an egg substitute. Two of the best substitutes I’ve heard about (I haven’t personally tried either of them) are a combination of water, oil, and baking powder, and carbonated water. Scroll down to the bottom of this article for more information about both. I would assume many baking recipes would also work with some kind of store-bought egg substitute. Hope that helps!
I just made this recipe for the first time. This is by far the best pumpkin bread I’ve ever tasted. Literally melts in your mouth. I added a little over a cup of crushed walnuts, and I substituted 2/3 of a cup of canola oil for the butter. I wasn’t sure whether it would come out like it should but it was perfect. Two beautiful perfect loaves. Thank you for sharing it.