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.
This is the original recipe from my grandmother’s recipe box; as you can see, it has seen its share of spills! After a bit of research, I discovered that the original recipe was published in the McCalls Cook Book (Random House, 1963). It is a typical sweet quick bread, similar to banana bread or cranberry nut bread, in that it is leavened with baking powder and/or baking soda instead of yeast. Quick bread batter can usually be made into muffins; my pumpkin muffins are almost identical to this bread but with a crunchy 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 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 65-75 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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Omg delicious! Thank you for the wonderful recipe..perfection.
I think I’m one of the very few that was not happy with this recipe. The cloves were incredibly strong and I got very little pumpkin flavor. To me it’s more of a gingerbread flavor. The texture and flavors were good, just not quite what I was expecting.
I made muffins. Kids don’t like streusel topping, so I left it off. I added a pecan to the top. Also subbed 1/2 cup brown sugar for the white. These were so good. Just like Starbucks pumpkin bread. I’ve been looking for a recipe that tastes like theirs. Found it! Thank you! I will be making them again. And again. Etc. gotta get more pumpkin.
Made this recipe today, hubby said it was as good as banana bread, that’s a huge compliment😊 Thanks for sharing, I’ll be making this again soon for the holidays!
Hi, curious to know if you can substitute white sugar for brown sugar? I decided to make this last minute to celebrate first day of fall, but I’m out of regular sugar.
Hi, I’d recommend sticking with the white sugar – sorry!
What about substituting whole wheat flour for white? TIA!
I’d suggest starting by using half whole wheat and half all-purpose to make sure you like the texture. If you do like it, the next time you make this, you can up the ratio of whole wheat to white a bit more. Also, you may want to consider white whole wheat as it’s lighter and milder tasting than regular whole wheat flour (yet just as nutritious). I’d love to hear how it turns out!
Is there anything I need to adjust for Hugh altitude? My loaves didn’t rise ? Should they have? Not sure what the culprits is since this recipe gets rave reviews. I’m at 6,000 ft
Hi Cindi, these don’t rise very much — they’re more like a cake than a bread. That said, perhaps the altitude made them rise even less. I don’t have experience baking at high altitudes so, unfortunately, I don’t have any wisdom to share – I’m sorry! You may find these tips helpful though.
I’m in the Denver area and I’ve been advised to never sift or spoon the flour. Just scoop it with the measuring cup and make sure it’s mounded! Also to add an extra egg to all recipes! I’d say this would work at 6,000ft. Every 2,000ft – 3,000ft add another egg.
When I’m looking for recipes on google I look for the highest number in ratings cause obviously means that recipe is amazing and I’m completely satisfied with this recipe it was my first time making pumpkin bread and now this is the recipe I’m gonna use every time my looking has came to a end on first try so thank you a bunch for this recipe 100% satisfying
Has anyone (maybe you, Jenn?) tried this with hubbard squash? Same amount of squash as pumpkin? cook the squash first?
Hi Bonnie, I’ve never tried this with Hubbard squash, but I think it would work. Yes, I’d cook it first and drain off any excess liquid. And you’ll need the same amount. I’d love to hear how it turns out!
I used the Hubbard squash – about 1 1/4 cup sugar and pumpkin pie spice with a bit more cinnamon. WOW! Thanks for another winner.
So glad it came out well — thanks for taking the time to report back! 🙂
Made this last night. Followed the recipe precisely. Came out deliciously moist and flavorful, filling the house with the smell of Fall spice. My boyfriend took a loaf to work, and his coworkers loved it too. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
I’ve been making this recipe for several years and it never disappoints. I follow the instructions exactly as is and it always turns out great. I just wanted to add that I made it in my Breville toaster oven the last time instead of our regular oven and it was done after only about 45 minutes. Definitely keep a close eye on your bread if you are making it in a smaller toaster oven.
Hi, I’m planing to make this after seeing all these wonderful reviews. Id like to use whole wheat flour. Will that wreck it???
Hi Julie, I’d suggest starting by using half whole wheat and half all-purpose to make sure you like the texture. If you do like it, the next time you make this, you can up the ratio of whole wheat to white a bit more. Also, you may want to consider white whole wheat as it’s lighter and milder tasting than regular whole wheat flour (yet just as nutritious). I’d love to hear how it turns out!
This is hands down my 2nd favorite recipe to bake (Sorry my first is Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars – and well, it’s cheesecake lol) but everybody I share this bread with absolutely falls in love with it! I don’t like to substitute ingredients on other people’s recipes but the only difference is I made was to use 3 tsps of Pumpkin Spice instead of the individual spices. Someone asked if I could do a sugar or cream cheese glaze so I may try that for a twist but I love this recipe as is. Bring me my fall fat pants!!!!
This pumpkin bread is wonderful. We made this recipe twice and we all love it. Easy to make with fantastic results. The only thing is the recipe calls for a longer cook time as we cooked ours for only 55 minutes. I know that everyone’s kitchen is different but just keep that in mind.
We will definitely make this for Thanksgiving.
It is baking now, , however, I used roasted pumpkin purée, and fresh ground wheat berries that I turned into flour with my Vitamix, added chopped pecans, and craisins. And ground flax seed. Will do pic when it is done…
I’m an au pair in Paris and just made this with my kids while babysitting one night! We substituted the pumpkin purée for frozen sweet potato purée and turned out amazing. They’ve never heard of pumpkin bread before! Thought I’d share because I saw on another recipe you were an au pair here too <3
❤️
This turned out so well! The recipe was easy- my 4 year old through the ingredients in.
It’s great that it made 2 loafs- my plan was to freeze one but they’re definitely going to be eaten before they can be frozen!
Ashley
http://www.littlelist.ca
Came out good. I added unsalted pumpkin seeds a teaspoon of allspice and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Next time I will probably add a teaspoon of spiced rum. It’s a good recipe that can be tweaked a little bit here and there.
I have never commented on an online recipe before, but this was SO GOOD I had to. I ended up halving the sugar, and it came out delicious!
Can I make muffins and how long do I bake them for
Hi Erma, have a recipe for pumpkin muffins that I’d recommend if you’d like muffins. (You can omit the topping from them if you’d like). Hope you enjoy if you make them!
Mine baked for only 25 minutes. Says 35-40. They’re good!
Can you add chocolate chips to this?
Yep, that’s fine – enjoy!
A small amount of chocolate chips and cinnamon chips is amazing and this.
I love this Pumpkin Bread, everyone does. It is the gold standard for Pumpkin Bread.
Myra Oliver
I’m obsessed with this recipe and bake it every fall!
Does anyone know if this recipe can be baked in a bundt pan?
Hi Abbey, I actually have a Bundt version in my first cookbook! You can find the recipe here.
Im baking it right now in a bundt pan. Its not as high as a traditional bundt cake. Its delicious. Idk how long it takes, bc im doing it now. I set timer for 30mins, just to see where we are at after that.
This is HANDS DOWN THE BEST PUMPKIN BREAD EVER! I just made this and once cooled, I couldn’t help myself I had to try it. It’s moist, sweet and perfectly spiced. So glad I found it. I will be saving this recipe for sure and making more for the freezer.
I have made this multiple times and it is always a hit! Today I am making a double batch to send as little gifts to my kid’s teachers at school!
You would have to double the recipe for it to make two loaves as large as the ones shown.
Hi Ann, The loaf pans used in this recipe are small – 8×4 inches; if you’re using large loaf pans, the loaves won’t be quite as high.
This recipe is incredible. 10/10. I love it so much. It makes for the perfect gift, desert, or breakfast.
This recipe is incredible. 10/10
I made this recipe for the first time this evening, exactly as written. It was delicious, and I thought the cloves were perfect as is. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Wow….I am so impressed. I can’t believe how delicious this is. I halved the recipe because I don’t have two bread pans. When I tell you this is the absolute best pumpkin bread I have ever tried. I added some cinnamon, brown sugar and chopped pecans on top for a nice top. Thank you for this recipe. My bread only needed 50 minutes!
So yummy! I was attempting to recreate the pumpkin bread from Sprouts and this was a close tie! I halfed the recipe (only had one bread pan), and used half brown sugar and half white sugar instead of just white and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract. Next time (because there will certainly be one!), I wanted to add a little bit of maple syrup.
I have made many pumpkin bread recipes over the years but this is by far my favorite. It’s so tender. Even the loaves I have defrosted and eaten later. Yum!!
This loaf is good. A little overpowering on the cloves for my taste. Maybe 1/2 tsp only next time.
I’m not going to lie. I was quite skeptical to try this out and I didn’t know if this was the recipe I should try, just since there are so many to choose from! But when I tell you I’ve never tasted, made or tried a pumpkin bread/loaf better than this, I’m not lying. It was the perfect texture. Had all the perfect flavours and it was so dense and moist and pleasing to eat. I’m not even kidding when I say I could fully finish both pans if I wanted to. The only thing I didn’t like with this loaf was the fact that it’s so hard to stop eating!!!! I love love love it and am definitely saving to keep for the future and I will be making this again for thanksgiving.
LOVED this! I followed others advice and reduced cloves to 1/2 tsp, and I added 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice. I used 1c white sugar and 3/4 c brown sugar, still very sweet 🙂 I put most in 1 loaf pan and then had enough for 6 muffins; baked loaf for 65 min and came out perfect!
I’ve made this DOZENS of times and I love it so much. Seems many people in the comments are overwhelmed by the clove, I’m also not a fan so I just leave it out??? Problem solved!
I’ve made it into one large cake, muffins, mini muffins etc and it always turns out perfect!
Thank you Jenn for sharing this recipe, I so look forward to my first batch every year.
DO NOT USE APPLESAUCE INSTEAD OF BUTTER… there i warned you. We were out of butter so I used applesauce as I’ve read that be substituted 1:1 for butter in baking recipe…Big mistake… came out tasting totally different and mostly applesauce subtle flavor and texture was wrecked .. I read later recipes that call for melted butter it could be ok to swap some of the butter then for applesauce but not when a recipe calls for softened butter or room temperature as it needs to be butter to cream with the sugar- applesauce can’t do that… lesson learned
Can I sub with regular salted butter? Will it make the bread too salty?
Hi Sam, It’s fine just cut the salt in the recipe in half. Enjoy!
I just want to say this is the best pumpkin bread!! I once made it years ago when I was in 3rd grade(I’m now 24) everyone in my classroom loved it including my family. A couple years later I was so sad i couldn’t find the recipe I looked and looked and finally found it and ever since then I make it every year now, we all love it. If you want to do pumpkin bread and impress people MAKE THIS ONE!!!
Very moist and delicious pumpkin bread. I only had 1 loaf pan so I decided to turn the rest of the batter into muffins. Both turned out amazing!
What temp and how long did you bake the muffins? Thanks!
I have made this bread countless times over the last two years. Everyone begs me to make it around this time of year. It is absolutely amazing and by far one of my most favorites! My entire family enjoys it.. including my kids. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe with us!
Too much spice and no pumpkin taste. Cloves overpowered everything else. I think 1 t cinnamon, 1/4 t cloves and 1/2 nutmeg. Otherwise texture was fine.
This is amazing and moist. I make it every year. I make sure to get every drop of pumpkin from the can. I feel like that makes it extra moist .so good. I change nothing in the recipe
Family loves it too
Seriously, the best pumpkin bread ever, and I have tried a lot of recipes. I did sub canola oil for the butter, and used 1 cup white sugar and 1 cup light brown sugar. I found that I only needed 50 minutes at 325F for it to be perfectly done, but perfect, it was. I can’t believe how moist and flavorful it was. Thanks for sharing a great recipe!
Hi, how much canola oil is the right amount?
Love this loaf! I have passed this recipe onto friends and family. I use half the sugar and it is still as sweet and as yummy.
I wold cut back the ground clove to 1/2 tsp next time as 1 tsp was a bit too strong for my taste. Enjoyed the result otherwise.
This is by far the best pumpkin bread I’ve ever had, thank you!
Finally found the time to make this tonight. First time eating pumpkin as a sweet as opposed to a savory. Have never been able to come to grips with the idea of pumpkin pie but, l loved the sound of this. Because using pumpkin to make baked goods isn’t a thing here in Aotearoa/New Zealand, there’s no such thing as canned pumpkin puree so, l made my own. I chopped and baked the pumpkin in the oven and mashed it when cool.
Made the recipe as directed but, had to halve the quantity as l hadn’t baked enough pumpkin -rookie mistake that l won’t make again.
I absolutely loved this, it was much lighter than l was expecting as well as moist, not overly sweet and a great flavour. Loved the mixture of spices and it reminded me of a gingerbread loaf l make, which is another favourite old recipe. Will 100% be making this again but, next time l won’t make the mistake of having to halve the recipe – as it is, this loaf will be lucky to last til morning. Thank you so much for sharing.
40 minutes in a 9×13 cake pan
I’m not rating this recipe because I didn’t follow it exactly. I substituted oil for butter, reduced the sugar by half and added a few tablespoons of honey. I also used freshly milled soft white while wheat flour, which is quite different from normal all-purpose flour. The result was good, although it needed less time in the oven than the recipe stated. The reason I’m commenting is because I didn’t think this recipe made enough batter for two full-size loaves. If I made it again, I would use one regular loaf pan and one mini loaf or maybe a couple of muffins. Just leaving the comment for future reference.
I made this recipe as muffins today and they are delicious! I did not have butter on hand, so used plain Greek yogurt, reduced cook time to 30 minutes for muffins. They are very moist and taste wonderful! Thank you!
I have used the Libby’s kits for several years, and now I’m trying to duplicate that taste and texture. I increased the size to do 3 loaves but they were still smaller than the Libby’s kits so I made sure to check on the doneness much sooner and they were finished at 55 minutes instead of the typical 65 of before. But I usually add 50 grams of peanut butter per total batch and didn’t think of that until I was making a delivery. So I’ll try that next time and my mother detected the cloves which was not part of her usual pumpkin bread mix. Definitely enjoyed it.
I also used a bread flour instead of general purpose because that’s all I had on hand.
Made this with squash that I processed myself, in a Coleman camp oven. Made two 9x6x2 cakes. Cut baking time to 35 minutes. Used palm oil in place of butter. Looks and tastes great!
Very good at first i was like a pumpkin bread but turns out it’s so good and I get to recommend people to it
Made this tonight, even though it’s out of season, I had a hankering… this is without a doubt the best pumpkin bread recipe I have EVER used. Tender crumb inside crisp outside. I used 1 c. sugar & 1/2 c. brown sugar and added 1 teaspoon vanilla. Wow! Delicious!!
Absolutely perfect. Very moist and the taste reminded me of gingerbread cookies.