Pumpkin Bread
Pumpkin bread is only called bread — it is a cake, and a very moist one, because it is built on oil rather than butter. Oil does not set hard in the fridge, which is why a slice is still soft on the third day. The batter is stirred together in five minutes with a spoon, and this is the kind of recipe worth learning by heart.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 1 h 5 min
- Total
- 1 h 25 min
- Servings
- 10
- Level
- Easy
- Per serving
- 330 kcal
Ingredients
Wet
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What to use instead
Use 3 tsp of ready-made pumpkin pie spice for all three spices. Cinnamon alone works at a push; the flavour is just flatter.
Dry
Makes: 1 loaf, 10 slices
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
Oven
175 °C · top and bottom heat, no fan
With a fan: 155 °C
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Step 1: Prepare the tin
Grease a 22 × 11 cm loaf tin and line the base with parchment. Heat the oven to 175°C.
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Step 2: Mix the wet
Whisk the oil with the sugar, add the eggs one at a time, then the pumpkin purée and water. It should be smooth and quite loose.
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Step 3: Mix the dry
In another bowl combine the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and all the spices. A whisk through them does the job of sifting.
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Step 4: Combine
Tip the dry into the wet and fold just until the flour disappears. You are not after a smooth glossy batter: overmixing makes the loaf rubbery.
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Step 5: Bake
Pour into the tin and bake for 60–70 minutes. A skewer from the centre should come out with moist crumbs but no raw batter.
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Step 6: Cool in the tin
Rest it in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a rack. Hot pumpkin bread is very fragile and breaks in your hands.
Tips & variations
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Tip
If the top is darkening before 45 minutes are up, cover the tin with foil. There is a lot of sugar here and the crust colours faster than the middle bakes.
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Variation
Fold in 100 g of chocolate chips or walnuts — then use the next tin size up, as the loaf rises higher.
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Swap
Use 3 tsp of ready-made pumpkin pie spice for all three spices. Cinnamon alone works at a push; the flavour is just flatter.
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Storage
Wrapped, 4 days at room temperature, and better on day two than on day one. Sliced, it freezes for 3 months.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 10 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 330 kcal | 3,300 kcal |
| Protein | 4 g | 40 g |
| Fat | 11 g | 110 g |
| Carbohydrates | 54 g | 540 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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