Homemade pumpkin bread is a favorite fall recipe packed with cinnamon spice and tons of pumpkin flavor. Extra moist and easy to make, this recipe has been a fan favorite for years. You don’t even need a mixer! The days of bland pumpkin bread are behind us.
I originally published this recipe in 2014 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and a few more success tips.
One reader, Laura, commented: “Wanted to say this bread is really good! And last year when I took some of my farmers markets breads to our county fair, this is one of the breads I entered for judging, got a blue ribbon, 1st place, for it! Very good! ★★★★★”
When September rolls around, I have the sudden urge to make every quick bread recipe under the sun. Some of my favorites are banana bread, apple cinnamon bread, and this orange beauty: the BEST pumpkin bread I’ve ever had. This is a favorite pumpkin bread recipe because each slice is incredibly moist and the process is very straightforward. There are no dry crumbs here! This pumpkin bread is also packed with pumpkin and pumpkin spice flavors. I’m telling you… this is some good stuff.
Perfecting This Pumpkin Bread Recipe
When I was testing this pumpkin bread recipe, it took me about 6 or 7 tries to get it just right. After plenty of sunken, soggy, and flavorless loaves, I finally mastered what ingredients and how much of each to use, and the result is pumpkin perfection. The recipe is a lot like these pumpkin muffins.
Here are the key ingredients you need & why:
- Pumpkin: There’s a lot of pumpkin in this recipe because it not only adds flavor, but moisture as well. I always bake with canned pumpkin, but homemade pumpkin puree works too. If you’re interested, here’s how to make pumpkin puree. Make sure you blot your homemade pumpkin puree to rid some of the moisture (not necessary if using canned pumpkin). Simply measure your homemade pumpkin puree, then squeeze out some of the moisture with a paper towel.
- Oil: Adds incredible moisture and lightens up the crumb. Vegetable oil is best, but you can substitute melted coconut oil instead.
- Favorite Fall Spices: Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves… the gang’s all here! These 4 spices complement the pumpkin flavor wonderfully (and are often found together in pumpkin pie and many other pumpkin recipes). You could also use pumpkin pie spice—see my recipe Note below.
- Orange Juice: I know orange juice seems strange here, but don’t be nervous. This bread will NOT taste like oranges. I use orange juice because a little liquid keeps the bread from tasting too dense. Milk works too if you don’t have orange juice, but the subtle orange flavor is like magic in this bread. It just works.
- Chocolate Chips: Optional, but if you’re a chocolate lover, pumpkin + chocolate is always a good idea. You can also add chocolate chips to other quick bread recipes like zucchini bread and peanut butter chocolate chip zucchini bread.
Here’s the batter and a couple pictures of the bread without chocolate chips:
Why You’ll Love This Pumpkin Bread Recipe:
- Delicious in the fall
- Smells wonderful while it bakes
- Easy to make—no mixer required
- Extra moist
- Tons of pumpkin flavor
- Loaded with warm spices
- Adaptable—studded with chocolate chips, or use chopped pecans, add a swipe of cinnamon butter, or leave plain
- Similar to banana bread, it tastes even better on day 2 (if it lasts that long!)
I love this pumpkin bread recipe so much that I included it in my first cookbook, Sally’s Baking Addiction. It’s always a hit, especially when pumpkin spice season picks up!
But after 1 taste, you might not want to limit this quick bread to the fall season. 🙂
Another reader, Liz, commented: “This is by far the best pumpkin bread recipe I have made… It’s moist and loaded with flavor. I love the orange juice that adds a fresh flavor to it. I add some orange zest that kicks up the orange flavor a bit. It goes well with the chocolate chips too. ★★★★★”
More Perfect Pumpkin Recipes
- Pumpkin Muffins & Mini Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Muffins
- Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies & Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Pumpkin Roll
- Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies & Pumpkin Oatmeal Cream Pies
- Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Pumpkin Bundt Cake
- Pumpkin Coffee Creamer
- Pumpkin Hand Pies
- Recipes to Make With Leftover Pumpkin Puree
For even more inspiration, here are my 30+ best pumpkin dessert recipes.
Print
My Best Pumpkin Bread
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Homemade pumpkin bread is a favorite fall recipe packed with sweet cinnamon spice, tons of pumpkin flavor, and optional chocolate chips.
Ingredients
- 1 and 3/4 cups (219g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg*
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves*
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger*
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 and 1/2 cups (340g) pumpkin puree (canned or fresh)
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil, canola oil, or melted coconut oil
- 1/4 cup (60ml) orange juice*
- 2/3 cup (120g) semi-sweet chocolate chips*
Instructions
- Adjust the oven rack to the lower third position and preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Lowering the oven rack prevents the top of your bread from browning too much, too soon. Grease a metal 9×5-inch loaf pan with non-stick spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and salt together until combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together until combined. Whisk in the pumpkin, oil, and orange juice. Pour these wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently mix together using a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon. There will be a few lumps. Do not over-mix. Gently fold in the chocolate chips, if including.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 60–65 minutes, making sure to loosely cover the bread with aluminum foil halfway through to prevent the top from getting too brown. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean with only a few small moist crumbs. This may be before or after 60–65 minutes depending on your oven, so begin checking every 5 minutes around the 55-minute mark.
- Allow the bread to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before removing and slicing.
- Cover and store leftover pumpkin bread at room temperature for up to 3–4 days, or in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Tip: Baked pumpkin bread can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9×5-inch Loaf Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Cooling Rack
- Spices: You can use 1 teaspoon store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice instead of nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Be sure to still add 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to the batter.
- Oil: Oil is a better choice than melted butter in this recipe. The bread is not as moist and soft if using butter.
- Orange Juice: You can substitute milk (any kind) for orange juice.
- Chocolate Chips: If desired, try using milk chocolate, white chocolate, dark chocolate, or even chopped pecans/walnuts instead of the semi-sweet chocolate chips. You can leave the pumpkin bread plain, too.
- Pumpkin Muffins: This recipe makes 15–18 pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Bake for about 20 minutes at the same oven temperature, or try this similar pumpkin muffins recipe.
- Bundt Cake: Simply make this pumpkin Bundt cake (pretty much this exact recipe) and leave out the cream cheese filling. Add 1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chips if desired. About 1 hour bake time.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I have frozen pumpkin puree. Could I use it?
Hi Loretta, That should be fine. Once thawed, you may find it helpful to blot out some of the moisture if it seems especially wet.
A delicious, soft, flavorful bread. I was a quarter cup short on flour, so used rolled oats. Worked great. Also added some orange zest along with the fresh juice, really brightens up the pumpkin and spices. Added mix of chocolate chips and pecans. New cold weather favorite.
I made with with chopped walnuts and dried cranberries because I did not have chocolate chips – and it was so good. PERFECT tender crumb.
Love this recipe so much I have made this loaf more times than I can count at this point I love how moist and soft the loaf is. I do recommend if you are one person eating this to put no more than 3 days of loaf worth out at a time because this loaf molds so.quickly. But it freezes well with no taste change once thawed. This is my fav quick loaf but I would love to see more of these !
I’m not even a huge fan of pumpkin, I found this recipe because I had a can of pumpkin I wanted to use up. This is the best pumpkin bread I’ve ever had!!! I will be making it again for sure.
I loved this! I love to make pumpkin bread all the time for my two kids and they loved this!
I’ve tried many pumpkin chocolate chip bread recipes and this one is my favorite because of the moisture and flavor richness! Probably because of the orange juice. Such a great addition!
Seriously, ridiculously delicious! I used a 15 ounce can of butternut squash because that’s what I had in my pantry (side note…the cans of pumpkin you buy aren’t just pumpkin they are different types of squash) and instead of chocolate chips I used the variations you recommended and added: raisins, white chocolate chips & chopped pecans. Made a massive, delicious, moist, AMAZING loaf! Thank you, this recipe is going in my recipe box.
Works at high altitude (~6500ft) when baked at 350 for 70 minutes. Next time I think I’ll just use cinnamon instead of all the pie spices. I think they work in the pie because there’s a creamy component to balance them, but the bread was kind of spicy, or maybe it was just the cloves that overpowered it. But the bread was super moist and delicious!
Can this be adapted to be gluten free by using gluten free flour—measure to measure? Thank you.
Hi Donna, we haven’t tested it ourselves, but some readers have reported success using a 1:1 gluten free all-purpose flour blend in many of our recipes. We’re unsure if the results may change, but let us know if you do give it a try!
Absolutely perfect pumpkin bread, that’s all.
Hi Sally,
I’ve been following your recipes for years now, and I just had to finally post about how awesome these recipes are and how much joy you have brought to our family. This pumpkin bread is sooooo good, I am literally losing my mind. I am having trouble not eating it all before giving it out as the gifts they are intended to be. Great call on the orange juice, and the spice mix is absolutely perfect. 10 stars!!
I made it as written except that I used 2 Tablespoons of Grand Marnier and 2 Tablespoons of orange juice (instead of 1/4c juice), and I used melted butter for the oil. Yummy! I hope I still have some left on Christmas morning.
Thank you Sally for this delicious recipe. I made it with chocolate chips and it didn’t last 24 hours in my family of 5! So moist and tasty! I’ve tried a few of your recipes and they’re all very well-explained with great tips….and above all they’re delicious! I will try more of your recipes here in Madrid, Spain. If you have a book of recipes I would be willing to buy it as I am very grateful for your recipes that bring joy to my family!
Hi Olivia, thank you for your kind words! Check out the international ordering options for Sally’s Baking 101 here.
I made the pumpkin bread just as written. It is incredible! I actually added the topping from your crumb cake muffins with some pecans thrown in and drizzled it with the maple icing from those muffins because my husband loves toppings for texture. But the bread alone is divine. Thanks for another great recipe!
Such an easy recipe and it makes the most delicious and moist pumpkin loaf. I made mine without chocolate chips and used store bought apple pie spice and milk instead of orange juice, turned out perfect. Obsessed with this loaf
I am throwing all my old pumpkin bread recipes, this is the only one I will need. I grated crystalized ginger and walnuts instead of the chocolate chips. Best pumpkin bread ever!
This was wonderful and very moist. I used 2/3 cup of (mini) chocolate chips but also added about 2/3 cup chopped pecans and raisins. Not sure if it made a difference but I sifted the dry ingredients. Will definitely make again.
How many mini loaves does this recipe yield? How would I adjust the baking time?
Hi Paula, exact yield and bake time will depend on the exact size of your mini loaf pans (they vary). Keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
Just as a GUIDE LINE:
I have made very similar sized quick breads like banana bread in ” mini pans”
Amazon ( just to see actual demenions) 6X 3.5 loaves. See P&P Chef pans …Those are a tad bigger than most ” mini pans” I divide the batter into 3 loaves. The banana bread takes about 37 -38 min.
For Disposable I have used :
Moto Pack ( Amazon) 3.5 X 6
not quite as deep and probably could get 4 loaves. & a tad less baking time 35 ish min.
Either way, I spray the pans with a BAKING Spray that has flour in it. Bakers Joy or generic bothe have worked ( but no flour type for gluten free people)
I bakes this for my Christmas holiday party today. I didn’t use chocolate. I don’t like chocolate in pumpkin bread. I also substituted mango nectar for the orange juice. It’s just what I had. Anyway, the bread is moist and fluffy. My house smells amazing. I’m looking forward to sharing this with my friends.
Wow!. This recipe is so straight forward. I love anything pumpkin. I used apple juice instead of o.j. also I used Golden Raisins instead of Chocolate. I’m not a chocolate person. The Recipe was perfect in Direction. This Recipe has s a toss between a cake and a bread. Just Perfect!!.