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My classic gluten free pumpkin bread recipe is perfectly spiced, super moist, and packed with pumpkin flavor. It tastes just like that famous Starbucks pumpkin bread in the glass case filled with treats that you thought you couldn’t have any more!
If you enjoyed making my classic gluten free bread recipe or my gluten free sourdough bread you will love this pumpkin version. My gluten free chocolate banana bread is the chocolate version that everyone will love.
Why this recipe works
Made quick and easy with regular canned pumpkin puree, this recipe is made just by mixing wet with dry ingredients, and popping the bread in the oven.
This tender loaf is only lightly sweet, with the rich flavor of pumpkin. You’ll want to get every last crumb. There’s plenty of pumpkin pie spice for rich golden color, and it’s that simple blend cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves and nutmeg is what smells & tastes like pumpkin.
Unlike some quick bread loaves, this pumpkin bread won’t ever burn before it bakes all the way through. Like when we’re baking gluten free zucchini bread with zucchini, baking this bread with all that pumpkin puree adds plenty of moisture keeps the bread at a consistent temperature as the moisture evaporates.
Key ingredients explained
Here’s what you need to to make this bread, plus some information about the role of each ingredient in a successful quick bread:
- Gluten free flour blend: A well-balanced rice flour-based gluten free flour blend with finely ground flours provides enough structure to hold the rise as the bread cools. I like Nicole’s Best multipurpose with added xanthan gum, Better Batter’s classic blend, and Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 gf baking flour, but with another 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum added.
- Salt: brightens the flavors and balances the sweetness.
- Baking powder and baking soda: help the bread rise in the oven; baking soda helps it brown, too.
- Pumpkin pie spice: A warm spice blend of mostly ground cinnamon and ginger that tastes and smells like we only think pumpkin itself does.
- Sugar: Adds sweetness and locks in moisture for a tender crumb.
- Light brown sugar: For sweetness plus depth of flavor and richness.
- Pumpkin puree: Adds lots of moisture, color, and some pumpkin flavor. Instead of making this recipe with pumpkin butter, which can be hard to find, I now make this recipe with canned pure pumpkin puree like in our gluten free pumpkin pie so it’s easy to make without the extra step of buying or making pumpkin butter, but is still rich and flavorful.
- Butter: Adds flavor, tenderness, and moisture.
- Eggs: Help with the rise and provide structure to hold the rise as the bread cools.
- Sour cream: The acidity helps tenderize the crumb, and adds fat for richness and flavor; it works just like buttermilk, but with less moisture so the bread bakes all the way through without any gumminess.
How to make gluten free pumpkin bread (step by step photos)
Here’s a photo overview of how to make this bread in your own kitchen, plus some information about the reason behind each step:
Whisk dry ingredients
I whisked the gluten free flour blend, salt, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and white and brown sugars first in a separate small bowl to ensure they’re well-combined without any pockets of concentrated leaveners. You can also You can make this recipe in one bowl by whisking the dry ingredients first, then adding the wet on top and mixing to combine, but since this recipe has a lot wet ingredients, I find it easier to mix dry into wet.
Combine wet ingredients
In a large mixing bowl big enough for all the batter, whisk melted butter, eggs, pumpkin puree, and sour cream until very smooth. Whisk until the mixture turns lighter in color, which means that the eggs are emulsified in the mixture which leads to a more stable batter that rises evenly.
Add dry to wet
Add the combined dry ingredients right on top, and mix to combine. The batter will thick, but smooth and soft, not thick or hard to mix.
The batter should be strong enough to hold its shape as it bakes, but still has enough moisture for a tender bread. It shouldn’t stick to your mixing spoon very much, either.
Transfer the batter
Scrape the raw batter into a prepared loaf pan, smooth the top, and score it down the middle for a lovely top. That gives the steam a place to escape during baking. For more sweetness and a thin, crispy crust, sprinkle the raw top with cinnamon and sugar.
Bake and cool
Bake at 350°F until the top is relatively firm to the touch and a tester inserted in the center comes out without any raw batter. A few moist crumbs are fine, and this bread doesn’t burn easily since it has so much moisture, so err on the side of overbaking than underbaking or the bread will collapse as it cools.
Let the bread cool fully, or the starches in the bread won’t have fully absorbed the moisture. That can lead to a gummy crumb, and a bread that goes stale quickly from loss of moisture.
Expert Tips
Measure gluten free flour by weight
When measuring your gluten free flour blend, be sure to measure by weight rather than volume. When you scoop flour from a bag, you might accidentally compact it in your measuring cup.
This means once you’ve mixed everything together, your proportions will be off because you’ve got too much flour. If you don’t realize it, you may end up with a drier, more crumbly bread.
Use room temperature ingredients
Make sure that your sour cream, eggs, and pumpkin puree are at room temperature, so they combine with one another properly. Your butter should be melted, and then cooled until it’s no longer hot to the touch so it doesn’t raise the temperature of the other ingredients.
Bake it as long as it needs
This loaf doesn’t really have a tendency to burn before it bakes all the way through, so be sure to give it the time it needs to bake fully. If you’re using a slightly smaller loaf pan than 9-inches x 5-inches, it may take up to an hour to bake, but it won’t burn.
Let your bread cool before slicing
Be sure that your bread is no longer hot when you slice into it. If you don’t give it time to cool, no matter how carefully you slice it, the loaf will compress when you cut it.
Ingredient substitutions
If you have other dietary restrictions, here are my best guesses for how you might accommodate them:
Dairy free
Replacing the dairy in this recipe means replacing the butter and the sour cream. In place of butter, I recommend using vegan butter, and my favorite brands are Melt and Miyoko’s Kitchen.
In place of sour cream, try nondairy sour cream, or Greek-style plain nondairy yogurt. If you can’t find Greek-style, try straining moisture out of plain nondairy yogurt until it resembles sour cream.
Egg free
There are two eggs in this recipe. You can try replacing each of them with one “chia egg” (a total of 2 tablespoons ground white chia seeds + 4 tablespoons lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel).
Storage instructions
This pumpkin bread is super moist, and it doesn’t dry out very quickly. Wrap each leftover slice as tightly as possible, and let it sit at room temperature for a day or so.
For longer storage, freeze the tightly wrapped slices and defrost in the microwave for about 20 seconds, or at room temperature. The frozen slices should stay in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread Recipe
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Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups (315 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, See Recipe Notes
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, See Recipe Notes
- ⅓ cup (67 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (109 g) packed light brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons (84 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature, beaten
- ⅔ cup (150 g) sour cream, at room temperature
- 8 ounces pure pumpkin puree, 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 small bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, granulated sugar and light brown sugar, and whisk to combine well, breaking up any lumps.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, eggs, sour cream, and pumpkin puree until very smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl of wet ingredients, and mix until just combined. The batter will be very thick, but soft.
- 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 a wet spatula, smooth the top of the batter into an even layer and score it about 3/4-inch deep 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!) (about 50 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.
Video
Notes
You can use any of my recommend all purpose gluten free flour blends with a superfinely ground rice flour as a base. I like Nicole’s Best multipurpose with added xanthan gum, Better Batter’s classic blend, Vitacost multi gf blend with added xanthan gum, and Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 with an extra 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum added because it doesn’t have enough. 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 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 use 1 full teaspoon ground cinnamon for each 3/4 cup of granulated sugar. You should add cinnamon to taste, though. Nutritional information.
Nutritional information is an estimate, per slice based on a loaf cut into 10 slices without the optional cinnamon sugar topping.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
FAQs
No. Although pumpkin pie filling doesn’t have the same consistency or moisture balance as pumpkin puree and won’t work in its place.
Yes! You can make your own pumpkin pie spice. To make just over 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice, in a small bowl, 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. If you are missing any of the component spices, just add more ground cinnamon to round out the 2 teaspoons.
Instead of trying to bake this pumpkin bread batter in a muffin tin, try my recipe for tender, perfectly-spiced gluten free pumpkin muffins.
Yes! You can dust the top of the raw loaf with cinnamon-sugar before baking. You can also add raw pumpkin seeds or flax seeds (as a topping) before for some really nice added texture. Press the seeds down gently on the raw bread first to help them adhere.
Can you make this in mini loaf pans? How would I change it?
When I was recipe testing, I did try making half loaves by just dividing the ingredients in half and reducing the baking time and it worked beautifully, but haven’t tried mini loaf pans, which are really more like muffins, Peggy. I’d think it probably would work, but you’ll have to experiment. You can see in the step by step photos that the loaf pan is a bit more than 2/3 of the way full when the batter is raw, so I’d fill your mini loaf pans about that full and watch the baking time carefully. I hope that helps!
I’m so happy to see an update for this recipe as I was never able to find pumpkin butter. Can’t wait to make this. But here’s a question: do you think that a can labelled pure pumpkin is the same as a can of pumpkin puree?
Hi, Diane, yes, pure pumpkin is the same as pumpkin puree. Sometimes they call it “pure packed pumpkin,” too. As long as it doesn’t have added ingredients, it’s the right thing. I should add that to the FAQs, since that’s a very good question. And honestly, I’m not sure why it took me as long as it did to commit to figuring out a way to make a rich, tender pumpkin bread without pumpkin butter!
Hi, I am wondering if the pumpkin butter is measured in fluid ounces or weight ounces?
Weight ounces are expressed simply as ounces and liquid as “fluid ounces.”
This gf pumpkin loaf is AMAZING! It’s moist, doesn’t crumble and is so tasty and satisfying. I wouldn’t do anything more to it. Thank you for sharing this recipe. Love all your gf recipes.
I’m so glad you love it as much as we do, Darlene! Thank you for sharing that.
I can’t wait to try this pumpkin bread. I just made the pumpkin coffee cake and if I didn’t make it myself and know it was gluten free I wouldn’t have believed it was!! Thanks so much for all these amazing recipes! I’m wondering if the pumpkin butter can be frozen?
Hi, Nancy, I’m so glad you enjoyed the pumpkin coffee cake! That’s a great question about pumpkin butter, and yes! It can be frozen. I recommend freezing it in 4- or 5-ounce portions, specific to whatever recipe you expect to use it in. That way you won’t have to defrost all of it just to use some of it. I wouldn’t refreeze it after it’s been frozen and defrosted. I’ll add that info to the post on pumpkin butter!
Great. I want to make the pumpkin oatmeal cookies yet then I think I’ll take a pumpkin break. Lol. I made the pumpkin bread but I don’t think I baked it quite long enough. The toothpick came out clean but when I cut a slice it seemed underbaked along the bottom. It still tasted amazing!
I have made this pumpkin bread many times. Has always turned out wonderful and my family loves it !
So glad you’ve enjoyed it, Kimberly!
Can I substitute milk with some vinegar for Buttermilk?
I’m afraid that’s not a proper buttermilk replacement, no. But you can easily take the full volume of buttermilk called for in any recipe and substitute, by volume: half plain whole milk yogurt and half milk by volume, or one third sour cream or plain Greek-style yogurt with two-thirds milk. That will give you the right thickness and the right acidity for buttermilk.
I’ve just made my third batch of this recipe! It’s wonderful! I’ve made it plain, with mini chocolate chips and pecans and with fresh cranberries and walnuts. I made it in my stand mixer starting with the butter and eggs. I just beat the heck out of it til the butter was in tiny lumps floating in the egg. Then I added the rest of the wet ingredients and added the dry ingredients at the end and ran the mixer on low just til it was all barely incorporated. It’s a really nice loaf and exactly what I’m after this time of year. Thanks Nicole
I’m so glad, Dana, that it hits the spot for you and your family! Your additions sound delicious. :)
Can I prep the batter and put it in the fridge overnight, then bake it in the morning? Thank you!
I would not recommend that, no, Lina. You never want to let something with chemical leaveners like baking powder and baking soda sit for a long time before baking.
Just made this pumpkin loaf today and all I can say is….I am making a 2nd one tomorrow! This is a beautifully easy and moist loaf and yes for sure use cinnamon/sugar over the top. I used the milk/plain yogurt combo in lieu of buttermilk. Thanks for this wonderful and so tasty loaf….even my somewhat picky son said “this is a keeper”
So glad you agree about the cinnamon-sugar on top, Susan! Once you know, you know. And that’s amazing that it was a win with your son. As much as I try to take the pickiest family member’s tastes in stride, if I’m being honest—I’m always playing to that person, hoping to impress. ?