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
Holy moly, this was SO good!! I used milk instead of orange juice—I don’t normally keep OJ around, and it felt silly to buy some just for this.
I brought the loaf to work, and it was gone by lunchtime. A couple coworkers even asked for the recipe!
Going to keep this recipe handy and make it again!!
Delicious! Followed the recipe to the T except I didn’t have ground clove so I substituted with ground allspice instead and it was so good. We had friends over and they asked for the recipe. Definitely will be saving this and making it again soon 🙂
Followed recipe exactly and it turned out rubbery and flavor was kind of off. Also didn’t really rise and took longer to cook.
I’m an experienced baker and I remember that frustration of not knowing what went wrong. Even following directions exactly you can flop with some common errors. I always make sure my baking soda is fresh, that’s a big culprit of not rising. Also it can be tempting to keep mixing and mixing, but any over mixing with just make it deflate!
Hope that helps?!
I tried this, and because the instructions are not very clear or concise, mine ended up with no baking powder.
A paragraph is far too long for one step of the process, thanks.
Personally this sounds like an error on your end, not a recipe issue. Also, it calls for baking soda, not powder.
The first line of step 2 it says “ In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and salt together until combined. Set aside. ” I feel this is clear and to the point. In fact, directions from start to finish and very clear and found this a wonderful recipe to follow and eat!
Turned out perfectly for me.
To better prepare, I would suggest reading through the ingredients and full recipe carefully and thoroughly before beginning – a solid tip that’s helped me over my many years of baking (and cooking). Hope this helps.
Fantastic pumpkin bread! We use Olive Oil as our healthier oil, and the cake is delicious with an added touch of nuttiness.
Thanks Sally!
Sound lovely! Thanks for leaving that feedback, i was thinking about trying olive oil but wasn’t sure how that would work out! I’ll have to give it a try as well 🙂
I love this recipe with the pumpkin and orange together. I skip the chocolate chips and add walnuts or pecans. I too had problems baking in one pan, so now I bake in two 8.5 x 5 inch loaf pans for 45 min. Comes out perfect.
thank you for teaching me
Hi I was wondering is there a way to make this recipe vegan. Thank you .
Hi Nancy, we’re sure you could. We haven’t tested any egg substitutes, but pleas let us know what you try!
Just made this with fresh pumpkin puree and my husband said it’s the best pumpkin bread he’s ever had! I added a cinnamon sugar topping and it was delicious. Will be making this again for sure!
Just a suggestion for people that say it took 75 minutes to bake. I recently got an oven thermometer because things were taking much longer to bake- I found out my oven is off by 10 degrees. Now I up the oven temp and everything takes as long as the recipe suggests give or take a couple of minutes.
Amazing. I made this for the first time today and it is everything you’d want, moist, and oh so flavorful. Another Sally favorite.
Making this now! Wanted to ask if the ml is correct for the oil? I felt like I was pouring more than 1/2 c so I measured by volume and was more like 100 ml for 1/2 cup. I think the 120 ml would be for water.
Hi Laura, it’s correct!
This is my favorite fall pumpkin bread recipe! I used avocado oil for a healthier alternative to vegetable or seed oil, added walnuts and raisins to the batter versus the chocolate and then covered the top with lightly salted pumpkins seeds for a beautiful and crunchy topping.
Thank you Sally for including the weight measurements in the recipe! That is helpful because I plan to use home milled flour, using wheat berries. The weight measurements help me to be more accurate with flour Looking forward to making this this morning!
This bread was great! SO so moist. A fall baking staple for sure!!
I make Sally’s zucchini quick bread many times during summer for a few years now. The same with the carrot bread and they are perfect. I have never made a pumpkin bread before and gave it a try. After 55 min in the oven I checked the done-ness and it was a raw batter inside, not even quarter baked. Baked it for another 30 min and it was done. However, the texture and the look of it felt like it was underbaked. Was it what other reviewers called extremely moist?
Hi Katherine! Did you make any changes to the recipe? Did you use a true 9×5 inch pan? This recipe makes a large loaf and in a smaller pan it won’t bake through properly. Thank you for giving it a try!
Hi Trina, I followed the recipe as written. The pan is the correct size and was filled 3/4. I made the bread again, this time reducing the amount of milk and pure but not by much. I also moved oven rack back to the middle. It worked out well.
What would be the proportions if you wanted to make a glaze for this pumpkin bread?
Hi Polly, what sort of glaze are you looking to make? We recommend browsing through all our quick bread recipes for some ideas.
Thanks for the link! It ended up leading me to the Perfect Vanilla Icing recipe on this site which was exactly what I was looking for, almost like a glaze to go on top of this bread. Thank you!!
I didn’t like it ♀️ It was too moist for my taste.
Great taste easy to mix it up
Hi, I just love your recipes. I do have a question though, I am looking to gift friends a loaf of your wonderful Pumpkin Bread. If I wanted to make multiple, say for 8 people, would I just times everying 8 times.
Hi AJR, for best results, we recommend making separate batches rather than multiplying. Hope they’re a hit!
Really delicious with a soft pumpkin taste. Tender and moist bread. Added toasted pecans and a smashed up half of a dark chocolate sea salt bar and swapped out turbinado sugar for the white sugar. It took close to 75 minutes to bake. Now my go to recipe.
Hiiii,, love love all your recipes that’s made. Question for you , my grandson has Type 1, but loves your pumpkin bread recipe. Any tips for making it sugar free?
Thank you
Hi Kathryn! We’d love to help but we are not trained in baking with sugar substitutes. For best taste and texture (and so you don’t waste your time trying to adapt this recipe since it may not work properly), it may be more useful to find a recipe that is specifically formulated for sugar substitutes. Thank you!
Didn’t see this question before I made my first one, but I did use sugar substitutes, Splenda brown sugar and monk fruit white, I also used Bobs Red Mill gluten free flour. It was delicious, everyone couldn’t believe I made this because everything else they’ve tasted was a disaster. ❤️ Ive got some in the oven right now.
Hi, How do you adjust the temperature and time if you want to bake this recipe in mini bread pans?
Hi Gail, We’re unsure of how many or the exact bake time since it will depend on the exact size of your mini loaf pans. Keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
Thank you Stephanie!
Hi Sally! Can I make this recipe into a few small loaf pans instead of one big loaf? Thanks!
Hi KJ, absolutely! Same temperature, but baking time will vary depending on the exact size of your mini loaf pans. Keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
Best pumpkin load ever, delicious and super moist
I really loved this pumpkin bread. I made your recipe for brown butter apple blondie and it was a hit! I felt like something pumpkin today so I searched your recipes and found the pumpkin bread, since pumpkin bread is my favorite. This recipe is so moist and flavorful. I loved the spice combination.
Phenomenal! I’ve made a lot of pumpkin bread and/or muffins over the years, but this is by far my favorite. So moist for days afterward, absolutely delicious. I leave out the chocolate chips, and I’ve been using fresh pressed apple cider in place of the orange juice based on what I have on hand (works great!). This one’s a keeper.
We made this its great. Perfect texture easy for non experienced baker .
Then I posted a comment about it on a chocolate cake recipie . Oops.
This is wonderful! Very moist and delicious, following the recipe exactly as written. My pan was glass, not metal, and took 75 minutes to bake.
I’ve made this recipe as muffins a few times now and they always turn out delicious. I substitute milk for the orange juice and use milk chocolate chips. Definitely a keeper!
Wow! Best loaf of pumpkin bread that I have made! It is very moist and flavourful! The recipe is easy to follow. My loaf took between 60 to 65 minutes to bake but I used a narrower loaf pan! Fortunately, I have extra pumpkin puree that I need to use and I can’t think of a better use!
So moist. Very good! Easy to make. Everyone loved it. Mine baked in just under 60 min.