Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread
Welcome fall with this gluten free pumpkin bread. It's full of pumpkin flavor and warm spices, and it's always tender!
Yield: 1 loaf pumpkin bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend (I used Better Batter; click thru for appropriate blends)
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum omit if your blend already contains it
- ¼ cup (36 g) cornstarch
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice See Recipe Notes
- ⅔ cup (133 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons (28 g) packed light brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons (84 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs at room temperature, beaten
- ⅔ cup (5 ⅓ fluid ounces) buttermilk at room temperature (See Recipe Notes)
- 5 ounces pumpkin butter homemade or store bought, at room temperature
- Cinnamon-sugar for dusting (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease and line a standard 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan and set it aside.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, cornstarch, salt, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and sugars, and whisk to combine well, breaking up any lumps in the brown sugar.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the butter, eggs, buttermilk and pumpkin butter, and mix until smooth and uniform in color.
- The batter will be very thick. You can try using a handheld mixer to ensure a smooth, even batter. It will climb up the beater blades, so just keep scraping it down and carry on.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, pressing it into all corners of the pan so there aren’t any gaps in the baked bread.
- With wet fingers and/or a wet spatula, smooth the top of the batter into an even layer and score it about 3/4-inch deep along the length, down the center of the bread using a sharp knife at a 45° angle.
- Dust the top generously with a layer of the (optional) cinnamon sugar mixture, and score again down the center if necessary to reestablish the scoring.
- Place the loaf pan in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the top is domed and lightly golden brown, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with no more than a few moist crumbs attached (nothing gooey at all!) (45 to 55 minutes).
- Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Slice and serve once cool.
Notes
For pumpkin pie spice
To make your own pumpkin pie spice, combine 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon + 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger + 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves + 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg.
For the buttermilk
If you’ve run out of buttermilk, you can use half (1/3 cup) milk and half (1/3 cup) plain yogurt. They can both be dairy-free if you can’t have dairy.
For the pumpkin butter
About half the time, I buy pumpkin butter (most often from Trader Joe’s), and the other half I make it using my recipe (linked above). The store bought pumpkin butter is usually more gooey, but the recipe is equally successful either way.
For the dusting cinnamon sugar
Dusting the top of the raw loaf of pumpkin bread with cinnamon sugar creates a very thin, crunchy layer of fragrant sweetness. It’s entirely optional, though.
I usually keep a cinnamon-sugar mixture in a small, sealed container on my kitchen counter, since it’s just so useful. I use 1 full teaspoon ground cinnamon for each 3/4 cup of granulated sugar. You should add cinnamon to taste, though.
First published on the blog in 2013. In 2020, photos and video all new, recipe tweaked slightly. In 2022, text resources added.