Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread is a delicious treat anytime!

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Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread is a delicious treat any time of the day. It is the perfect accompaniment to your morning coffee break, afternoon tea time, or evening snack. Toast a slice and spread with butter. Cream cheese or nut butter adds extra yumminess! Quick bread is mixed by one of three methods: muffin, creamed, or biscuit. My recipe uses the muffin method. To learn more, continue reading!

Canned or Fresh, Pumpkin is Available year round

Pumpkin is a member of the gourd family and is associated with fall and harvest time. It is a large and round orange-yellow fruit with a thick rind, edible flesh, and hundreds of seeds. Most everyone is familiar with carving a pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern, but not all want to go to the trouble of cooking the flesh to make a pie or quick bread. Thank goodness for canned pulp that you can buy at your local supermarket! 

Quick Bread is Yeast-Free

Quick bread is a baked flour product without yeast as the leavening.  Instead, baking soda or baking powder gives rise and volume to the mixture of ingredients. Ingredients are combined quickly and the term quick bread is a common name for this type of baked goods. 

Versatile Savory or Sweet Batter

Savory or sweet, quick bread batter is versatile. Because it is a basic cake batter, it can bake in any type of baking pan or dish: loaf, muffin, Bundt, casserole, cake, or tube. It can also be free-form in the shape of a biscuit or scone. The outcome of the final product depends upon the mixing method.

Muffin Method

A muffin batter is made in three simple steps with “dry” and “wet” or liquid ingredients. First, dry ingredients (flour, salt, leavening, sugar, etc.) are combined together. Using a fork or whisk will distribute the salt and leavening (baking soda or powder) evenly throughout the mixture. This is necessary to aerate or fluff up the flour so that it will mix easily with the wet ingredients. Second, wet ingredients (eggs, melted butter or oil, honey or other viscous liquid sugar, dairy, juice) are mixed thoroughly together and then combined with the dry ingredients. 

The mixture is quickly folded together to just moisten the dry ingredients. The trick is not to over mix or beat the batter.  An overmixed batter yields tough or rubbery bread with an uneven shape. It is important to have the dry and wet ingredients mixed thoroughly before they meet to avoid poorly distributed ingredients. Nuts or dried fruits are added to the dry ingredients or gently folded in at the end of mixing.

Electric Mixer Creaming Method

To make a richer tasting quick bread with a cake-like texture, the technique is the same as for making a butter cake.  All the ingredients are at room temperature. The butter and sugar are beaten together until the combination is light in color and airy in texture. Eggs gradually become incorporated into the butter and sugar mixture. Dry and wet ingredients follow, alternating in thirds.

Biscuit Method

In this method, dry ingredients mix together as for muffins.  Cold butter is cut into the flour mixture before the addition of wet ingredients. The amount of wet or liquid ingredients varies. This depends upon whether the dough will be lightly kneaded, rolled, and cut into shapes or dropped free-form onto a baking sheet.

Wrap it up and gift it or freeze it

It’s all about the wrapping. Mini loaves of Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread in a clear or colored cellophane wrap tied with a ribbon make a perfect gift for friends, family, or co-workers. This quick bread freezes wrapped in plastic wrap or a zip-lock bag. Make extra loaves or muffins to enjoy when you don’t have time to bake.

Whether it’s Fall Harvest, Thanksgiving, the Christmas Holiday season, or anytime, Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread is a delicious treat!

Print Recipe

Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread

Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread is a delicious treat anytime of the day. It is the perfect accompaniment to your morning coffee break, afternoon teatime or evening snack.  A spread of cream cheese or nut butter adds extra yumminess! Quick bread batter is mixed by one of three methods: muffin, creamed, or biscuit. My recipe uses the muffin method. Tolearn more, read the recipe notes.

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time50 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Bread, Easy, Pumpkin, Quickbread

Author: Molly Kohler Pei

Equipment

• 1 large loaf pan 9X5 size or 2 small pans
• 2 large mixing bowls

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

• 3 ½ cups all purpose white flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 tbsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp. salt

Optional Dry Ingredients

• 1 cup golden raisins
• ½ cup chopped walnuts

Wet Ingredients

• 1 15 oz can of pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup melted butter (2 sticks)
• ⅔ cup apricot nectar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350° F.
• Prepare loaf pan or pans. Butter or spray cooking oil on bottom and sides. Place a strip of parchment paper in the bottom and coat with butter or spray. While not critical, it will help to release the loaf from the pan after baking.
• Organize your ingredients.
  
• Add all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and combine.
  
• Add all wet ingredients into a mixing bowl and combine.
  
• Combine the dry and wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.
  
• Fold in optional dry ingredients.
• Fill a large loaf pan halfway with batter. This allows room for the batter to rise. Use an additional loaf pan it you have enough batter.
  
• Bake for 50 minutes or until a stick or knife inserted pulls out clean.
• Remove and let cool in the pan½.

Notes

This recipe makes enough batter to fill 1 large loaf pan 1 small loaf pan or 2 small loaf pans. It is best to fill the pans half-way as the batter will rise considerably. The top of the bread will dome and crack some. Test if baking is complete by inserting a bamboo skewer or knife inserted into the center. It should come out clean or with a few crumbs attached. If there is any sign of wet batter, continue to bake in 5 minute increments.

Whole wheat flour can be substituted but may create a denser loaf. A mix of whole wheat with all purpose flour is better.

I like using 2 cups of sugar. It makes the bread sweet but not cloying. Adjust the sugar to your liking – I recommend at least 1 and 1/2 cups up to a maximum of 2 and 1/2 cups.

Additional spices such as ground ginger, allspice, nutmeg or cardamom can be added if you want to zing up the flavor.

Any dried fruit can be used. I like golden raisins as they are plumper right out of the box than black raisins and don’t need to be hydrated. If necessary, hydrate dried fruit by soaking in hot water until plump before adding to the batter.

Any nut can be used. Black walnuts will lend an earthy flavor.

Fruit nectar is a thick fruit juice and is usually available in the juice aisle of your supermarket and sometimes in the refrigerated beverage section. You can substitute the fruit nectar with pear or peach nectar. If you don’t have any nectar on hand, you can puree a can of apricots, pears or peaches.

Muffin method

A muffin batter is made in three simple steps with “dry” and “wet” or liquid ingredients. First, dry ingredients (flour, salt, leavening, sugar, etc.) are combined together. Using a fork or whisk will distribute the salt and leavening (baking soda or powder) evenly throughout the mixture. This is necessary to aerate or fluff up the flour so that it will mix easily with the wet ingredients. Second, wet ingredients (eggs, melted butter or oil, honey or other viscous liquid sugar, dairy, juice) are mixed thoroughly together and then combined with the dry ingredients. The mixture is quickly folded together to just moisten the dry ingredients. The trick is not to over mix or beat the batter.  An overmixed batter yields tough or rubbery bread with an uneven shape. It is important to have the dry and wet ingredients mixed thoroughly before the meet to avoid poorly distributed ingredients. Nuts or dried fruits are added to the dry ingredients or gently folded in at the end of mixing.

Electric Mixer Creaming Method

To make a richer tasting quick bread with a cake-like texture, the technique is the same as for making a butter cake. All the ingredients are at room temperature. The butter is beaten with the sugar until it is light in color and airy in texture. The eggs are gradually added and beaten until incorporated into the butter and sugar mixture. The dry and wet ingredients are added in alternating thirds.

Biscuit Method

The dry ingredients are mixed as for muffins. Before the wet ingredients are added, cold butter is cut into the flour mixture. The amount of wet or liquid ingredients varies depending upon whether the dough will be lightly kneaded, rolled and cut into shapes or dropped free-form onto a baking sheet.

More from Molly’s Kitchen: Be sure to visit my blog for more delicious recipes, menus and entertainment tips!   www.mollyskitchen.net