Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin bread smells like fall in the kitchen—warm, spiced, and sweet, bringing back memories of cozy mornings and orange golden leaves. Every slice is soft, perfectly spiced, and feels like a comforting hug from the past. It’s more than a treat: it’s a taste of home, shared and savored through the years.

RECIPES

9/26/20243 min read

Gather Your Ingredients

Before diving into the baking process, it’s essential to gather all the necessary ingredients for a delightful pumpkin bread. Here’s what you will need:

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
⅔ cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground ginger

How to Make Pumpkin Bread

The great news is that this pumpkin bread recipe is actually incredibly easy to make. You don't even need an electric mixer (though, of course it helps). You'll find the full, step-by-step recipe below — but here's a brief overview of what you can expect when you make homemade pumpkin bread:

Simply combine your wet ingredients, then combine your dry ingredients, then combine them all together.
Pour into two loaf pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

The best part about this recipe is that it makes two loaves, so you can have one for now and one for later — or one for gifting!

How to Know When Pumpkin Bread Is Done

Pumpkin bread is pretty dense, so it might be hard to know when it's cooked all the way through (and the last thing you want is to serve up a bread that's raw in the middle).

So, to know when pumpkin bread is done, look for the crack on the top of the bread, which is a tell-tale sign it's either done or close to being done. Then stick a skewer or toothpick into the center of the bread. If it comes out clean, it's ready to come out of the oven. If not, leave it to bake for a few more minutes, then check again with a clean toothpick.

Pumpkin Bread Mistakes

Pumpkin bread may be an easy quick bread to make, but sometimes recipes don't always turn out as planned. If you're having one of these common mistakes, here's how to fix it:

Tough Bread: If you have a tough bread instead of a soft, cake-like texture, you're probably overmixing your batter. When making quick breads, you don't want to mix too much or else the gluten development will cause your bread to change in texture. Mix your ingredients until they are just combined — you should still have some lumps in the batter.
Dry bread: Dry pumpkin bread is such a disappointment. To avoid dry, crumbly bread, try to keep your batter moist. Either do this by using less flour or adding more liquid — but don't add more oil. Instead, try adding orange juice or even bourbon to get some liquid into the batter.

Directions

Step 1

Gather the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9x5-inch loaf pans.

Step 2

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger together in a large bowl.

Step 3

Mix pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water, and sugar in a separate bowl until well blended.

Step 4

Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture until just blended.

Step 5

Pour batter into the prepared pans.

Step 6

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.

Step 7

Enjoy!

In just an hour, this pumpkin bread fills your home with the cozy aromas of fall, offering the perfect balance of warmth, sweetness, and nostalgia. Whether enjoyed warm from the oven or saved for later, each slice is a simple, yet delightful way to celebrate the season.