Pumpkin bread
- Preparation 20 min
- Cooking 1 h 10 min
- Servings 12 slices
- Freezing Absolutely
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🎃 A new recipe I’d been looking for a long time
This is a brand new recipe this year. I wanted to try a really good pumpkin bread, not just a vaguely orange sweet loaf, and honestly the result is absolutely mind-blowing. My kids loved it, which is always the best test I know. What I love most is that it’s not too sweet: it’s just perfectly balanced, so you actually taste the pumpkin and the spices instead of just the sugar. Just one cup of golden brown sugar for the whole loaf, and that’s more than enough.
🌶️ Five spices, not two
This is where it all happens. Most recipes settle for cinnamon and a bit of nutmeg. I use five: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and especially allspice, which I had in my pantry and almost never shows up in a sweet bread. That blend is absolutely insane. It gives a warm, complex depth that makes you immediately recognize autumn at the very first bite, without any single spice hogging the spotlight.
🧈 Oil for moisture, butter for flavour
A lot of recipes pick one or the other. I use both, and it’s intentional. Vegetable oil keeps the bread moist and tender for several days, because it stays liquid even once it’s cooled down. Butter, on the other hand, brings that rich flavour oil will never deliver. By combining the two, you get the texture of one and the taste of the other. Serve yourself a slice at breakfast with plenty of butter on top and you’ll understand.
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🥄 Mix as little as possible once the flour is added
This is the number one mistake with all quick breads, and it’s easy to make because we instinctively want a smooth batter. The moment flour touches liquid, gluten starts developing, and the more you mix, the more your bread becomes rubbery and dense. Stop as soon as there are no more dry streaks of flour, even if a few small lumps remain. They’ll disappear during baking. Use a spatula or wooden spoon instead of a whisk for this step. You’ll be less tempted to overdo it.
🧈 Why oil and butter together
It’s not indecision, it’s chemistry. Butter is solid at room temperature, so a bread made with butter alone firms up as it cools. Oil stays liquid, which keeps the crumb soft and moist for days. On the other hand, oil has no flavour. By using both, you get a bread that stays tender on day three while still tasting rich and buttery. Salted butter also adds a contrast that brings out the spices, which is why I still keep a half teaspoon of salt in the dry ingredients.
🌶️ Five spices, and especially the allspice
Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. It’s that last one that makes all the difference, and almost nobody uses it in a sweet bread. It has notes that are reminiscent of cloves, nutmeg and pepper all at once, giving a depth that the other spices can’t achieve on their own. I had it in my pantry and I’ll never go back. A quarter teaspoon is enough. It’s powerful.
🎃 Canned or homemade purée, both work
I use canned pumpkin purée and it’s perfect. No shame in that at all. It has the advantage of a consistent moisture level from one can to the next, which makes the recipe reliable. If you make it from scratch, choose a small sugar pumpkin rather than a large Halloween pumpkin, which is stringy and way too watery. And be careful: don’t buy pumpkin pie filling, which is already sweetened and spiced. What you want is pure purée, one single ingredient on the list.
🔪 The toothpick in the centre. Really in the centre
A 70-minute loaf can be deceiving. The top browns well before the core is set, and if you poke too close to the edge you’ll think it’s done when the middle is still raw. Insert your toothpick right in the centre, all the way to the bottom. It should come out clean or with a few dry crumbs, never with wet batter. If the top is browning too fast toward the end of baking, loosely place a sheet of aluminum foil over it.
🍫 Variations that work
Chocolate chips, absolutely, if you feel like it. About one cup folded in at the very end, with the last few strokes of the spatula. Chopped pecans or walnuts also work beautifully with this spice profile. Keep the pumpkin seeds on top in any case: they stay plain, they toast gently during baking, and they add crunch while making the loaf look really beautiful.
❄️ Freeze it whole or in slices
Both work, and it depends on how you’ll eat it. Whole, wrap it unsliced in two layers of plastic wrap, then in a freezer bag or aluminum foil. Label and date it, and freeze for 4 to 6 months. To thaw, unwrap it and let it come back to room temperature for about an hour. In slices, it’s even more convenient for weekday breakfasts: pull out one slice at a time and it thaws in a few minutes, or goes straight into the toaster.
✅ What to serve with my pumpkin bread?
At breakfast, a warm slice with plenty of butter on top is hard to beat. As an afternoon snack with coffee, or even as dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. If you want to set up a full autumn spread, serve it alongside my Banana bread with chocolate and nuts and my Cinnamon Raisin Bread. And if you’re in full pumpkin mode for the season, my Pumpkin Crème Caramel and my Pumpkin and leeks soup with apple beer round out the menu.
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Dry
- 2 cups (500 ml) all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ tsp (12 ml) ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp (10 ml) baking powder
- 1 tsp (5 ml) baking soda
- ¾ tsp (4 ml) ground ginger
- ½ tsp (2 ml) ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp (2 ml) kosher salt
- ¼ tsp (1 ml) allspice
- ⅛ tsp (0.5 ml) ground cloves
Wet
- 1 ¾ cups (430 ml) pumpkin purée
- 1 cup (250 ml) golden brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup (125 ml) salted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- ¼ cup (60 ml) vegetable oil
- 5 large eggs
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
Topping
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) raw pumpkin seeds
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Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (177 °C). Butter and flour a 9 x 5 in (22 x 12 cm) loaf pan and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg, salt, allspice and cloves. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin purée, brown sugar, melted butter and oil. Add the eggs and vanilla, then whisk for about 2 minutes, until the mixture is completely smooth.
- Fold in the dry ingredients with a spatula or wooden spoon, mixing just enough to moisten the flour. Don’t go beyond that. It’s what keeps the bread tender.
- Spread the batter evenly in the pan and scatter the pumpkin seeds on top. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let rest 10 to 15 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
The simplest option is canned pumpkin purée, and that’s what I use. Its moisture level is consistent, which makes the recipe reliable every time. Just make sure to grab pure purée with a single ingredient on the list, not pumpkin pie filling, which is already sweetened and spiced. If you prefer to make it from scratch, choose a small sugar pumpkin, also called a pie pumpkin. Halloween pumpkins are grown to be decorative: their flesh is stringy, bland and full of water, which would give you a soggy loaf. A butternut squash also makes an excellent substitute.
The best method is the oven, not boiling water. Cut a small sugar pumpkin in half, remove the seeds and stringy bits, then place the halves cut-side down on a baking sheet. Roast at 400 °F for 45 to 60 minutes, until the flesh is tender when pierced with a fork. Roasting evaporates moisture instead of adding it, which concentrates the flavour. Let it cool, scoop out the flesh with a spoon and blend until smooth. One important note: if your homemade purée looks watery, drain it through a cheesecloth for a few hours before using it, otherwise your bread won’t rise properly.
Three things. First, don’t overmix once the flour is added: stop as soon as there are no more dry streaks of flour, even if lumps remain. Overmixing develops gluten and makes the bread rubbery. Second, use oil in addition to butter, because oil stays liquid as it cools and keeps the crumb soft for several days. Third, don’t overbake it: take it out as soon as the toothpick comes out clean, because every extra minute dries out the crumb. And let it rest 10 to 15 minutes in the pan before turning it out, so it firms up enough not to break apart.
Pumpkin is very rich in beta-carotene, the orange pigment the body converts into vitamin A, which is essential for vision and the immune system. It also provides fibre, potassium and vitamin C, all while being very low in calories for its volume. That said, let’s be honest: pumpkin bread is still a baked good with sugar, butter and flour. It’s not a health food. It’s a dessert that happens to contain a vegetable. What is true, though, is that my version is noticeably less sweet than most, with just one cup of brown sugar for twelve slices.
At breakfast with butter, that’s its primary calling in our house. It’s just as good as an afternoon snack with coffee, or as dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of maple syrup. For an autumn spread, serve it alongside my banana bread with chocolate and nuts or my cinnamon raisin bread. And if you want to take the theme all the way, my pumpkin crème caramel makes a spectacular autumn dessert.
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