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.
This pumpkin bread is so moist and yummy with the right amount of spices. The chocolate chips go so well with the pumpkin. I wouldn’t change a thing with this recipe.
First time roasting my own pie pumpkin for bread, and came straight over to Sally’s Baking Addiction for a recipe. I omitted the chocolate chips. Always solid results from your recipes
Loved this recipe and did it in muffin form instead of bread.
Do you by any chance have the calorie count from it?
Hi Jade, 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
Plumped and added dried cranberries…oh yeah! /
I love this recipe! Do these loaves freeze well?
Hi Diane, Yes! Baked pumpkin bread can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before serving.
My favourite for this time of year!
I’m made this wonderful bread. Instead of chocolate chips I used golden raisins and pecans. My family loved this bread!
Hi, its normal you dont add baking powder?
Hi Maria, Yes, only baking soda in this recipe.
I am making this today and I can’t wait! I’m not a chocolate chip fan so I’ll use some pecans instead, but wondering if I can add some zucchini? Sounds like the bread is really moist as is and zucchini is too, but if I drain the zucchini and reduce liquid by 1/4, you think that would work out?
Hi Barbie, if adding zucchini, we would use it to replace some of the pumpkin. It may take a bit of tinkering, since both are such wet ingredients. Let us know what you try!
This is my third year to make this recipe. It is absolutely delicious. I make the recipe as listed, but always add pecans. It’s a family favorite. We have it for breakfast, snacking, dessert, and I even pack for our grandson’s travel baseball treats. Thank you for this recipe.
My family loves this recipe. I make the loaf into muffins so it’s easier to share.
We add pecans and sometimes chocolate chips. So moist and flavorful.
This was the best ppkin bread I’ve ever had!! I think one thing that helped was weighing the flour and sugar. Thank you for including the grams!
This is delicious pumpkin bread that is so moist! My loaf pan was a Pampered Chef stoneware so it took a bit longer to get done, and was still just a little bit undone in the center. I weighed all of my ingredients for accuracy, and it took it about 70 minutes in that type of pan. I would make it again but problaby will try the non-stick pan.
I can always trust you, Sally! This was the best pumpkin bread I’ve ever made!! I did 1.25-1.5x of all the spices because my family and I are suckers for warm slices, and i did a full cup of mini chocolate chips.
It was incredible. 10/10.
Thanks for another amazing recipe
This was the best thing I’ve ever made. Ever. Literally have to go get more pumpkin to make more cause that loaf did not last
Great recipe! Very moist and spiced right. Used dried cranberries instead of chips.
I love all your recipes and always count on them to be fabulous. I was surprised that I didn’t care for the spice levels in this one. I had to grind my cloves – maybe that caused the flavor to be off?
Hi Kath, that could be it. Feel free to reduce the spices if you wish to try again!
Am I doing something wrong? This took me like an hour and 45 min to cook all the way through. Still delicious but edges are slightly burnt.
Hi Anita, all ovens can be a bit different, but that does seem like quite a bit of time to bake through. Does your oven read much cooler than it reads? For next time, you can try moving the bread up/down a rack closer to the heating element. Just be sure to keep an eye on it and use a foil tent to prevent over-browning.
My go to for pumpkin bread made 1 with and without chocolate chips both were so good and moist.
This bread was fantastic! I was looking for something to use up some canned pumpkin and came upon this recipe. Just excellent! So Moist! I bought some cardamom awhile ago and haven’t used it much so I added a touch of that, too
Wow very happy with the results. I did use 2% milk instead of the orange juice and snipped up some dehydrated orange peel that I had on hand into the batter. This recipe is a keeper.
This pumpkin bread is so tasty and moist! I used apple juice instead of orange juice. I will definitely add this to my collection of recipes!
I’m looking forward to trying this recipe. I always have success with all the recipes I have tried from your website. Can I make these into mini loaves? How long would I bake them?
Hi Wendy, You can definitely use this batter to make mini loaves. Same temperature, but bake time will depend on the exact size of your loaf pans, so keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
I would like to use this recipe for gifts – I have purchased Reynolds medium loaf pans (8″x3.75″) Any guidelines on for how long and at what temp I should bake them? Thanks
Hi Alicia! This is likely to be too much batter for those smaller pans, but we haven’t tested it. If you do try it, the bake time will be longer, same temp. You could try splitting the batter between two of your smaller pans for smaller loaves – the bake time will be shorter in that case. Either way, keep an eye on them in the oven and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
So easy to make and was perfection! I added semi sweet chocolate chips and WOW! Can’t wait to make these loaves for my friends and neighbors!!!
Wow! This bread is fantastic. So moist and tasty. Love the spices in this recipe. I will be making this again and again!
I just made my first Pumpkin bread for the season. I love this no-fail recipe. I make it exactly to the recipe and it is Pumpkin perfection every time! Oh, I do sub dried cranberries for Chocolate Chips sometimes. So yummy either way.
I probably won’t make again because I found it on the “dense” side.With that said,
I used coconut oil, maybe too much of the pumpkin puree, & pumpkin pie spice in a container that has all the spices in the recipe already combined.
Although “tasty” I’d much prefer making & EATING Sally’s Glazed Apple Bundt Cake (minus the
glaze) for something to eat with coffee (or dessert) in the fall coffee….. or actually anytime.
Thank you for this recipe. I used whole spelt flour and sweetened with dates instead of sugar, it came out just perfect, soft and moist
Interesting! I’d be interested to know how many dates you used? Did you use them to replace both the granulated and white sugar?
fantastic recipe, only thing i did was double the granulated sugar (i have a sweet tooth) and it was amazing. Boyfriend and i devoured the entire thing. will def be making again!
If you are making muffins with this recipe, should you bake for 5 minutes at 425 then reduce temp to 350 as suggested in your other muffin recipes?
Hi Fred, yes—you can follow the baking time and instructions from these pumpkin muffins as a guide. Enjoy!
Thoughts on using apple cider instead of orange juice or milk? Or would that throw things off too much?
You can absolutely use apple cider!
Best Pumpkin bread we’ve ever had! I am making 2 loaves today