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 (looking at you, chocolate marble pumpkin bread!) You can also add chocolate chips to other quick bread recipes like zucchini bread and peanut butter chocolate chip zucchini bread. I also have a separate recipe for mini pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.
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
- Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins
- 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
- 1/4Â 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:Â 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
Hi Sally
Wondering if I could use the maple glaze from your donut recipe on this pumpkin bread? I have used this recipe many times and it is delicious. Just trying to pretty it up a little this time
Thanks!!
Yes, absolutely!
Can heavy cream be substituted for the orange juiceu
Hi Pat, heavy cream is a bit too thick, but you can use any kind of milk instead of the orange juice.
Best pumpkin bread I have ever baked. I had no orange juice so I substituted milk as suggested. Opted out the chocolate chips. I brushed the top with melted butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar immediately after removing from the oven. Delicious and so moist.
Followed recipe except I did add about 1 TBS of orange rind per someone’s suggestion. Baked in normal 1# loaf pan and didn’t see that I should cover it, but it did fine. close to 65 min at 350. Some allspice might add a bit more spice, but my family likes it.
Burnt on the outside and soupy mess on the inside. I had to cover and bump up the temp to fully cook. It still took an additional 20 minutes. Followed the recipe to a T
Hi Paige! Is your loaf pan a true 9×5 inch? Anything smaller would make for a too-thick loaf that would be tricky to bake through. Did you make any changes to the recipe?
You must have done something wrong because it works every time perfectly
I used the whole can of pumpkin purée. In the oven now. I hope I didn’t ruin it but I just hated leaving those extra ounces to throw away. I used milk instead of orange juice as I didn’t have any. I am anxious to try the orange juice tho! 😊. Has anyone else said they used the whole can of pumpkin purée?
I was wondering if there was a good substitute for the oil, just to make it a bit less … nutritionally dense lol thankyou ! Could more pumpkin be used in place of oil?
Thankyou for all the good recipes you provide us. If im making something, I often check to see if SBA has a recipe for it!
Hi Alexandra, no, we don’t recommend swapping the oil with more pumpkin here. We highly recommend oil for best results!
This recipe made a delicious pumpkin bread. Very moist. Everyone loved it.
Great Recipe!
This recipe is infallible. I’ve made it with complete adherence and with a silly amount of substitutions and it’s incredible every time. Today it was 50/50 pumpkin-banana, only one egg (up the baking soda and a little more banana), apple juice instead of orange, and dried cranberries instead of chocolate chips. (Hey, you use what you’ve got.) When the recipe is this solid the variations will always work!
Too claggy! Baked it for 65 minutes (my oven runs hot) but the texture, front to back, is too gummy and sticks to the roof of my mouth when eating it.
Hi Wendy, while this should be a very moist pumpkin bread, I wonder if yours was slightly under-baked. Did you use a toothpick to test for doneness?
I’ve made this a few times now and it’s delicious. If anyone is wondering if you can use other squash instead I tried with leftover spaghetti squash today (puréed of course) and it worked great! Slightly less sweet but the chocolate chips help balance that and it’s still very flovorful.
The best pumpkin bread! It is so good!
Delicious recipe and easy to follow. Next time I am going to increase the spices. Sally, it would be great if you could adjust the recipe to use up the entire 15 oz can of pumpkin!
Fantastic and decadent pumpkin bread! I replaced the white sugar and added brown sugar for both sugar ingredients. And added melted butter instead of oil. Moist, delicious and you’ll savor every bite!
I always need to triple this…could it be made in a 9×13?
Thank you!
Hi Stephanie! We would use our very similar pumpkin cake recipe instead of a pumpkin cake recipe pan.
I’ve been making pumpkin bread for 60 years, and this is the very best recipe I’ve found. Everyone loves it!!!
Friends and family are going crazy over this bread, I’ve already had to make 5 batches for October
Sally, can bread flour be substituted if I ran out of AP? If I’m careful to not overnight should that keep it tender and moist? thx Kathi
Hi Katherine! This bread will be pretty dense if you use bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. Here are all of our recipes that do call for bread flour.
Not a big pumpkin fan. Can I sub sweet potato?
Shouldn’t be a problem – let us know if you give it a try!
I love this recipe. The spice of the bread is great. My kids and husband loved it and have had me make it at least 6 times in the last month 😄