Pumpkin Bread

5 from 1 vote

Like a good millennial, I am a lover of all things pumpkin all autumn long. I’ve tried many recipes, but always come back to Deb Perlman’s recipe from Smitten Kitchen as my very favorite. I like mine a little less sweet, so I adjust her sugar amounts. But otherwise, I follow her recipe pretty faithfully. This works great as a side dish to breakfast or a little extra surprise on the side of a school lunch or snack. My favorite part of this recipe is that it uses only one bowl! That’s a win for me because it makes clean-up post-baking with kids pretty painless.

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Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

Main Ingredients:

1 15- ounce can 1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup 120 ml vegetable or another neutral cooking oil 115 grams)
3 large eggs
1 ½ 300 grams cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Heaped 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Heaped 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Two pinches of ground cloves
2 1/4 cups 295 grams all-purpose flour

Topping Ingredients:

½ tbsp granulated sugar
½ tsp cinnamon

Equipment

Loaf pan
Parchment Paper
Kitchen scale or measuring cups
Whisk
Measuring Spoons
Rubber spatula
1 Large Bowl

Method

Combine pumpkin, oil, eggs, and sugar together in a large bowl. Use a whisk to combine fully.
Kids can help with cracking the eggs and dumping the ingredients. They can also take turns using the whisk to help break up the eggs and then take turns stirring. I use this as an opportunity to practice counting or saying the alphabet, using a metric like “do twenty stirs” or “stir for the whole length of the ABCs” before having them switch turns.
Sprinkle baking soda, salt, and spices over the top of the mixture and stir thoroughly with the whisk. You can’t over-stir on this step. In fact, under-stirring would be worse. So, let your kids go to town stirring as much as they’d like.
Sprinkle the flour over the top and fold it in with a spatula. My six-year-old is quick to tell you “fold means you put the spatula at the bottom and flip the mixture over itself over and over til the flour goes away.” Young kids can help with this, but definitely supervise to make sure no dry pockets remain, but that you also don’t over-mix.
Mix together the topping ingredients using a fork. Kids love to watch the cinnamon disappear into the sugar.

To Bake:

Line a loaf pan with parchment paper hanging over the sides to create a sling. Dump batter into the pan and give it a few taps to make sure there are no bubbles. Have the kids help you sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture all over the top. Bake at 350°F for 65-75 min or until a toothpick or cake tester poked into several spots around the top of the bread comes out clean.
Let it cool for at least 10 minutes before lifting it out and slicing it to serve. It will keep for several days at room temperature, but make sure to cover the cut end with foil or plastic and leave the top uncovered to preserve the crust, per Perlman's expert directions.

Notes

Add-ins: You can add a cup of chocolate chips, craisins, sunflower seeds, or nuts (or any combination of the above) if you’d like to break up the flavor or add in some texture.

Vegan: It’s already dairy-free. If you’d like to make it vegan, you can replace the eggs a few different ways:

Flaxseed Meal: Mix together 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal with 2.5 tbsp water for every egg and let it sit for 5 minutes before adding it in. For this recipe, you’d need 3 tablespoons of flaxseed meal and 7.5 tablespoons of water.
Applesauce: Mix together ¼ cup of unsweetened applesauce and ½ tsp baking powder per egg, and then add it to the wet ingredients. For this recipe, you’d need ¾ cup of applesauce and 1.5 tsp baking powder.

Gluten-Free: I haven’t personally made this gluten-free. I think it should be possible. To be safe, I would recommend using a higher protein, firmer gluten-free flour mix, as this is a heavy loaf, and it may become crumbly.