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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Is it possible to replace cloves, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg with pumpkin pie spice? If so, what would the measurement be? THANK YOU!
Yes – you’ll need 1 tablespoon. Hope you enjoy!
Finally, I’ve found a go-to pumpkin bread recipe! We reduced sugar to 1.5 cups and made them into 27 small muffins. Filled paper liners halfway and baked for 25 minutes. They were gone in less than a day! Will definitely make again.
Question to Jenn: In the pumpkin bread recipe which I intend to use as Christmas gifts, can I substitute 1 1/2 sticks of butter with 1 stick of butter and 1/4 cup canola oil? Thank you!
Hi, I’d stick with all butter for this. Hope your recipients enjoy it! 🙂
Absolutely fantastic recipe! Only thing I changed was to add 1tsp ground ginger(I love a little more spice). Otherwise, followed recipe and instructions as written. Easy to follow. Great results. Glowing guest reviews. What else do you need in a recipe? Bravo!!!
Batter and final product taste just like pumpkin pie. Delicious! I used only one cup of unpacked brown sugar, not two cups of regular sugar. I also didn’t have cloves, so I used allspice. And I doubled cinnamon because I love it. I mixed all the items as the recipe described, erring on the side of over mixing. It looked a little gross before adding the dry ingredients but turned out so good. The warm out of the oven bread was awesome. The next day bread (wrapped in plastic, put in fridge), still awesome. Without butter, just by itself. I got more ingredients just to make another batch. Was fast and so yummy. A great way to make use of extra pumpkin.
Can you make this with self rising flour?
Hi Gena, For the best results, I’d stick with all-purpose flour.
My 11 year old son and his friends love this pumpkin bread. It taste best right out of the oven. So easy to make!
Hi Jenn,
Thanks to you and your grandmother for a recipe to keep! I don’t ever comment until or unless I actually make the recipe. And this is a fairly easy one and I will make it again and again.
I made your recipe last week; now, I am making it again!!! It is delicious! I doubled the recipe, made 10 small loaves in small aluminum mini loaf pans and two extra large muffin pans and cut the sugar by 1/2 cup for the double recipe. (I don’t like things too sweet.) I had to use my mortar and pestle for the cloves, since I had whole cloves and didn’t want to spend another $10 on a new bottle. I prefer the spices instead of pumpkin pie spice (it has preservatives and I can tell the difference). Crushing the cloves was the most tedious part of the recipe but using a mortar and pestle is a stress-reducing activity!
I made the recipe last week and then delivered most of the loaves with a poinsettia and a Christmas card to several clients. I’m a Realtor, and given the current situation, I wanted to make something people could heat up in the microwave, put in the toaster, or in the oven (to kill germs they might worry about). I have had 5 of those people so far, including my sister, ask for the recipe, saying it is a great pumpkin bread recipe and they would like to make it themselves. Not too sweet, not too rich, but sweet enough.
I am making it again tonight to take to more clients this week. I have had a slice every morning or night for almost a week (my husband won’t eat anything sweet). I used Land O’ Lakes Unsalted Butter and King Arthur Flour because my daughter and I bake often and have found that those ingredients make a difference in how many recipes turn out. I love to use a small pat of unsalted butter to spread on a slice. I also left it on my counter for 4 days and it is still fine. If I have it longer than that, I would put it in the fridge.
Thanks again for such an easy and great recipe to share with others!
Mary K
My husband said it was the best pumpkin bread he has ever had. He ate it so fast I made again but used small loaf pans to slow him down. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Excellent pumpkin bread recipe! Easy to prepare, light, moist and delicious!
Loved this recipe. As someone who has to adapt recipes to gluten free, I substituted 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten free flour and 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Paleo flour. I also added in 1/2 cup crystalized ginger chips. So good that I shared this recipe with my mother in law!