Classic Pumpkin Bread
This Classic Pumpkin Bread is easy to make, perfectly spiced, and full of pumpkin flavor. You can enjoy this bread plain, add chocolate chips, or nuts!
I’ve made it my goal to share as many classic recipes as possible with you this year. While I love fun desserts, you just can’t beat a classic. So today I’m sharing another favorite recipe of mine that is perfect for fall – this easy pumpkin bread!
One thing that I love about this bread is how simple it is to throw together. All you have to do is mix up your dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients, combine them, pour it into a pan, and bake it. This bread also stays incredibly moist for days, no dry pumpkin bread anywhere in sight!
Another great thing about this bread is that it’s incredibly versatile because you can add your favorite mix-ins. I love this bread plain, but it’s also delicious with some chopped nuts or even chocolate chips. My grandmother loves to chop up orange slice candies and add them to hers. It may sound strange, but it’s actually pretty delicious!
Recipe Ingredients
This pumpkin bread recipe uses simple pantry staples that you probably already have on hand. Let’s discuss each one:
- All-Purpose Flour: The flour provides the structure for your bread. One important thing – make sure to spoon and level your flour. Too much flour can lead to a super dense loaf of bread.
- Spices: I’ve tested this bread multiple ways and found that a blend of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves pair best with the pumpkin.
- Baking Powder, Baking Soda, & Salt: The baking powder and soda help the bread rise nice and tall while the salt enhances all of the flavors.
- Pumpkin: The most important ingredient in this recipe! As always, make sure that you use pumpkin puree. The only ingredient in pumpkin puree will be pumpkin.
- Sugar: There’s a mix of brown sugar and granulated sugar in this recipe. I typically use light brown sugar, but dark brown sugar works just fine too.
- Oil: While the pumpkin does add moisture to this bread, there’s also some oil in it to help ensure that it stays moist. You can use either canola, vegetable, or melted coconut oil.
- Buttermilk: This is my secret ingredient! The buttermilk adds moisture and helps to create a soft, tender bread.
- Eggs & Vanilla: A couple of eggs help bind everything together and the vanilla adds additional flavor.
How To Make Pumpkin Bread
To make this bread, start by preheating your oven to 350°F (177°C) and preparing a 9×5 loaf pan. You can just spray your pan well with nonstick cooking spray, but I also like to line the pan with some parchment paper. Not only does it make it easier to clean the pan, but it’s also incredibly simple to lift the bread out of the pan too. You can see how I do this in the pictures below.
Then, whisk together your flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, sugar, oil, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla until fully combined.
Then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix the two together. It’s best to only mix the two together until just combined, you may see a few lumps in your batter but this is okay!
Next, pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and spread it out into one even layer. Then, pop it into the oven and let it bake for about 50 to 60 minutes.
You will know the bread is done once a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. If your bread starts to brown too much before it’s finished baking, you can place a piece of foil over it until it’s done.
I also recommend letting the bread cool in the pan for about 20 minutes, then use the overhang from the parchment paper to lift the bread out of the pan and remove it. It’s best to let this bread cool completely on a wire rack before slicing into it too.
Recipe Variations
While this moist pumpkin bread is delicious just the way it is, there are a few ways that you can change it up:
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread: Add 1 cup (190 grams) semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips to the batter.
- Pumpkin Nut Bread: Add 3/4 cup (90 grams) of chopped walnuts or pecans to the batter.
- Glazed Pumpkin Bread: Try the maple cinnamon glaze from my baked pumpkin donuts or the vanilla glaze from my pumpkin bundt cake on top of this bread. I do recommend letting the bread cool completely before you add a glaze.
Storing & Freezing Instructions
You can store this bread in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 to 4 days. If you need to store it a day or two longer, then I recommend refrigerating it.
To freeze the whole loaf: I recommend wrapping it very tightly with plastic wrap and storing it in a large freezer bag or storage container. To thaw it, simply place it on the counter a few hours ahead of time and let it come to room temperature.
To freeze the slices: Wrap the slices tightly with plastic wrap and store them in a freezer bag. To thaw the slices, you can set them on the counter and let them come to room temperature or unwrap them and heat them in the microwave in 20 to 30 second increments until warmed through.
Baking Tips
- To make it easier to remove your bread from the pan, I suggest lining it with some parchment paper.
- If you don’t have any buttermilk on hand, you can use my homemade buttermilk here. My homemade substitute will make 1 cup, but you can scale it down to make less for this recipe.
- When measuring your flour, make sure to use the spoon and level method.
- Be sure to use pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling for this pumpkin bread. Pumpkin pie filling is already sweetened and has spices added to it.
- If you love spices, feel free to increase the amount just a bit!
- It’s best to mix your wet and dry ingredients together until just combined. Over mixing the batter can create a denser loaf of bread.
Video Tutorial
![A loaf of pumpkin bread that has been sliced on a marble serving tray.](https://i0.wp.com/www.livewellbakeoften.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Pumpkin-Bread-4s.jpg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1)
Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
- 1 and 2/3 cup (210 grams) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup (250 grams) pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) light brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) oil
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) buttermilk
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray, line the pan with parchment paper, and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves until well combined. Set aside.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla extract until fully combined. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix them together until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread it around into one even layer. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If needed, cover loosely with foil to prevent excess browning on top of the bread.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then carefully remove the bread from the pan using the overhang from the parchment paper, and return to the wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Yum! Can’t wait to bake this! Any suggestions on cutting back on the amount of oil in the recipe?
You may be able to replace some of the oil with applesauce or more pumpkin puree, but I haven’t tried it in this recipe.
I believe something is missing from this section, see below. I really like your ingredients keep up the good work.
NOTES
Buttermilk substitute: Add 1 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup, fill to the 1/4 cup line, stir well and set aside for 5-10 minutes, then use in the recipe.
Thanks, Jamar! Just fixed it!
I knew I could count on you for a perfect pumpkin bread! I stopped making pumpkin bread a long time ago because they were always too dense or dry or bland . Your recipe turned out moist and not too heavy, thank you once again!!
Thank you, Tara! So glad you loved the pumpkin bread!
I use safflower oil for health reasons and it tastes so good I don’t want to reduce! I’ve made the pumpkin bread three times now with and without chocolate chips, gluten free with Daniel’s recipe! It is superb! I LOVE pumpkin, and pumpkin loves me!
Very good, perfect texture. I reduced sugar to 1-1/4cup , might try to reduce again to 1 cup. Also sprinkled walnuts over the top. Would definitely bake this again.
I made this the other day, turned out super amazing, smelled like heaven and everyone loved it. Next time I’ll add just 100ml oil instead of 120ml.
Warm regards from Pakistan
The bread was delicious, soft, and smelled amazing. I used a stick of butter instead of oil and reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup.
Excellent recipe. I always cut it in half, which means less baking time. I cut the sugar a little, too. Nice flavor, nice crumb, relatively healthy snack.
Excellent recipe, could I replace Pumpkin with Kumara and reduce the sugar.
Or maybe you have a Kumara bread recipe
Do you mean something like sweet potato? If so, I haven’t tried it but you may be able to use it. I’m not sure how much you would need to reduce the sugar though.
Sounds delish. Can this made as muffins? Or is the texture different?
Thank you in advance for your reply. Needing a new recipe 🙂
Yes, absolutely! It should make about 12 muffins.
made this recipe today delicious . my opinion it needs nothing added to or taken away.
Thank you, Denise! So glad you enjoyed the pumpkin bread!
Super yummy bread! Thanks for putting grams in your recipe. I have recently started to bake/cook with metric because it is more precise and SO much easier.
I made three loaves last weekend and covered the tops with a sprinkle of coarse turbinado sugar to give as gifts. They were so delicious and very easy! No need to cream butter and sugar up front. Will definitely save it and make again. (I’ve also made your carrot cake which is divine and a family favourite!) thank you!
this pumpkin cake sounds SO delicious! is there a substitute you can recommend to replace the eggs in the recipe ? thank you ! xx
I haven’t tried it, but something like flax eggs may work.
Just made this “fabulous” pumpkin bread. I added nothing, no nuts, no chips, absolutely no add ins. It’s just a wonderful loaf of pumpkin bread. I also just subscribed to you blog. Thank you….DELICIOUS
Thank you, Geri! So glad you enjoyed the pumpkin bread.
Made this bread this weekend & it is moist & delish!! My 3 little boys all love it & my husband said ‘its a keeper!’ Thank you!
I just made the pumpkin bread using the recipe with one change. I hate milk, all kinds of milk. So I substituted sour cream for the buttermilk. The bread was outstanding, top shelf! I love everything pumpkin. This will now be my go to recipe for pumpkin bread.
I don’t have all the individual spices your recipe calls for on hand, but I do have pumpkin pie spice. Would that work instead? If so how much would I use?
Yes, that would be fine! I would probably use 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice in place of all of the spices.
Sounds like a great recipe with all these super ingredients.Looks like the recipe I have been looking for.Will try to bake it this weekend.Going to be chilly.Will make the house smell good and cozy.Thanks
The best pumpkin bread recipe I have ever tried! The addition of the ginger, brown sugar and vanilla was a game changer over the recipe I have been using for years. I did not have ground nutmeg, so I substituted fresh nutmeg in half the amount (an important note I spotted in anther recipe) and pumped up the cloves a tiny bit. The depth and spice bite were perfect. I can’t wait to make it again! Thank you.
Can I substitute White Flour for Whole Wheat Flour?
You could substitute half of the flour for whole wheat flour.
This pumpkin bread is delicious! No need for mix-ins, it’s good plain. The buttermilk really makes a difference. Lighter crumb and slight tangy flavor. Next time I want to try using egg substitute for a friend who doesn’t eat eggs. Thanks for another great recipe!
I’ve made this recipe three times over the past week and it’s been a hit every time! I made 8 mini loaves instead of one big loaf and it was the perfect amount. I love how quickly I can whip these up. Thanks for sharing this recipe!