Skip the mass-produced pumpkin muffins and doughnuts that are ubiquitous at doughnut shops and bakeries this time of year, and bake pumpkin bread instead. Homemade pumpkin bread is so easy to make and so much better than the commercial stuff: dark and moist, deeply spicy, studded with walnuts and topped with a crunchy cap of cinnamon sugar. As a bonus, it will make your house smell amazing as it bakes.
It’s the spices that give this loaf its deep brown color – a hefty amount of cinnamon, plus nutmeg, allspice, and that darkest and spiciest of them all, clove.
My favorite part is the cinnamon-sugar crust, the way its crunchy, sandy texture contrasts with the soft, almost creamy crumb of the bread.
The walnuts add another layer of texture, but if you can’t eat nuts just leave them out.
I bake this pumpkin bread in a larger-than-normal-size bread pan. My pan measures 10 x 5 inches at the top edge; a standard loaf pan measures 8½ x 4½. It’s inconvenient that one 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree makes too much batter to fit in a standard pan, but that’s the way it is – and I’d much rather make a larger loaf than leave a small, odd amount of pumpkin puree left over. If a standard-sized pan is all you have, hold out some of the batter and bake it in a Pyrex custard cup or a couple of cups of a muffin tin.
Making pumpkin bread ahead and what to do with leftovers:
- Ideally, try to make this bread far enough ahead to give it time to cool completely before slicing – a couple of hours. I know it’s great warm – but that’s what the microwave is for. If you can, wait and slice it when it’s cool – the slices will be nice and firm, not crumbly, and the cinnamon sugar topping will stay in place a lot better.
- Pumpkin bread may taste even better the day after it’s baked. Keep it well wrapped at room temperature. It will keep for 3 days. It also freezes well. I like to slice it before freezing so I can thaw one piece at a time.
And here’s one last tip that’s great for not only this recipe but any recipe for quick bread or cake baked in a rectangular pan, with an instruction to “butter generously”. I always use a paper towel to slather a thick swath of butter into the pan and while this works great for the large surfaces, it’s hard to get the paper towel into the corners and edges. My trick is to use my finger to pick up a blob of soft butter, and swipe my finger into the corner of the pan, repeating for all the corners. I find that, if a cake or quick bread is going to stick to the pan, it’s almost always in the corners, and if it’s sticking there, it’s likely to break when you try to get it out of the pan. Pay extra attention to the corners while buttering and your cake or bread will slide out much more easily.
(Updated November 7, 2021. After retesting this recipe this year I’ve tweaked the leavening (reducing the amount of baking soda and replacing some of it with baking powder) and the spices (adding ginger in place of allspice). I’m also baking at 350 degrees now instead of the original 375, which helps the center to cook through before the top gets too brown.)
Pumpkin Bread
Use a 10 x 5-inch bread pan for this Pumpkin Bread. If you don't have a pan that large, use a standard sized pan (8½ x 4½) and bake some of the batter separately in a ramekin, custard cup, or a couple of cups of a muffin tin. A smaller loaf may cook in less time (about 60 minutes) and muffins for 20 to 25.
Ingredients
- Soft butter for the pan
- 2¼ cups (9½ ounces or 270 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 1¾ teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- Pinch of ground clove
- ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or ¼ teaspoon of Morton’s)
- ¾ cup neutral oil (such as expeller pressed canola oil)
- 3 large eggs
- 1¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, divided
- One 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree
- ¾ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Directions
- Step 1 Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a bread pan (see Note regarding pan size). Take some butter on your finger and smoosh it into each corner of the bread pan, loading up a thick glob of butter in each corner. Set the buttered pan aside.
- Step 2 In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, 1¼ teaspoons of the cinnamon, the nutmeg, ginger, clove and salt. Use a whisk to stir them until all the spices are blended into the flour. In a large bowl use the same whisk to blend the oil, eggs, and 1¾ cup of the sugar, beating just until well combined. Whisk in the pumpkin.
- Step 3 Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture along with the walnuts, and fold the batter together with a rubber spatula just until everything is mixed and no lumps of flour remain. Use the spatula to scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
- Step 4 Combine the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar evenly over the batter.
- Step 5 Bake the pumpkin bread for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a tester or toothpick inserted deep in the center comes out clean. Test it in several places to be sure.
- Step 6 Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and cool the bread completely in the pan. Then carefully run a knife around the edge of the bread inside the pan, gently pushing against the bread from all sides until you can feel the bread shifting slightly in the pan and letting go of the bottom. Tip the pan just far enough so the bread leans out of the pan into your other hand, without turning it completely upside down so you dislodge as little of the cinnamon sugar topping as possible. Transfer to a cutting board to slice and serve.
