Use fresh or leftover pumpkin puree to make this soft and tasty pumpkin bread. Full of warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice that make this perfect for those cooler months and holidays.
Have random amounts of canned pumpkin left over from Thanksgiving or Christmas? As with older bananas, a loaf of quick bread is also just as perfect for extra pumpkin.
You will quickly fall in love with this moist pumpkin bread. The strong pumpkin flavor, warm spices, and delicious streusel topping are sure to leave your family wanting more. Not to mention the smell that will fill your house. It sure puts me in the holiday mood!
Want more pumpkin? Try my Spiced Pumpkin Scones and Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies with Brown Butter! Another sweet twist is this Sweet Potato Bread!
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CAN I MAKE PUMPKIN STREUSEL MUFFINS WITH THIS RECIPE?
Of Course! With this recipe, you could make regular-sized muffins, mini muffins, or even mini loaves.
- Muffins: 12 large muffins. Line your muffin tin and only fill ¾ of the way full. Bake for 20 minutes
- Mini Muffins: Depending on your “mini” sized pan, this delicious recipe could make approximately 36 mini muffins.
- Mini Loaves: Roughly 3 loaves can come from this recipe. If making minis, use a cookie scoop to evenly distribute the bread batter amongst the 3 mini loaf pans. Bake for 20 minutes, checking for doneness before removing from the oven.
- Bundt Pan: A smaller pan works best, around 7 inches.
Important Ingredients with Substitutions
- Vegetable Oil – Any odorless and colorless oil will work well for this recipe. Try any of these: Canola oil, Light refined Olive Oil, Vegetable Oil, or Avocado Oil. Melted unsalted butter can be used instead of oil.
- Water – H2O. You can easily exchange the water in this bread recipe with any milk of your choice. Almond milk, oat milk, soy milk…ext.
- Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Allspice – For the spices listed here, if you do not have them all but you DO have Pumpkin Pie spice, go ahead and use the Pumpkin Pie spice in place of them all. Just add the measurements together and you’ll be good to go.
- Chopped Nuts (Optional) – Toasted & unsalted nuts work best. You can typically find these in your baking aisle. Snack nuts are usually heavily salted so I would avoid those.
- Pumpkin Puree – 100% canned pumpkin puree, be sure that you don’t use a pre-made pumpkin pie filling.
See the recipe below for the full list of ingredients and quantities.
Pumpkin Puree from scratch
- Cut baking pumpkins in half and scoop out the seeds.
- Lay face down on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Bake at 400 for 45-60 minutes or until a knife comes out easily.
- Allow to cool then using a food processor, process the insides for 3-5 minutes until smooth. Using a blender would work well too, or even a potato masher if you don’t have access to the others.
- You can store homemade pumpkin puree in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week, or freeze it for up to 3 months.
Streusel Topping Ingredients
- Chopped nuts (Optional) – Toasted or raw, but unsalted. You can typically find these nuts in your baking aisle or sometimes in the produce section of the store. Chopped pecans or chopped walnuts would work best.
Instructions For Pumpkin Bread
Firstly, reheat your oven to 350 F.
Mix all of your streusel topping ingredients in a bowl. Combine with a pasty cutter, fork, or your fingers. Set aside.
Step 1: In a medium bowl sift together flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda. Whisk to combine.
Step 3: Add to the dry ingredients, and whisk together gently. Try not to overmix.
Step 4: Prepare a loaf pan with nonstick baking spray. Pour your pumpkin bread batter into your prepared pan then top with the streusel topping.
Step 5: Bake for 90 minutes uncovered or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 15-30 minutes before serving.
Level Up with a Top Tip!
Hint: After mixing the streusel ingredients today, store it in the fridge while you prepare the pumpkin bread. This will keep the butter cold and the topping crumbly.
Recipe Variations
- Skip the streusel: I know, right! Streusel is SO good. However, you can absolutely have this without streusel as the pumpkin flavor in the bread can stand on its own. Delish! Not only that, it gives you the opportunity to pack the top with chocolate chips.
- Maple syrup glaze: This is worth a try. Maple syrup and pumpkin can be best friends, you just have to introduce them first. Prepare your maple glaze with real maple syrup, powdered sugar, milk, and either vanilla or maple extract.
- Cream cheese filling: Beat together 8 oz Cream Cheese softened, 1 egg, ½ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 tablespoon flour. Layer this in the center or swirl it throughout your pumpkin bread.
Level Up With Expert Tips & Tricks
When mixing your batter, be sure not to overmix too much. Your bread will become tougher and lose its fluffy texture.
When adding inclusions like nuts, gently fold these in.
Bake in the center of your oven, the loaf will need space to rise a couple of inches.
If your oven runs hot, check your bread around the 60-minute mark. If a toothpick inserted still comes out wet, keep baking and check every 10 minutes until done.
For extra protection while baking, after spraying your loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray, then line the prepared loaf pan with parchment paper. Enough so that at least 2 inches stick out on both sides. This will allow you to easily remove the pumpkin bread so it can finish cooling on a wire rack.
Storage Recommendations
I can’t tell you how I stored my own Pumpkin Bread loaf, the entire thing was gone the day I made it!
Fridge: Store pumpkin bread wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature on your countertop for up to 1 week.
At Room Temperature: 1 – 2 days wrapped or in an airtight container.
Can I freeze pumpkin bread?: Can you freeze it? Yes! Wrap the entire loaf tightly in plastic wrap then aluminum foil and freeze. Or, freeze individual slices, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap to save for later. Freeze for up to 3 months.
To eat the Pumpkin Bread after freezing, allow it to thaw for 2-3 hours before slicing or serving.
Leftover pumpkin puree: If you have leftover canned pumpkin, you can also store this in the freezer in a container until future use, or up to 3 months. I love using Souper Cubes for freezing extra ingredients.
Similar Sweets
Looking for other fall recipes like this? Try these:
The Best Pumpkin Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups All-purpose Flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup water
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped nuts optional
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
For the Streusel
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ cup butter cold
- ¼ cup chopped nuts
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 F.
- In a small bowl add the streusel topping ingredients, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and chopped nuts (optional).
- Work it together with your hands, squishing the butter into the flour until it comes together into a crumbly texture. Put the bowl into the fridge to keep it cold.
- In a large bowl sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda. Whisk to combine.
- Add to the same bowl the pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, eggs, water, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice. Whisk together without overmixing.
- Spray a loaf pan with nonstick spray and pour your pumpkin bread batter into the loaf pan.
- Remove the streusel from the fridge and top the pumpkin bread batter generously with streusel topping.
- Bake for 90 minutes, uncovered.
- Cool for 15-30 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
- When mixing your batter, be sure not to overmix too much. Your bread will become tougher and lose its fluffy texture.
- When adding inclusions like nuts, gently fold these in.
- Bake in the center of your oven, the loaf will need space to rise a couple of inches.
- If your oven runs hot, check your bread around the 60-minute mark. If a toothpick inserted still comes out wet, keep baking and check every 10 minutes until done.
- For extra protection while baking, after spraying your loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray, then line the prepared loaf pan with parchment paper. Enough so that at least 2 inches stick out on both sides. This will allow you to easily remove the pumpkin bread so it can finish cooling on a wire rack.
- Fridge: Store pumpkin bread wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature on your countertop for up to 1 week.
- At Room Temperature: 1 – 2 days wrapped or in an airtight container.
Jess
It is summertime and I am totally making this! Pumpkin is never out of season!
kushigalu
This bread looks so soft and moist. Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe.
Mirlene
My family will go nuts after they smell this pumpkin bread baking in the oven. I may have to make 2 loafs!
Tayler Ross
I could eat pumpkin all year long, and this is one of those recipes that deserves to be celebrated all year! Thanks for sharing!
Beth
Was a BIG hit at Christmas. Made 1 big loaf for dinner and 12 mini loafs for gifts with 2 batches. Used a regular loaf pan and a mini loaf pan (similar to a cupcake pan). The family loved it even though I messed up the topping. lol
The streusel topping was a bit difficult to make. Couldn't quite get it cumbly but they liked it just the same.
The ingredients list calls for beaten eggs. But they don't say when to add them in the instructions. I had to come back in the site (after i printed it) to make sure they were needed.
April Brown
Aww Beth I'm so glad your family enjoyed them! I went ahead and fixed the recipe, you were right in that I had forgotten to include eggs in the ingredients to add. Yikes! But thank you for letting me know 🙂 I appreciate your feedback and I hope you and yours have a wonderful New Years!