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, 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
- 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.
Great recipe, I made 4 mini loaves, 2 with pecans and 2 plain, also sprinkled tops with a caramel sugar. Came out moist and delicious.
Hi! This recipe is amazing, I made it last year and it was delicious. Sadly, my husband was just diagnosed with Celiac Disease so I would love to make this same recipe if possible, but gluten free…. I’m still a newbie at all of the GF stuff esp. baking… Do you know if I can just replace the flour with GF flour, or something more? Or would it not be worth it bc it just won’t be good ? If anyone has any input on this please let me know! Thank you in advance.
Hi Holly, we haven’t tested a gluten-free version of this recipe, but several readers have reported success using a gluten free 1:1 flour blend. Let us know if you try it!
Sally I have several recipes for pumpkin bread but yours gets the best ratings by far. Can you tell me if the salt is table or kosher? At 3/4 teaspoon it would matter. Thank you.
Hi Den, we use table salt in our recipes unless otherwise noted. Hope you enjoy the pumpkin bread!
Hi There! I usually replace oils in recipes with applesauce. Do you think this will work?
Hi Lisa, 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!
You are right, Sally! This is the BEST pumpkin bread I’ve ever had! I can’t stop eating it!!Thank you!
Hi,
1. Can I use King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour instead?
2. Does the type of chocolate chip matter?
Hi Ricky, we would try replacing half the flour with half whole wheat, but any more than that could try out the bread too much. We use semi-sweet chocolate chips, but see the recipe notes for other suggestions. Hope you love this bread!
Fantastic! The spice was perfect. My husband isn’t a chocolate fan so I used pecans and dried cranberries. I gave it 4 stars because the bake time was really off. I added 15 minutes to total cook time.
Thanks for the feedback, Ceecee! We’re so glad you loved this pumpkin bread. Do you have an oven thermometer? If your bakes are taking that much longer than a recipe’s suggested bake time, it may mean your oven runs a little off (many do!) or that it needs to be calibrated.
So I must have over mixed this since my loaf turned out very flat like a brick. I also used olive oil. Going to try again and not over mix since it smelled great in the oven. Any tips for not over mixing?
Hi Erika, this is a denser, heavier bread, but if it seemed overly dense then it is possible that you are over mixing the batter. This can cause quick breads to bake up squat and dense. Mix all the ingredients until just combined to avoid this. Thanks for giving it a try!
Unfortunately same result! I don’t think I over mixed the batter but I guess I did…this is a very sensitive recipe and have never had this much trouble with quick breads.
Oh no! One more thing to troubleshoot – how did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t over measured. Too much flour could also cause the bread to come out dry and dense.
Pulled out my three sculpted Nordic loaf pans on this one! Each is a bit smaller capacity than a standard 9” x 5” loaf pan, but two standard 15 oz 425 gram cans of pumpkin is 25% more than needed for a double recipe. Thus, I doubled ingredients and then rounded up 25%… made THREE Nordic loaves. Being a tad smaller each, they baked in 55 minutes. Wish the aroma could last as long as the big batch of pumpkin bread!
Can you use avocado oil or a nut oil?
Hi Debbie, we haven’t tested it, but avocado oil should be fine.
I was hesitant to try this when I saw orange juice as an ingredient, but it really added a zing and created a moist, delicious bread!
I would like to bake these in a 6×2 paper loaf pan. How long would 8 need to bake them? Thank you!
Hi Nancy, we’re unsure of the exact bake time needed for those mini loaves, so keep an eye on it in the oven. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean with only a few small moist crumbs.
I have had very good luck doubling this and making it in a 9×13 cake pan! Makes nice little bars and people really love them. Great level of spice!
If you’re struggling with this one, I’d really suggest making sure you’re measuring it by weight, and checking your loaf pan size. Mine are smaller than the one recommended here.
I made this as the second pumpkin bread recipe in a quest to find the best recipe. Yours was voted #1 so far. Do you have nutrition info for this recipe?
Hi Angela, we’re so happy to hear that! 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
This was delish! I didn’t have OJ in the house so I used apple cider instead. Pecans in lieu of chocolate chips. I didn’t have to cover it at all. I loved how it was so moist and not greasy.
This bread is fabulous! I, however, recently had some difficulty because when I tested it for doneness with the toothpick in several parts of the bread, it came out clean. But after it cooled and I sliced it, I found that the bread was nearly raw near the bottom of the pan. I am wondering if you ever use a thermometer on quick bread to determine whether or not it is done. If so, what should the temperature be? If not, I suppose I just make a note to cook it longer. Thanks for another great recipe and for your willingness to respond to questions. I learn a lot from reading the comments and answers.
Hi PKFlynn, quick breads should register a temperature between 200F-205F when completely cooked through. It sounds like your loaf could benefit from a few additional minutes in the oven, so we’d definitely recommend extending the bake time a bit for your next batch. Thank you for giving this one a try!
Came out very soggy even with extra 10 minutes in oven and clean tooth pick. Taste of pumpkin puree was strong before flavor of spice kicked in at this consistency. I set sheet of aluminum foil over top at 35 minutes but the top wasn’t even baked yet, so had to remove for last 15 minutes because it was still not baked on top with foil at 60 minutes. Maybe foil not ideal for all ovens and caused sogginess? I’ve never had anything bake so dense and soggy before and double checked measurements were right. I did make 2 loaves at same time. Could this lead to need for higher temp?
I am an experience baker who has made great pumpkin bread for years. THIS RECIPE IS BETTER than what I had been using! It’s the only one I will make from now on. It has a better spice flavor and moistness level than any other I’ve tried. Use chocolate chips…adds another flavor dimension that’s delicious!
I absolutely love this recipe—can I use apple juice in place of OJ? Thanks!
Hi Tyra, apple juice will work well here. Hope you enjoy the bread!
This is one of my favorite recipes that I make every fall! So obsessed with the flavors but my only problem is the bread falls apart when I cut it. Is there a trick to keeping it more together? Thank you for a great recipe!!
Hi Katie, are you slicing the bread while still warm? The warmer the bread, the more likely it will fall apart when slicing. Otherwise, does the bread seem a bit dry? It could be that it is over baked or there is too much flour in the batter (read more about how to properly measure baking ingredients here) causing it to crumble when sliced. We’re glad this is a favorite for you!
Hi Sally and team, I made this last weekend for part of a casual lunch that included two lactose intolerant people and one celiac. It was very well received and the only change I made was using Bob’s Gluten-free flour in the place of all-purpose. Excellent!
I have made this bread for my 5 grandchildren, with mini chocolate chips of course, who absolutely love it!
I love this recipe! I have a ton of cookbooks so I usually do not go online for a recipe but I am so grateful I did. I have made a double batch twice and today will be making a third double batch for a party. Both times I used milk because we usually don’t carry OJ and I did not put in the chocolate chips and it was so delicious and pumpkiny Thank you.
The best pumpkin bread recipe!
Wanting to make individual loaves as gifts? Any idea how many mini loaves one recipe would make? Assuming same bake temp, but wondering about time? Thanks!
Hi Amy, yield and bake time will depend on the exact size of your mini pans. Keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
It’s amazing even if you forget the oil entirely lol I realized I forgot that ingredient altogether when making it and it’s still delicious haha
Can I put some brewers yeast in it to make it a lactation pumpkin bread??
We haven’t tested that, Sydney. You may want to try replacing some of the flour, but we aren’t sure of the results. Let us know what you try!
Can I use butter instead of oil? I typically prefer using butter instead of oil when I bake. Is it possible to substitute butter for the oil here? If so, would it be a 1:1 substitution? I’ve also used full fat greek yogurt in place of oil and butter for various cakes in the past. Do you think this would work here? Thanks so much!
Hi Ashley, we strongly recommend using an oil with this bread instead of butter or another substitute. It helps keep the bread especially moist.
U ve subbed plain applesauce for oil in cakes muffins and quick breads. It keeps it moist and lowers the fat content
Mine turned out dense. What can I do
Hi Ashley, this is a denser, heavier bread, but if it seemed overly dense then make sure you’re not over mixing the batter. This can cause quick breads to bake up squat and dense. Mix all the ingredients until just combined. Thanks for giving this one a try!
So, if i don’t want to use toxic seed oils, I can use butter? It just won’t be as moist but less toxic?
Hi Bb, are you comfortable using avocado oil or melted coconut oil? I strongly recommend oil for this bread.