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 make this every year and this year used coconut oil instead of vegetable and milk instead of o.j. and think I loved it even more!! Just as good as a slice from a high end bakery. ❤️
One Thanksgiving I was a houseguest for a week at my sister’s house and wanted to contribute something delicious and a little different to the feast. I made pumpkin bread pudding for dessert and it was a HUGE hit, even the young children asked for seconds ! I lost the recipe, which I tore out of the Los Angeles Times back then, and have been trying to recreate it ever since but never managed to make it taste as YUMMY as we all remember. I’m going to try again with this delicious sounding pumpkin bread because I remember the bread WAS made with orange juice and I’ll bet this will be the ONE.
If you want to try the bread pudding, you make the bread a day in advance and soak golden raisins overnight in bourbon and incorporate them into the batter. Tear the bread in chunky jagged pieces to fill an oven proof casserole dish, pour over a a thick creamy vanilla custard and bake. Top with a bourbon hard sauce to serve. OMG. A warning…We were expecting the alcohol in the bourbon to cook off but have to admit that all of us got a tiny bit tipsy, even the little ones ….I think it was the raisins what did it ….so after dinner we had a hilarious session of board games and all slept soundly that night with no ill effects the next morning. Use a good bread pudding recipe for oven temp, custard made with heavy cream,. and cooking times. Happy Fall !
I made the pumpkin bread yesterday and added golden raisins instead of chocolate chips. It has the perfect amount of spices for a delicious taste. I think it would pair well with Sally’s Cream Cheese Frosting to it.
Delicious! I didn’t have oj on hand, so I added an extra 1/2tsp of pumpkin pie spice to account for some possible flavor loss. I added choc chips and made a cream cheese icing to drizzle on top. QIt was SO yummy and I’ll definitely be making again!
Tried it out and it was good, my only issue was that there was some odd ‘bitter’ taste on the crust part. My guess is it was the pumpkin spice settling at the bottom of the loaf as it baked but other than that, the flavor is pretty good. The only thing I switched was I had to use 2% milk instead of OJ, it would have a much creamier flavor with whole milk. I’d also recommend using a really good canned pumpkin puree, fresh won’t taste as good IMO since the flavor isn’t as intense.
This by far the best pumpkin bread recipe I’ve tried. My 4th loaf is in the oven now. Made a loaf for a friend she loved it and hid the rest in her oven.
I made this bread with fresh pumpkin and it was amazing. I am not a confident baker but this recipe was so good and so easy. I will make this bread again and again. Thank you!!!
So delicious! I used egg replacement (Bob’s Red Mill) as my little guy has an egg allergy. It was still great, didn’t even notice that we replaced the eggs. Will definitly have this on rotation in the fall.
I got 18 muffins from this recipe and they are incredible! I baked them at 425 for 5 minutes and then turned the oven down to 350 for another 15. They are delightfully moist and the spices are perfect. Can’t wait to share them at church.
Just made this recipe and my house is smelling better than a Starbucks! I didn’t end up covering the bread halfway and got a lovely golden top (not too brown) I also used butter instead of oil because that’s what I had on hand. I love using your baking recipes, they are fail safe 🙂
Bread came our great. I had to sub milk for OJ and was wondering could sour cream or Greek yogurt be used as well.
Would using baking powder vs soda give a better rise? Do you think it would take something away from the flavor?
Hi Ana, we don’t recommend making that swap. Best to stick with the baking soda here!
Would Olive or Avocado oil be ok to use? I always feel like I can taste the coconut.
Hi Kayla, those will work in a pinch, although the taste of the bread may change slightly. Vegetable oil or canola oil also work well.
The taste was off just a bit with olive oil, not quite as much with extra light olive oil.
But I have NOT noticed a taste difference when I used Avacado oil. I use that in her
muffin recipes that call for oil, b/ c it has a higher smoke point for her 425 ° start time. BTW smoke point is the temp at which oil starts to chemically change. It is cosidered healither to stay within the smoke point temp range of the oil you are using . Canola is ok too.
Absolutely Delicious! I did change from chocolate chips to chopped walnuts added double cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg but that was a personal decision.
Goodness!!! What a fantastic cake/ bread!!! It’s screams AUTUMN. Love it! Thank you
I was trying to use up some extra pumpkin so I cut the recipe down to 1/3 and it made six good size muffins. I also was very generous with the spices and omitted the white sugar and it they turned out fabulous!
This makes a very moist loaf. I love it with chocolate chips. Mine has a bit of an eggy taste and could use extra cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.
Can I use gluten free flour?
If so 1:1
Hi Michele, We haven’t tested this one with a 1:1 gluten free flour, and don’t have much experience using it in general to provide guidance on how best to use it. So sorry we cannot be of much help here! However, many readers have reported success using gluten free flour in this bread, so please do let us know if you decide to give it a try!
Totally works with a GF flour substitute (commercial mix). It wasn’t noticeably different.
When I make GF for a person who has a bad alergy to wheat, I use King Arthurs Measure for Measure works great
Finally something easy and delicious! I used a glass loaf pan so it took about 10-15 mins longer to cook so I just kept checking it. I added a simple glaze on top per my husband’s request. This was way better than a store bought mix. Another win from Sally and the team!
Thanks so much, Dakota! And thank you for including that your loaf needed longer because of the glass pan.
I love this bread! Can I substitute the flour with oat flour? Or will that change the texture of the bread too much?
Hi Tracy, we don’t recommend it. Oat flour has very different baking properties than all purpose flour, and it isn’t always a 1:1 swap. Best to stick with all purpose flour here.
My favorite! I brought a loaf to work to share & everyone loved it!
This pumpkin chocolate chip bread was an absolute hit for all who had some. Even people that don’t like pumpkin loved it!!
Just made this! I’ve tried several recipes and didn’t like any of them. I substituted walnuts for the chocolate chips. Even my son liked it a lot. He has a chef’s palate, and he’s my biggest critic lol absolutely perfect recipe! Delicious!!
I’ve been making your recipe for a few years now and my family loves it! It’s one of the most requested treats from extended family and co-workers! The best pumpkin bread I’ve ever had. Thank you for sharing!!
Hi this recipe looks amazing! Unfortunately I only have bread flour, am I able to substitute that instead of using regular flour? What about other recipes does bread flour cause a noticeable difference?
Hi Maddy, 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.
I make this recipe all the time but I am out of cinnamon. Would it still be good to make without the cinnamon ? Thank You !
Hi Abla, we don’t recommend it—you’ll lose quite a bit of flavor without the cinnamon.
Another amazing recipe!!
Hi, what kind of differences would there be if replacing orange juice with milk?
Hi Haley, the orange juice works wonderfully with the pumpkin (helps accentuate its flavor), but milk will work just as well and produce an equally tasty bread.
I am looking forward to trying this recipe! I like the idea of mini loaves. Do you have an idea of how many mini loaves this recipe would make? Also, have you ever tried substituting applesauce instead of the oil? Would this be possible? Thank you for all of the amazing recipes!
Hi Tammy, you can absolutely make mini loaves. Exact yield and bake time will depend on the exact size of your mini loaf pans. 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!
I can I use glass(Pyrex) loaf pans instead of metal?
Hi Kris, absolutely. Bake time may be slightly longer.