Pumpkin Spice Bread

The ultimate fall bite, rich in pumpkin flavor and enhanced by warm spices in lusciously moist bread.

Back when I used to work at a physical office, I hosted bake sales as part of an events planning committee. This one year, I had a vision for a "Fall Bake Sale Café", in which I really wanted to decorate our little employee lounge to look like a café, with plants draping the fridges, mugs and mini pumpkins on all the counters and a big baked goods menu written in chalk posted on the wall. We had stacks of books and candles everywhere, jazz playing in the background, black and tan throw pillows on the chairs...super cozy. I wanted to get people excited about all the fall goodness they were about to experience, so I set up a pre-order menu that consisted of banana spice bread, pumpkin cheesecake truffles and (dun duna nah) pumpkin spice bread. They were all hits and I still get requests for these items from my coworkers to this day! If you like pumpkin, spice and bread, you absolutely cannot go wrong with this recipe! The bread is incredibly moist, with just the right kick of warm spices and has a delightful pumpkin flavor. You can enjoy slices of this loaf at any time, but it does have a special place in my heart (and my belly) in the fall.

---

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Makes one 9x5 inch loaf

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/4 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp ground allspice

• 1/2 tsp ground cloves

• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 cup pumpkin purée

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line your loaf pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, add your flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and spices. Whisk to combine. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the softened butter and sugar on medium speed until fully combined. The butter should be fluffy, and you should no longer see the shine of sugar crystals.

4. Add the egg, and mix on medium speed until fully combined, it should look creamy.

5. Add the pumpkin purée and mix on medium-low speed until combined, scraping down the bowl as needed. The batter should look grainy, or even curdled at this point.

6. Turn the speed down to low and slowly add the flour mixture to the bowl until just combined. Scrape down the bowl and give it one more mix until combined.

7. Pour the batter into the aluminum foil or parchment paper lined loaf pan.

8. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

9. Remove the loaf from the pan using the aluminum foil (or over hang of the parchment paper) and allow it to cool on a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes.

Notes

• If you don't have a stand mixer, you can certainly use a hand mixer or mix by hand. It's just a lot easier to cream butter and sugar with a machine.

• I use heavy duty aluminum foil. This allows me to remove the loaf from the pan and later remove the foil from the loaf without tears or any of the foil sticking to the loaf. I do not recommend using foil if you use regular aluminum foil (it's just not worth the headache).

• I recommend softening butter by letting it sit out for an hour or so (unless your kitchen is really warm, then it will soften in less time) instead of microwaving it, because you can't cream butter & sugar when your butter is melted, as the microwave too easily does.

Photos