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
H,
I would like to use avocado oil in place of the vegetable oil. Do you think that would work?
I have used it in cupcakes and brownies before with success . I don’t keep vegetable oil on hand but always have avocado oil. I just made my own pumpkin purée for the first time today and thought this pumpkin bread sounded great!
Hi MKA, we haven’t tested it, but that should be fine.
Yes! I’ve made this numerous times with Avocado oil – such a good recipe!!
Incredible pumpkin bread. I made this for our beach trip last month and everyone just loved it. I only used half the amount of chocolate chips and added chopped pecans. Excellent!
Can I sub butter for the oil? Thanks!
Hi Amber, we don’t recommend it—the bread is not as moist and soft if using butter.
I made this with my homemade smoked pumpkin puree. I am a pretty good cook but not the greatest baker and this loaf was perfect! Thank you for the recipe. I will be making this again!
Autumn is arriving and with it the desire to bake again! Last week we made the banana bread recipe which was perfect. This week the pumpkin bread with a few alterations. We substituted the vegetable oil with yogurt and butter (measurements in the banana bread) simply because vegetable oil is neither natural or healthy. We added chopped pecans and raisins for texture and Fall flavor (not being fans of chocolate and wishing a lighter bread. It came out perfectly. The next time we would reduce the cinnamon to one teaspoon as for us it overpowered the delicate pumpkin flavor.
Do you have the nutrition information for this recipe?
Hi Kerrie, we don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Meant to add my stars!
Oops…for got all the stars!
As usual, Sally’s Baking Addiction comes through….again!!!! I cut the recipe in half, but used full spice measures, cause that’s just how I roll, and substituted chopped dates for the chocolate chips. I also added a crumble topping that I’ve been keeping in the freezer for “just in case” times, and this was one. It’s perfect! My smallish loaf pan and small countertop oven have a hard time with full sized loaves getting too tall, also this one fit perfectly!
This was so unbelievably good!!! All of your recipes are amazing, they’re my go to’s!!
Made this pumpkin bread for the first time today, came out wonderful. I didn’t realize until I put the loaf in the oven to cook that I overlooked the white sugar. But still came out great anyway. I added 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1 cup of dried cranberries to the loaf also. The cranberries added a great addition, the extra chocolate didn’t hurt. Definitely would bake again!! My husband really enjoyed the loaf
I tried making this tonight to take to a friend for her birthday tomorrow, but it was a disaster. It smelled amazing, but never fully solidified into bread. It remained a boiling liquid in the pan long past the sixty-minute mark. I’m actually really sad it didn’t turn out. I just can’t figure out what could have happened.
Hi Megan! We’re sorry to hear that this didn’t turn out for you, how strange. We’re happy to help troubleshoot. Could it be possible that your oven is malfunctioning? Did you use 1 and 1/2 cups pure pumpkin puree? That is slightly less than 1 can. Did your batter look like the photos above in the blog post, or much thinner?
First time I’m making pumpkin bread. This recipie is amazing! It tasted moist and sweet, with that lovely pumpkin flavor.
We love this recipe and come back to it every year. This year, I would like to have my toddler bake some mini loafs. Could you provide baking guidelines for mini loafs? I understand it might vary slightly depending on the size of mini loaf pan and will definitely watch it closely for doneness, but was hoping you might be able to provide some parameters, as well as how many mini loads this recipe might make. Thank you so much in advance for any guidance and thanks for a favorite recipe.
Hi Jacqueline! You can use mini loaf pans and fill them each about half way. As you mention, bake time will depend on the size of the loaf pans, as will the yield. Have fun making these with your toddler!
I would love to try this wonderful recipes…but I have some health problems and usually like recipes that include the Nutritional info…if you can start adding this … it would help out.
Hi Ann, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Hi! Question~ if I want to make a mini loaf along with the main 9×5 loaf, should I just double the recipe or does it have enough batter already to make more then one loaf? thanks!
Hi Sophia, this recipe as written is enough for one 9×5-inch loaf pan. You could use less in your pan for a shorter loaf and to allow for some batter for a mini loaf. What we would recommend, though, is making two separate batches (rather than doubling). Use one for the standard 9×5-inch loaf, and then the second batch for a few mini loaves and/or muffins (exact yield and bake time will depend on the size of your mini loaf pan). Hope this helps and that you enjoy the bread!
I would like to substitute oat flour instead of white flour for pumpkin loaf ?
Hi Arlene, we don’t recommend it. Oat flour has different baking properties than all-purpose flour and wouldn’t necessarily be a 1:1 swap. For best results, stick with all-purpose flour here!
Hi! I love this recipe and have been making it for years. I wanted to double it and bake it in two separate loaf pans. How much time would you recommend adding to the bake time?
Hi Catherine, if using the same size 9×5 loaf pans, the bake time will be the same. Make sure you can bake both pans on the same rack in the oven, though, without touching. So glad this is a favorite for you!
This recipe is awesome. I found it today and used it to make muffins instead of bread (less baking time and more convenient for grab and go snacks). I did not add chocolate chips. I added 1 tsp of baking powder, walnut pieces and raisins to the batter. After baking, I spread a very thin glaze on top of each muffin that I made from confectioner sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. Hubby loves them. I will definitely use this recipe in the future as a base for a variety of pumpkin muffins. I made 24 muffins using 1/4 cup measuring cup to fill cupcake tins. When I got to the last bit of batter, I did add a little more raisins and walnuts that was needed as I had scooped the majority out with the other tins I filled. I have found that when I place two 12 count muffin tins in the oven, it is best to bake 5 minutes, then switch racks throughout the baking process after each 5 minutes so that they bake evenly.
Hello Sally! Could this bread be baked in a disposable (paper) bread loaf pan? Would there be an adjustment in temp or time? Thank you and love your recipes!
Hi Kimberly, that should work just fine. Same temperature (unless the disposable pan has a maximum temperature indicated). We’re unsure of how the bake time might need to be adjusted, but keep a close eye on it and use a toothpick to test for doneness. Enjoy!
The last few times I’ve made it the edges started to get overdone but some of the batter in the center was still not cooked. I use a stone pan, can that be the problem
Hi Lisa, the stone pan could certainly be the culprit. The baking time for a stone pan may vary a bit from the bake time as written in this recipe. If you find the edges are done but the center still needs some additional time, you can tent the pan with aluminum foil. This will prevent the edges from burning while allowing the center to continue baking through. Hope this helps for next time!
This is my favorite pumpkin bread! Comes out perfect every time. I’m on a temporary no refined sugar diet – has anyone found a way to make it without?? Maple would be amazing for flavor but I don’t know how to keep it from becoming soup
I did everything according to the recipe. Two times same thing the bread look like it’s raw even though I baked it longer than the first one. What might be the problem?
Hi Meg, did you use a toothpick to test for doneness? Was it coming out with batter? If so, it needs a few more minute to bake through. If you find the edges are starting to brown quickly, you can tent the pan with aluminum part way through bake time. That will prevent the edges/top from burning while allowing the middle to continue baking through.
This is extremely delicious, pumpkin bread! I will definitely be making it again and again!
This is delicious! I added nuts instead of chocolate chips. I live in Colorado at 8000ft. I made the bread as written, took 55 minutes & much to my surprise, it was perfect; no need for adjustments
This is the best pumpkin bread! I have made it numerous times, each time with chocolate chips, and it comes out so moist and delicious. It’s a huge favorite amongst my family and friends. I do have to keep it in the oven for a long time, so definitely keep checking and adding time as needed.
After reading the comments, I doubled all of the spices. It is hands down, the best pumpkin bread I have ever had. Ever. Moist, delicious and full of fall flavor. I also never take the time to post, so you know it is that good since I am posting. Even my 8-year old and all her friends were eating it!
My husband loved it but I thought it was just ok. It was very moist but it just missed the mark for some reason for me.
I love making (and eating!) this pumpkin bread recipe! As always, can’t go wrong with any of your recipes. I have a question, though… How do you think it would turn out if I used fresh apple cider instead of orange juice? In the notes you mention substituting the OJ with milk so I’m assuming that we are adding OJ for flavor and moistness and not for the acidity of it? I guess i can let you know, because I just got some apple cider from a local farm here in VT and I am about to try it right now!!
Hi Stacia, we haven’t tested it that way, but I bet it would be good! Please report back and let us know!
Pumpkin bread was low in pumpkin flavor. I thought adding the orange juice was a mistake, and I was right. I will be looking for a better recipe.
This Pumpkin Bread IS the best.