Mom’s Pumpkin Bread
Back in mid-January, when I kicked off this pumpkin-baking adventure with my Pumpkin Brioche, I mentioned that my earliest experience with pumpkin bread was the quick bread my mother made. Since I had just enough pumpkin purée for one more pumpkin recipe, it felt very apropos to wrap up this series with Mom’s pumpkin bread.
Like most quick breads, her pumpkin bread is sweet and cake-like – slightly dense, incredibly soft and tender, and full of sweet pumpkin and cozy spice. She didn’t make it nearly as often as her Zucchini Bread, or even her banana bread (we’ll come back to that one another time). In fact, I mostly remember her making it back when she was still making her own pumpkin purée.
When my siblings and I were very young, we always seemed to have pumpkins around mid-October. I don’t actually remember where they came from – I have no clear memories of pumpkin patches or hayrides – but the pumpkins were definitely there. And without fail, one of us would ask to carve a jack-o-lantern. Just as reliably, Mom would hand us paints instead.
Once you carve a pumpkin, it starts to spoil. By the time you are done enjoying your jack-o-lantern, the pumpkin flesh is no longer good for purée (or much else). But a painted pumpkin? That can sit happily for weeks. When Mom was ready to make purée, she’d simply wash off the paint and get to work. So we got our ghoulishly painted pumpkins for Halloween and Mom’s pumpkin bread in our school lunches – which was always my favorite way to enjoy it.
One thing I remember clearly: although her recipe calls for nuts or raisins, she never included them. Her pumpkin bread was definitely for pumpkin purists. When I recreated the recipe, I decided to make it both ways. The recipe makes two loaves so it is easy enough to fill one pan with plain batter and fold nuts into the batter before filling the second. I, unsurprisingly, opted for pecans. My family enjoyed both versions, but the nut-free loaf transported me straight back to childhood.
Wrapping up this little pumpkin adventure with Mom’s pumpkin bread feels like the perfect full‑circle moment. It’s not the fanciest recipe in the series, but it’s the one that carries the most comfort — the memory of slices tucked into school lunches and the taste that defined pumpkin season long before I ever made brioche or baked with ricotta. Whether you make it plain, like she always did, or fold in a handful of nuts, I’m sure this simple, cozy bread will bring a bit of that same warmth to your kitchen.
I’ll be shifting gears later this week with a Valentine’s‑ready chocolate dessert, but for now, I’m savoring this last slice of pumpkin nostalgia.
Equipment
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease your loaf pans and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.3 1/3 cup (430 g) flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp (½ tsp) baking powder, 1/2 tsp (½ tsp) salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp (½ tsp) cloves
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the shortening and sugar until very fluffy.2/3 cup (127 g) shortening, 2 2/3 cup (534 g) sugar
- Add the eggs and beat well.4 eggs
- Add the pumpkin and water, mix until thoroughly combined and homogenous in color.2 cups (497 g) pumpkin puree, 2/3 cup (160 ml) water
- Add the flour mixture and beat just until combined.
- If you are using nuts or raisins, fold them into the batter until evenly distributed.2/3 cup (75 g) nuts or raisins
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared loaf pans.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 60-70 minutes, or until a tester comes out with a few moist crumbs (or ~195°F on an instant read thermometer)
- Cool the bread in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cut into slices to serve, store leftovers in an airtight container.
Notes
- Variations:
- Replace 1/2 of the shortening with cream cheese
- the texture will be a little denser with a more velvety mouthfeel making the bread feel a bit more indulgent
- Replace the water with milk
- this will create a more tender crumb and a richer flavor
- it can also make the crust brown more quickly – when the crust is the desired golden brown color, tent the loaf with foil for the remainder of the baking time.
- The original recipe calls for equal parts cinnamon and cloves. However, I distinctly recall mom telling me that she didn’t love cloves so in my recreation I reduced the cloves to 1/2 the amount of the cinnamon. If you love cloves, feel free to bump that back up again.Â
- I know many pumpkin recipes include ginger in the mix of spices – I actually really like that this bread doesn’t include ginger, I think it gives the more subtle pumpkin a chance to shine. But if you can’t imagine pumpkin without ginger, you could definitely add some to this recipe, I would suggest 1/2 – 1 tsp.Â
- Replace 1/2 of the shortening with cream cheese
Private Notes
Nutrition
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