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.
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
- 1/4 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 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 😄
Delicious and very moist. I will make this again
I just made the “plain” bread without the asterisked items (except for nutmeg) and with coconut oil. OMG! Heavenly aroma, mouthwatering taste. I don’t think it gets any better than this! And my family agrees! 😍
Hi Sally, I tried making the version of this recipe out of your book and noticed the sugar portions are different. In the book, it has 200g granulated and 150g brown sugar. Mine somehow came out both underbaked/gooey in the middle, even after an extended bake, and then of course the bottom and edges were crispy and unfortunately too bitter. I was wondering if an extra 50g total of sugar would cause that big of an issue? Usually don’t have these troubles following your recipes.
Hi Josh, so sorry for the confusion! The website will always have the most up-to-date version of a recipe. Sometimes we do re-test a recipe and make some tweaks. If the center stayed underbaked even after extending the bake time, it could be that the oven was running a little cool (this is surprisingly common!). We’d recommend using an oven thermometer if you can, and also checking that the pan size matches what’s listed. Even small differences can affect how the center sets. This is a large quick bread (lots of batter), so it’s important to use a 9×5-inch pan (not 8.5×4.5 or smaller). Thank you for taking the time to write and for baking this recipe.
Thank you for the reply! I agree the oven temp was probably to blame. I also didn’t think using a glass loaf pan (which was the only 9×5 I had on hand) probably didn’t help. My understanding is that conducts heat longer and less evenly, so at a longer bake time maybe browned the outsides too quickly. Will definitely try again!
I was wondering, what if you wanted to make this recipe but use smaller size pans for gifts. Like at Christmas, I prefer to make mini-loaves for gifts.
very delicious! make sure to spray the foil before covering the loaf – mine stuck a little bit. I could see this being good with some nuts added as well
This is the best pumpkin bread! Very moist and perfectly spiced.
My oven runs hot – was done in 52 minutes. Will make again. Lots of requests for the recipe.
can you double the recipe?
Hi Betty, we recommend making two batches for best results!
Can you use orange extract instead of orange juice in a pinch?
Hi Christine! You can replace orange juice with milk, we wouldn’t add orange extract since it’s quite strong.
I just made this bread today. I had to come back to say how delicious it is! It’s perfect and my family and I can’t stop eating it!
It was absolutely delicious! I used mini chocolate chips and added 2 tbsp melted butter to the wet ingredients. Was going to take it to work but the husband got into it already. I didn’t use a loaf pan but a glass pie dish and it cooked evenly in 55 min.
Hi ! I don’t want to use oil and saw your message about butter, can I substitute oil for yogurt in this case?
Hi Sareena, no, we don’t recommend swapping the oil with yogurt here. We highly recommend oil for best results.
Hi Sally,
I live in France. The French/my husband find American recipes too sweet when comparing to french baking. I know sugar has a take on the moisture. How can I reduce the sugar without risking the texture? Thank you in advance !
Hi Anais, sugar is used for moisture and texture in baked goods as well as taste. You can certainly try reducing the sugar, but the resulting texture will be different than intended. If you give anything a try, we’d love to know how it turns out!
This recipe turned out really great, a lot of compliments. But, I had to cook it for closer to 80 minutes. I used a thermometer and tented at 60 minutes when it was only showing 180 degrees. I used a cast iron 9×5 loaf pan and I put in an oven thermometer so I know the temperature was accurate. It came out perfectly, but is it something I did to cause the bake time to be so long? I had it on the lowest rack, should I move it up one?
Hi Jeff, we’re so glad you enjoyed the pumpkin bread! Some ovens cook faster than others. It could be the cast iron pan – we tend to use a metal loaf pan (the one we use and love is linked in step 1 of the instructions!).
This is delicious and very moist! I couldn’t stop taking a few bites it is so good! I used mini chocolate chips which are my favorite for quick breads.
This is a wonderful recipe. I frequently leave out the chocolate chips and just make plain pumpkin bread. As far as butters/frostings go, this recipe is so good, you do not need to gild the lily. I do add one thing…in addition to the OJ, I use some fresh, grated orange peel* (organic, from the orange that gave me the juice), which really wakes up the flavor. I use the equivalent amount of pumpkin pie spice, roughly 2-3 teaspoons by the time you add it all up. I love allspice, and it is already in the mix. I decided to split the recipe into two pans so it would cook faster and stay very moist. It did, and I make it that way every time now. I know it would be moist anyway, but I do like the part about baking in the lower third of the oven.
*The Valencia orange peel that you can get in the baking section does not compare to fresh. If that’s all you can get, crush or grind it to bring out the flavors before you use it.
Hi Sally and team…for a gluten free option, what adjustments would you suggest?
Hi Scott, 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!
Hi! Would you recommend using fresh orange juice, or does it matter?
Fresh or store-bought will both work just fine, Carrie!
I wonder if you could use bread flour in this recipe instead of all-purpose? I have some bread flour I’m trying to use up. (Also I’m happy for other suggestions!)
Hi Lisa, 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.
This recipe is one of the best loaves I have made in my 50 yrs of cooking. I had no orange juice so substituted milk as suggested and left out the chocolate chips. I will definitely be making it again and passing it on to my granddaughters.
This is my only pumpkin bread recipe. I use apple cider, instead of OJ, and yogurt, instead of oil. Chips, no chips…nuts, no nuts…it does not matter!! A very trustworthy recipe, thank you!
Will try it with apple cider! Made some this week and I got a bit left.
Sally, I’d love it if you could include a bake time for mini loaves since this is great for gift giving or leaving for my mother in law when I stock her freezer.
Hi Libby, the 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.
Can I add fresh cranberries? How much would you use?
Thx!
Mona
Hi Mona! You can add 2/3 cup of your favorite add-ins such as raisins, cranberries, chocolate chips, etc.
Ive made this recipe several times before and it always turns out perfect and delicious. This time I substituted the canned pumpkin for roasted acorn squash puree from the garden and it was very good as well. I always add about 1 cup of roughly chopped semi sweet baking chocolate chunks. So decadent, moist, and absolutely delicious! Thanks for this gem!
OMG! These are so good!!! I tripled the recipe because I had to make 50 pumpkin muffins and they turned out great!
Hi Sally! I already made this cake and LOVED it! Just wondering how you might adapt bake time or recipe volume for an 8×8” or a 9×9”? TY!
Hi Samantha, we’re so glad this was a hit! Here’s everything you need to know about cake pan sizes and conversions.
I’ve made this 3 times now… everyone loves it!! I made one in advance to be served a few days from now. Your recipe says either refrigerate for up to a week or freeze and thaw in fridge. Is there a preferred method of storage if it is to be served 5 days from now?
Hi Deborah, you could do either, but if you know you won’t be serving it for a full 5 days, you might want to wrap the loaf and freeze it, then thaw it the day before you’re planning to serve it. So glad everyone loves this recipe!
Making this recipe again….it’s a winner! I reduced sugar to 180g and only used granulated bc that I what I had in hand; used 1/4 c melted butter and 1/4 c avocado oil; used 35 ml kefir in place of OJ/milk; added 1 tsp vanilla.
My question: what to do with the remaining pumpkin? I see some people did use the whole can, but I didn’t want to take a chance and have it be too dense/wet. Any suggestions? Thank you!
Hi Kelly, so glad you love this recipe! Here are some recipes to make with leftover pumpkin.
I’m considering using cinnamon chips instead of chocolate chips. Should I use the same amount?
Hi Terri, yes, you can use cinnamon chips here instead–enjoy!
Super yummy! I made a few modifications: I used brown butter instead of oil for added flavor (bread was still super moist so I don’t think there was any negative impact); I doubled the amount of nutmeg, ginger, and cloves; and I used a bit of extra pumpkin (my can was 425 g). I also used dark chocolate chips, which was a nice balance to the sweetness of the bread. I baked mine in mini loaf pans. It made 3 loaves and baked for about 40 minutes.
Insanely delicious! I substituted coconut sugar for the granulated sugar so it did come out a bit darker than yours but was just so delicious when complete. I can already tell it will be a frequently used recipe.