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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so delicious and moist! incredibly easy and mostly staple ingredients you already have!! immediately added to my favorite recipes
This is the best pumpkin bread, I’ve made it more times than I can count. I always cut the sugar, cloves and nutmeg down to around half of what it calls for since I saw a lot of complaints about those. Even my picky kids love it, so delicious!
Am i able to not add in the cloves?? Will it turn out the same?
Sure – I’d just replace the cloves with more cinnamon or nutmeg.
AMAZING!!!!! Thank you!!!
so easy to make and it was a huge hit with my family. definitely will make it again and again.
It was AWESOME!! I’m planning to make more to bring to Thanksgiving dinner.
Question: can I add some chocolate chips? How much would you recommend? Thanks!
So glad you liked it! It’s fine to add chocolate chips — I’d recommend ½ to 1 cup.
Delicious recipe. I use oat flour and I use 3/4 butter, 1/4 lard. And I use brown sugar and add in a cup or so of chocolate chips.
Followed recipe and it came out great. Set my timer for 60 minutes checked at 45 minutes and tooth pick came out clean.
Pumpkin bread is great. I serve mine with whipped cream and fresh raspberries. Amazing combination.
My oven is giving me problems keeping the temperature at 350 degrees. Once it reaches that temperature, it stays there for about 10 minutes then it keeps going up. I have to have some baked goodies for a meeting Thursday night and thought that if I found something at 325, maybe it would bake. I found your Pumpkin Bread recipe, and tried it. The bread turned out beautifully. I took it out a bit before the end of the bake time, just as the temp was starting to rise above 325. An electrician came in yesterday and told me the repairs would cost more than half of a new stove (this one bought a year ago), so I will be doing that but not before Thursday.
My thanks to you for your great recipe. M. Elliott
I’ve been making this recipe for years. Its the best! My family and friends look forward to receiving this every Thanksgiving.
I really, really like this recipe. It has the perfect hint of sweetness and spice. I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin flavored things in general but this will be a go-to recipe for the fall season from now on!
Almost every one of your recipes is a home run; unfortunately, I’m not a fan of this one. The clove flavor overpowered everything else.
Try it again without the clove….I only used cinnamon as that was the only spice I had on hand and it was so delicious!!
Definitely cut down the cloves
Absolutely delicious and second year making them . My go to Pumpkin bread aside from simplicity and awesome taste it makes 2 perfect loaves. only additions I added toasted chopped walnuts snd made a simple streusel for the top. Another hit Jenn thank you
Why mine didn’t rise?
Hi Maria, his is more like a cake than a bread and doesn’t rise very much. That said, did you use 8 x 4-inch loaf pans?
Love to make this one every year! It’s easy and delicious. Thanks for sharing.
BEST PUMPKIN BREAD EVER!
This is good, but so crumbly everytime I make it.
Hi Lauren, I’m sorry to hear your bread comes out crumbly! Do you slice it when it’s still warm? What kind of knife do you use to slice it?
It was amazing! I added chopped walnuts on top and it was perfect. My favorite pumpkin recipe!
Three years ago, I lost all my recipe books, and all the recipes I collected and “tweaked” for over 40 years in a fire.
I don’t know how I came across your site, but I’m very glad I did!
I followed this recipe to the tee, and after tasting it, I knew I would NEVER “tweak it”! This bread is moist, tasty and very easy to make! My 82 year old mother couldn’t say enough about this bread, and the best thing is, it tastes just like the bread both she and I would make each fall!
Thank you!
Would you recommend adding the pecan topping from your muffins to this bread?
Yep! But reduce the sugar in the bread by 1/4 cup.
I followed this recipe to a “T” and it came out very very dry and crumbly and lacking any flavor at all. It literally tastes like flour and sugar and has no pumpkin flavor at all. There is a tiny “hint” of cinnamon but not nearly enough for my family’s preference. I’m really disappointed with this recipe. Tried something new and it didn’t work. I’ll stick with America’s Test Kitchen and the science behind perfection.
This is the best pumpkin bread recipe I have tried. Everyone loves it! Thank you.
Thank you for putting this up. I saw your pumpkin bread recipe while making your chicken marsala (omg, seriously delicious, husband and I just finished our 3rd meal of it, will be a staple meal for us now!)
I changed the sugar to just less than 1 c. granulated + 1/4 c. brown.
And I added 1 c. chopped cranberries and 1 c. chopped walnuts.
I only have mini loaf pans… so filled 4 mini pans and baked them 55 min. to perfection!
I took a photo, but don’t see where to upload it.
Hi Millie. I want to make these in mini loaf pans so that I can gift them to others. I hope it works out based on the details in your comments!
Hi! How would I convert this to fit a 9×5 loaf pan, instead of 2 8×4 loaf pans?
Hi Becca, I wouldn’t recommend making this in one 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. If you only have 9 x 5-inch pans, I’d increase the batter by 1.5 and bake in two of them. Bake time may be a touch longer. Hope that helps!
Haha, I wish I’d paid attention to the pan size. Mine are 9×5 and the two loaves came out pretty flat and a tad overbaked even at 65 minutes. I just assumed all loaf pans were the same size! I’ll try increasing the recipe to 1.5 as the author mentioned in her comment here.
I made your pumpkin bread and everyday cornbread for a Halloween night chili party. WOW!!! Rave reviews from everyone! I doubled the cornbread amount but other than that I didn’t change or add a thing…..why mess with perfection. Both the cornbread and the pumpkin bread were very easy to make, moist, tender, with the perfect crumb and a great flavor.
Awesome recipe! Super moist even the next day! Delicous!! It was a hit at my cocktail halloween party!
I made this for a bake sale and let me tell you EVERYONE asked for the recipe
I really like this recipe! It makes a really good, moist pumpkin bread. I do cut the sugar to 1.25 ~ 1.5 cups, but that’s just personal preference. Also good with some chocolate chips added in!
Jenn, I made your recipe for pumpkin bread. It is yummmmmy. Perfect! Better than Starbuck’s. Easy recipe to follow. Didn’t use a mixer. Love the taste and texture.
Thank you so much for posting this. Hope you and yours are well.
Blessings and thanks, Teresa
Delicious! I added nuts but didn’t change anything else. Very moist and tasty!
Wish you would have added that this recipe is dense and more cake like. I found it Too dense, Too greasy and way Too sweet (and I decreased the sugar to 1 1/2C). Wont make it again…..
The cloves need to be cut way down.
so good!! been making it since last fall so so yummy. but for some reason it always ends up making only 1 loaf for me? i really have no idea why lol but so good anyway
Wow, this is most moist pumpkin bread and most flavorful banana bread I’ve ever had! We could not stop eating it. No need to add butter on this bread! I will be making this often! I don’t understand that comments that say “too much (sugar, cloves, etc).” It is the perfectly cakey, fall dessert bread!
Hi I made this recipe exactly as written and it was fantastic! I made one 9 x 5 loaf and one mini 3 x 6 loaf as I don’t have 8 x 4 pans. I wanted to ask can this recipe be doubled successfully? I thought I could probably make 3 9 x 5 if it was doubled…sometimes I know sometimes recipes can’t be doubled so want to ask before attempting. Only thing I did the second time I made it was cut the cloves to 3/4 tsp., although I love cloves, my family didn’t want quite as much, it was perfect…Thank you!
Hi Sharon, Glad you liked it! Yes, it would be fine to double the recipe.
this came out amazing!! so moist , would go great with some vanilla ice cream !
thank you for sharing
Love this ! I have been making a couple of years now… I modify using 11/2 cups of natural sugar, add extra on spices … including ginger… i love spices and i add fresh cranberries … gives a great bite…
Regina have you ever added pumpkin spice to. I made it and it’s delicious. I just would like to taste more pumpkin. I love the cloves and all but it seems like it’s lacking pumpkin flavor. Still really good
Maybe add more pumpkin? Or how’s the pumpkin purée u r using? I have notided a difference if the purée wasn’t as strong or good?
I would skip the cloves next time. Too clovey for my taste but other than that it was good. Will try again.
Hi Jenn, This recipe has been a family favorite for several years. I wanted to do something different and grabbed your first cookbook…decided to try the glazed pumpkin pound cake. It is wonderful!!! and a BIG cake! With the bread I always froze one. Do you think this will freeze well too?
Thank you 🙂
So glad you like this and also enjoyed the pumpkin cake! Yes, the cake can be frozen; just wait until you thaw it to add the glaze.
Thank you!
I’ve made this twice this past weekend- everyone loves it. No tweeks. My son, who isn’t big on compliments , said Mom, that’s really good” slam dunk in my opinion!!
I browned my butter first and put it back in the fridge to get solid again, and used a 11/2 cup sugar instead 1 cup white 1/2 brown. It tastes so delicious. Use brown butter whenever you bake it adds so much more flavor to your dish!
Didn’t like this at all. It never raised and the spices were overwhelming. Did not cook thourghly either
Hey dear! I love the recipe, just wondering how can I use fresh pumpkin instead of canned? To boil it? To bake maybe?
Hi Lela, I’d bake it then puree it. After pureeing it, make sure to squeeze out any excess liquid before incorporating into the recipe.
Cut back on the sugar!
Top was almost burnt and inside was moist and almost too moist… I followed the instructions/recipe to a tea. Still good but verrrrry sweet!
Way too sweet. Sugar could be cut in half. Also didn’t really rise for me and is very dense. Not horrible, but not what I was hoping for.
Hey Naomi! I had similar problems my first time making this recipe, and I realised I was opening the oven way too much, and wasn’t baking long enough. Also, I whip the eggs, sugar, and butter combination until no more air can possibly be encorporated.
Taste is great but mine didn’t rise at all, any idea why? I made sure to add the correct amounts of baking soda and baking powder but the bottom didn’t rise at all. I even cooked it an extra 10 mins. Any thoughts?
Hi Dana, this is more like a cake than a bread and doesn’t rise very much. You mentioned it didn’t rise at all though – was your baking powder or baking soda very old or expired?
Mine also didn’t rise at all. I had new baking soda and the baking powder was less than 6 months old. What did I do wrong 😑
Hi Tahnee, How much height does it have? (Keep in mind that it doesn’t rise a lot.) Also, did you use 8 x 4-inch loaf pans?
Can I bake in only one 9×5 loaf pan?
I don’t recommend it as it will turn out very dense. If you want to use 9 x 5-inch pans, I’d make 1.5 times the recipe.
Mine didn’t rise munch either. I’m wondering it baking in a Bundt pan would work. Or a9x5 loaf. I wanted a nice big slice!
I’ve already made this recipe three times this month! SO good! I even added some semi sweet chocolate chips to one loaf and homemade vanilla cream cheese frosting to another. My only adjustment is cooking them for 60 min so get them denser/more moist. All in all though DELISH!!!
Wow! Perfect, so yummy…. we loved it!!!
The pumpkin bread was delicious. My neighbors really enjoyed it. For me I might cut back a little on the sugar. I will be making this again. Thank you!
We made the recipe as written. Bread turned out very well, but was a bit crumbly. Maybe a little dry on the outside of the loaf. I baked it for 60 min in a 325 convection oven. Do you think I over cooked it? WHat should I change to make it more moist throughout the loaf. Taste was incredible! Used fresh roasted pureed pie pumpkins.
Hi Jeffrey, I think the problem was that you use the convection setting and it was overbaked. If you make this again, I’d either use the standard setting on your oven or reduce the oven temperature by 25°. Glad you enjoyed the taste though!
I have cooked this two fall seasons in a row. Like one other person said on here, the cloves should be halved, which I did this time and worked great. This bread is absolutely delicious, but I agree with the person who says it’s so fluffy that it becomes crumbly on the plate and not loaf-like. Any experienced baker on here know a way to make it a tad denser, so it keeps the consistency of bread when cut?
This is a bit more like a cake than a bread so you won’t really find that there’s a way to make it dense. If you’re looking for one that’s a bit more dense, I’d poke around for a different recipe. Glad you like the taste of it, though! 😊
Can this be used for muffins? I only have one loaf pan and was thinking of using the rest of the batter for muffins
If you want to make muffins, I’d recommend this recipe (and you can omit the topping if you’d like). Or, if you’d prefer to have a loaf and some muffins, that would be fine too. Hope you enjoy!
Omg, this turned out so so good. I’ve been on a baking high lately and it sounded fantastic. I made this yesterday since I really needed to use some leftover pumpkin puree from my pumpkin muffins.
Way to sugary cut down on sugar
This recipe was absolutely amazing. The two loafs were eaten in less than 24 hours by 4 people 😂 easy instructions as well. I’m wondering— I have two pumpkin silicone cake round cake molds. Can I put them in there? Will it affect the bake?
So glad you enjoyed it — sounds like they disappeared quickly! What size are the round cake pans you have?
Baked as is and loved the moist result. (Except I top with salted pepitas and sesame seeds cuz looks and tastes good). This will be my go-to pumpkin bread recipe! Not too sweet IMO.
For those who said that they got a dry crumbly result, maybe flour was packed too densely or scooped flour instead of fluffing and spooning when measuring?? I find recipes that also are in weights to be more helpful for the above reason. More foolproof. That would be my only suggestion.
Hi Tanya, So glad you liked it! And I just wanted to let you know that the great majority of my recipes (including this one) include conversions to metric/weight measurements. To view them, scroll down to the recipe, and immediately under the recipe title on the right side, you’ll see a little toggle. If you move it from “cup measures” to metric, you’ll see measurements that will work for you.