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’m actually surprised by how good this turned out. Followed the recipe 100% and it was amazing. Thank you!!
Hey there! I’d like to sub maple syrup for sugars in this recipe if possible. Would you recommend? If so how much would you add? Thanks!
Hi Shen, We don’t recommend it — it would take some recipe testing to determine the right swap, since it would be adding additional liquids to the batter. Best to stick with the recipe as written!
Absolutely delicious recipe! For anyone wondering, I made this vegan by subbing the volume of two eggs with soy milk and it came out perfect! Light and fluffy. Thanks for the recipe.
Can I use apple sauce to replace all or some of the oil?
Hi Carol! The bread would turn out with a less-than-desirable texture if you replace all the oil with applesauce. We don’t recommend it. You could try substituting a smaller portion to see how that goes!
Perfection. I skipped the OJ cuz I didn’t have any and opted not to add the milk… and the bread isn’t hurting at all. It’s so moist and flavorful — you would not find yourself missing anything! Although, I would be curious to try it in the future just for fun! Just saying: don’t let the lack of juice stop you from making this! I opted for mini cinnamon chips ba chocolate chips… they melted deliciously into the bread as it baked, creating little pockets of cinnamon flavor. So good! Perfection, really.
I absolutely love this recipe. I have used fresh pumpkins and squash from the farms and friends gardens! My friends and family rave about them. I love adding different stir-ins. My husband is a raisin and nut lover, so I add them as well
I made this for Christmas. It is an easy recipe & is very moist. I love it!
Love this one more than your banana bread! Used coconut oil and added walnuts and raisins. So moist and delicious!
I really enjoy this recipe. It is so moist and flavorful. I make mini loaves and share with friends and neighbors. The pop ups on Pinterest are very annoying so have to figure out how to use elsewhere.
This one is the best I’ve tried. Made more for friends and they love it!!
Basically made as instructed. I used fresh squeezed orange juice and added 1 T orange zest as well as a I/2 c of dried cranberries. Spices were not overpowering and the flavors really come through. Very moist and not overly sweet. Baked in Emile Henry baking dish for an hour and 10 minutes. Bookmarking this recipe.
Me again. Forgot to mention that I made this bread without the chocolate chips.
Best Pumpkin Bread Ever! I’ve made this the past few years and it’s always a winner in our house. I’ve made it with fresh and canned pumpkin and when using canned, I make the following modifications:
2 cups flour
1 cup total sugars
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet choc chips (prefer to reg size as the mini distribute better and don’t over power)
Omit Oj
It does fill my loaf pan to the top and takes over an hour to bake, but so worth it. I found baking at 325 is preferred as it keeps it from over browning. I also loosely cover with foil last 20 mins or so to keep top from over cooking.
I’ve even doubled the recipe when I could only get my hands on a 29oz can of pumpkin. I baked in an oval pyrex dish and it came out great. Flavor gets better the next day.
Amazing! I did dab my canned pumpkin a bit use extra spices, but otherwise followed everything exactly. Perfectly moist and flavored. Took 1hr 5 mins and was so easy!! Would absolutely make again!
Very moist! Definitely takes longer to cook than stated!!! I put a ring of tin foil around it and cooked for ten additional minutes
I made this for all my family gatherings and also for some friends and family. It is so incredibly yummy! After reading other reviews I decided to leave out about 1/4 cup of the wet ingredients when mixing it with the dry ingredients. It turned out perfect! I cooked it until the top was a little darker brown than a typical pumpkin color because I didn’t want it to be undercooked. The toothpick came out clean. It was absolutely perfect! Very moist – not dry at all – and packed with flavor! Will definitely be making this again!
Do you have the nutrition information for this recipe?
Hi Eileen, 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
Should I squeeze some of the moisture out of the pumpkin like you do in the pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies?
Hi Jo, no need to squeeze out the excess moisture from the pumpkin here. Enjoy!
This is a great recipe, a must-make-many member of my Christmas gift-baking collection. I vary the add-ins to suit the season — since it’s December, I’m adding dried cranberries, which are perfect with the hint of orange flavour. Happy holidays, all!
It’s still in the oven. The recipe makes too much for one loaf pan it seems and it’s taking a while for the center to cook. Been in there for 80 minutes so far. Would make two 9×5 loaves for the future
I tried this recipe twice, as muffins, and love it so much. One time was with homemade pumpkin puree and the other time was with the canned puree. Both times I ended up leaving out a bit of the wet ingredients to get the right consistency for the batter. At first I thought it was because the homemade puree was more liquid but same thing happened with the canned puree so maybe it’s because I didn’t measure enough flour, I’m not sure. Either way, it’s best to add the wet ingredients slowly and judge the batter rather than just put the whole thing in. Also, the baking time for me was twice as long as suggested, around 40 minutes for the muffins. The best test is to put a fork in and make sure it comes out dry. For the spices I put a little less cloves, 1/8 tsp instead of 1/4. Came out delicious! Especially on the second and third day. The chocolate chips makes these muffins extra good 🙂
Simply delicious – – very moist, and the chocolate chips are definitely a good idea. I’m making loaves for gifts this Xmas, and I think the folks will love this.
I’m not sure where I went wrong, but this recipe did not work for me! I followed the recipe as described but the bread came out to have very little flavor overall. It wasn’t sweet, which I liked, but was missing the flavor of the spices I would have expected. Do others increase the spices beyond what the recipe calls for? I also found that the bread felt a bit dense. I took out around 60 minutes when a toothpick came out clean but found that there was a thin layer at the bottom of the bread that looked extra dense or even undercooked. Not sure if my oven was just having an off day as typically I love all the recipes from this site and have great results.
Fabulous pumpkin bread. Everybody loved it. Made one with the choc. Chips and one without. The one without the choc. Chips was the winner. The bread has a luscious sweet flavor and the choc. Chips weren’t really needed but that is all personal preference of course. I think pecans would be a nice addition.
I took my bread out after 75 minutes, and it was still undercooked. I haven’t had issues with my oven with other recipes. I also will use cranberries next as I didn’t care for the chocolate and the pumpkin.
Hi Sarah, thank you for giving this one a try! Every oven can be a bit different, so it’s okay if yours takes a bit longer—but did your pumpkin puree seem especially wet? While we do rely on the pumpkin puree for some moisture in the bread, if it seems excessively wet you can try blotting out some of the moisture to see if that helps with the bread seeming underbaked. You can certainly omit the chocolate chips, or dried cranberries would be a fantastic substitute!
This bread always turns out amazing! It’s my favorite to bring to Friendsgivings and it’s always a hit
I made this recipe for Thanksgiving, and loved it so much that I made it again for a bake sale! Thanks for sharing.
Another delicious recipe. I used my mini bundt pan and made the cutest little cakes, great crumb and perfect spice amounts.
Can I double it and use a 9×13” pan ?
Hi Gina! Here’s our pumpkin cake baked in a 9×13 pan.
I made this, and unfortunately it tasted more like coconut than pumpkin. The bread was greasy to the touch too. If I make this again, I think I’ll try 1/3 cup or even 1/4 cup of oil.
hello, your recipe was spot on thank you- devoured in 15 mins. I substituted butterscotch chips and tossed them on the top before baking Ymmy!