A delicious recipe for Pumpkin Bread with double the spices. This version is maple sweetened, with a crunchy nut topping, optional chocolate chips, and a moist tender crumb. Vegan-adaptable, gluten-free adaptable. Video.
When everything is moving and shifting, the only way to counteract chaos is stillness. When things feel extraordinary, strive for ordinary. When the surface is wavy, dive deeper for quieter waters.
Karen Armstrong
This Double Spiced Pumpkin Bread recipe requires only 15 minutes of hands-on time before baking in the oven. It has a lovely kick of spice that wakens up the palate. This version is mostly maple-sweetened and made with olive oil.
Brian and I have been indulging in this for the last couple of weeks, and it’s been such a tasty treat. It’s delicious paired with Masala Chai as an afternoon snack, or add chocolate chips and serve it as a “healthier” dessert.
Pumpkin Bread | 60-Sec Video
If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know how much we love to use spices. Not only are they flavorful, they are good for the body.
Cloves are a vasodilator (increasing circulation) and a powerful antioxidant, while Cardamom’s warming and detoxifying qualities help rid the body of toxins.
Pumpkin Bread Ingredient Notes
- All-purpose flour, cake flour or GF flour blend
- Spices: cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, ground cloves
- Large eggs (or use flax eggs + baking powder)
- Pumpkin puree ( 14-ounce can or make your own, you’ll need 1 1/2 cups)
- Mild olive oil, or coconut oil
- Optional: chocolate chips, orange zest, nut topping: pecans, walnuts, or pumpkin seeds
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Pumpkin Bread Instructions
Step 1: Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl- flour, baking soda, salt, spices and sugar.
Step 2: Mix wet ingredients together in a medium bowl- olive oil, maple syrup, vanilla, eggs, (or flax eggs) and pumpkin puree.
Step 3: Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and whisk until smooth.
Optional: Stir in chocolate chips and// or orange zest.
Step 4: Pour into a greased 5×9 loaf pan. Sprinkle with chopped nuts.
Step 5: Bake at 325F for 65-75 minutes- or until a toothpick comes out clean and the loaf reaches 200F-205F in the center.
Step 6: let it cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes then flip it out.
How to store Pumpkin Bread
Store the pumpkin bread on the counter, covered, until it magically disappears or up to 5 days. Or give half away. It really makes a nice gift. If you live in a humid climate, refrigerate. 🙂
Pumpkin bread can also be frozen, tightly wrapped up to 3 months.
What I love about this recipe is its lower sugar and fat content, wonderfully moist crumb, and how flavorful it is!
The punch of ginger, and spices to me, is heavenly.
Pumpkin Bread FAQs
Pumpkins are naturally high in vitamins A and C, potassium, B vitamins, copper, manganese, iron, and E. Olive oil is high in polyphenols, maple syrup is high in minerals, and the warming spices are antioxidants and help boost metabolism according to ayurvedic medicine. So yes, I’d like to believe there are health benefits in this pumpkin bread as long as you don’t consume the whole loaf in one sitting.
This recipe is made with olive oil- so zero cholesterol.
Yes, absolutely! Use flax eggs instead of real eggs and add 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.
Mix one tablespoon of ground flax seeds with 3 tablespoons water and let this stand 15 minutes so it thickens up.
Enjoy the spicy pumpkin bread and let us know what you think in the comments below!
xoxo
Love this recipe? Please let us know in the comments and leave a 5-star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating below the recipe card.
More Recipes You May Like
- Chai-Spiced Pecan Torte
- Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins with Dried Cherries
- Gingery Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Vegan Pumpkin Tart
Double Spice Pumpkin Bread
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 65
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 10 slices
- Category: dessert, snack
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
A delicious recipe for Pumpkin Bread with double the spices. This version is maple sweetened, with a crunchy nut topping, optional chocolate chips, and a moist tender crumb. Vegan-adaptable.
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled (see notes for Gluten free)
- 1/4–1/2 cup sugar, or coconut sugar, please see notes.
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 3/4 teaspoon cardamom
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 extra large eggs (or sub 2 flax eggs, plus 1/2 teaspoon baking powder– see notes)
- 14-ounce can of pumpkin puree ( or homemade pumpkin puree, you’ll need 1 1/2 cups)
- 1/2 cup mild olive oil or sub-melted coconut oil
- 1/2 cup real maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- optional: 2/3 cups chocolate chips (optional but really yummy)
- optional: 1 tablespoon orange zest
- Topping: 1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, or whole pumpkin seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F
- In a large bowl, whisk dry ingredients together- flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, spices.
- In a medium bowl, whisk wet ingredients together- eggs, pumpkin puree, oil, maple syrup, vanilla .
- Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and whisk until combined.
- Fold in chocolate chips or orange zest if using.
- Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan and pour the pumpkin batter in. Sprinkle with the nuts.
- Bake 65- 75 minutes on the middle rack, until puffed, golden and a toothpick comes out clean- or the internal temp reaches 200-205F.
- Cool on a rack before removing. Store on the counter 3-4 days, covered, or in the fridge for a week, or freeze, for up to 6 months.
Notes
Vegan Option: Use flax eggs- mix 2 tablespoons ground flax with 6 tablespoons water, and let this stand 15 minutes. Add this to the wet ingredients. Add 1/2 teaspoon of baking POWDER to the dry mix (in addition to the baking soda).
Gluten-free: Tested with/ 1 ¾ cups Arrow Mills Organic Gluten Free All-purpose Flour Blend, plus ½ teaspoon baking powder and it worked perfectly.
Sweetness: Most pumpkin bread recipes call for 1-1 1/2 cups of sugar. I’ve really lowered this down as much as I think tastes good ( 1/4 sugar + 1/2 cup maple syrup = 3/4 cup). Feel free to add 1/4- 1/2 cups more sugar to yield a more traditional sweeter pumpkin bread.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 288
- Sugar: 16 g
- Sodium: 319.4 mg
- Fat: 14.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 36.9 g
- Fiber: 2.5 g
- Protein: 4.3 g
- Cholesterol: 37.2 mg
Another stunning recipe from this wonderful site!
I baked this loaf for a group gathering yesterday and not a crumb was left! Everyone wanted the recipe and I was happy to introduce them to this beautiful site!
Be brave and don’t hesitate to use the variety and large amounts of spice in this recipe. The maple syrup and grated orange zest took it over the top! I used a combo of chopped pecans and walnut on the top. I opted not to use the chocolate chips, but am guessing those would be a decadent addition.
Do note that, for me, I needed to bake it 15 minutes longer than listed to ensure the middle of the load was done.
Thanks for the helpful feed back Melissa! So glad you all enjoyed.
This turned out perfectly! My new favorite.
Great to hear Annette! Thanks for the review.
Made it again. Even better than the last time. Wish I could post a pic
Nice!
What else would I have to change if I used almond flour instead of regular flour?
Hi Leslie, I am not sure Almond flour will work great hear? But, I have not tested this. I have the best luck with gluten free flour blends in cakes like Arrow Mills organic all-purpose flour, but again, I have personally tested this here. Let us know how it goes if you try it. 🙂
I LOVED this recipe.
It took much longer to bake but turned out great!
I also added a crumb topping the 2nd time.
Using brown sugar instead of white
Great Paula! Interesting about the baking time- every oven is different. Crumb topping sounds amazing. 🙂
Can you give an approximate weight for the “extra large eggs”? We have our own chickens, so my eggs are not all the same size. None of them qualify as “extra large.”
Extra large eggs are between 2.25 and 2.5 ounces (65- 68 grams).
SO GOOD! This is my favorite pumpkin bread recipe I have come across so far. Thank you!
Thanks Tessa, so glad to hear this! Appreciate you taking the time to review. 🙂
Forgot to give it a star rating
Thank you Florence!
Love the recipe. My new favorite. I always add chopped candied ginger to my pumpkin bread.
Sounds wonderful!
Perfect recipe. Beautiful tender crumb. Just the right amount of sweetness (I used 3/8 c of sugar and added some turbinado sugar to the chopped walnut topping). Making it GF, I always add a 1/2 t of baking powder, which worked well in this recipe too. This is a best in class pumpkin bread.
Glad you enjoyed this. Thanks for the GF tips Lara! Helpful!
What does GF mean in this context?
It is an abbreviation for gluten-free.
Ah yes. All I cd think of was girl-friend 🙂 Obviously, I’m not GF.
Haha…that’s a good guess. Honestly there are A LOT of abbreviations these days-I get educated by my kids!😊
Oops forgot to comment that the sweetness of this cake is perfect. I didn’t miss the extra sugar at all!
Thanks Lisa, glad to hear this!
Made this for the weekend and it turned out great! So much spicy fall flavor and super moist, but I watched it like a hawk so it came out exactly when the toothpick was barely clean. I think this would also taste great with cream cheese frosting and make it dessert!
Great to hear this Lisa!
Made this last night. Enjoyed for breakfast this morning. I appreciate you scaling back on the sugar. I went with 1/4 cup sugar, didn’t miss the extra sugar.
Glad to hear this!
I’ve made many different pumpkin breads over the years and this is one of the best. Perfect texture and spicing. Used 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup maple syrup and it was plenty sweet for our tastes.
Excellent! Thanks for reviewing.:)
Thank you for this recipe ! Very tasty… will be making more of it! I love the spices best…
Appreciate you taking the time to review! So glad you enjoyed.
A new family favorite. So easy!
Glad you gave it a try Laurie!
My family absolutely LOVES this bread! We love that it is double spiced. I have made this multiple times and never been disappointed! Thank you for such a tasty fall bread 😊
Great to hear Kendra!
Love the pumpkin bread. The combination of spices gives such a complex flavor. I’ve made it many times.
Thanks so much Colleen- thanks so much for circling back and rating it for us!
I have made this and LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Can’t get enough. When I grate my own orange zest that adds a lovely flavor – any recommendations on what to buy for store bought?
The last three times I made this it came out crumbly – not able to slice and I can’t figure out why. I changed back to the original canned pumpkin I used the first time, but that didn’t work.
Using a gluten free flour blend didn’t taste great to me, but my gluten free friends loved it – again, crumbly though.
I’m at a high altitude – 7,000 ft. Any thoughts?
Hi Jane- glad you are enjoying this. Not sure what could be making it crumbly thaough? Any other changes you are making?
I decided to try pouring the batter into muffin cups. I baked for 45 min and they came out great. I just made some today as I was having a hankering! I just love these!
Oh good to hear Jane!
Jane, I live at 8000 ft and had great outcome using 15 oz can pumpkin, Bobs Red Mill 1-to-1 GF flour, plus 1/2 t baking powder. Came out tender not crumbly. Hope that helps.
This is fantastic pumpkin bread. It is healthier than the typical recipe, using olive oil and much less sweetener. The result came out moist and delicious; we are thoroughly enjoying it!
Happy to hear this Karen!
Very moist. The cardamom really takes it to the next level.
Nice!
I am not familiar enough with baking to know if this recipe will translate well if I used a muffin tin instead of a bread pan. 🙂 What do you think? If you aren’t sure, that is totally fine! I’d just like the extra option. Thanks.
You can! I would do 350 for 25- 30 minutes. We also have a recipe for pumpkin muffins!
I was wondering the same thing!
This is excellent!! It didn’t last the day! I was wondering if it’s possible to make this in a decorative bundt pan?
Hey Andrea- I haven’t tried this, so not positive. I feel like it may be too moist of a dough? If you try it will you let us know.