This moist, flavorful pumpkin bread makes a great holiday gift, and no one will suspect it’s vegan and oil-free.
Reading other food blogs over the past couple of weeks has made me think a little about how being vegan has influenced my gift-giving. While lots of cooks, vegetarian and non-vegetarian alike, merrily bake and pack up goodies to give as gifts, I’ve become a little hesitant about giving gifts of food.
It’s not that I don’t think that vegan food can be as tasty as non-vegan—I’ve had plenty of people ask me for recipes, not even realizing that the dish in question was vegan. It’s just that being vegan has made me see that we all have different food preferences, restrictions, and needs and that what might be a treat for me could be a disappointing reminder of something they can’t eat to people who have, for instance, diabetes or celiac disease. I’ve been on the receiving end of many gifts of goodies that I don’t eat, and while I’m happy to pass them along to someone who will appreciate them, I would hate to give a gift that resulted in someone else being disappointed.
On the other hand, there’s just something about a homemade gift of food that is so much more personal than anything you can buy. So, when I saw these cute ceramic loaf pans at Michael’s, I decided to put my concerns aside and make little loaves of pumpkin bread, one of my favorite recipes, for my daughter’s teachers and bus driver. I put them into baskets, along with a few Lindt Excellence Dark Chocolate Squares* and some candy canes.
I’m just going to hope that none of the recipients are following low-carb, gluten-free, or sugar-free diets or are allergic to pecans or pumpkin. But I figure that even if they have to pass the edibles along to someone else, at least they’ll have the little loaf pan and basket to enjoy or re-use .
I’m sorry I don’t have a gluten-free version, but if any of you gluten-free bakers out there have any suggestions, I’d love to give them a try.
Be sure to check out all of my vegan pumpkin recipes.
Pumpkin Spice Bread
Ingredients
Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- 1/2 cup apple sauce (you can use half canola oil if you want)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed well with 4 tablespoons water
Dry ingredients:
- 1 2/3 cups unbleached white flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4-1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly oil 1 regular sized loaf pan or 4 small ( approximately 3 1/2 X 5 1/2-inch) loaf pans or a dozen muffin cups. (Or use silicon pans or cups.)
- Combine the wet ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl and blend well. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add the liquid mixture to the dry, and stir well. Stir in the nuts, if desired. Pour the batter into the pan(s) and place on the center rack of oven. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean–about 15 minutes for muffins, 35 minutes for small loaf pans, and 60-70 minutes for one large loaf. Allow to cool before removing from pan. Makes 8 servings.
Notes
Nutritional info is approximate.
* Lindt Excellence chocolate is non-dairy, though made on equipment used to process products containing milk.
Maria M Triana
October 11, 2012 at 1:40 pmHi fatfreevegan, my name is Maria. This is an amazing recipe. I love all your recipes so much that I added this one to my blog, but giving the link to here, as the original source, as I always do with everything I publish. Thank you very much for your time and kind consideration.
Kristen
November 25, 2012 at 2:10 pmI do a lot of gluten free baking. I substitute the flour cup for cup with Gluten Free Pantry’s French Bread mix in most recipes. They seem to turn out pretty well and I think it would work great in your pumpkin bread 🙂
cherry
January 11, 2013 at 1:49 pmThank you so much for this exciting blog and vegan recipes. I have been sitting for hours reading your recipes and want to try them all.
I have just dicovered your blog recently and I am so eager to try ALL your recipes.
I am trying very hard to change my eating habits and to show my family how delicious vegan cooking can be.
As I cannot find canned pumpkin here in Germany, how many cups pumpkin is one can?
Thank you so much for sharing so generously these wonderful recipes.
Annie
September 8, 2013 at 8:28 amI was so excited to make this as muffins for a birthday breakfast, but they just didn’t turn out. They completely lost form and turned into a gooey mess once outside of the pan. I’m an experienced baker (though not with vegan baking) and I don’t know what went wrong. It was almost like there was far too much liquid listed for the amount of dry ingredients. I ended up tossing them (and the time) in the trash.
Susan Voisin
September 8, 2013 at 8:53 amAnnie, I’m so sorry the recipe didn’t work for you! Could it be that you used a whole can of pumpkin instead of just a cup? Or did you use fresh pumpkin instead of canned? I’ve never had it turn out like that, so I think there must be some simple explanation.
Andrea
November 23, 2013 at 7:51 pmI doubled this recipe with the substitutions below (mostly to reduce oil and sugar used) and it came out delicious! Love a good solid recipe that can be modified a bit for taste and still come out great 🙂
Doubled all ingredients with following changes:
1/4 cup oil total
1 1/4 cups water total
1 cup sugar total
No ginger or cloves (didn’t have in pantry)
1/2 teaspoon allspice
3 tablespoons ground Flax Seed instead of Ener-G Egg Replacer
1/4 cup raisins
Thank you for such a terrific web site – this is my first time commenting but I’ve visited the site and used several of your recipes, all winners!
Andrea
Esther J
December 6, 2014 at 1:48 pmOh, wow, this recipe was great! I made it into muffins for an elderly neighbor and I was a little reluctant to give them to him. 😉
Actually, not really. (Oil and sugar will need to wait until the next special occasion for me.) I made them with muscovado and brown sugars (but only 2/3 cup total for *half* of the recipe) and I also sub’d half of the apple sauce with melted coconut oil and threw in some walnut pieces.
Ample sweet and moist.
Thanks, Susan!
Chery
October 16, 2015 at 7:36 pm1.5 cups sugar is really too much. Why avoid the natural fat in coconut milk while consuming so much sugar? Isn’t this just as unhealthy, if not more, than 1.5 cups of fat?
hillary
October 1, 2017 at 3:08 pmSugar has 0 fat
Christine
October 30, 2015 at 1:28 pmI just wanted to let you know that I have been making this for quite a number of years now, and it’s my go to for fall/winter holiday gatherings. I just brought it again for my work Halloween party and it was the only thing that completely went! So many compliments on it – kudos to you!
Christina
November 18, 2015 at 12:00 pmOh my goodness! I have never really left a comment on anything before but I felt the need to say that these are seriously the best muffins I have ever made in my life! I have honestly never had a better taste in my mouth, even before I was vegan! I am also allergic to gluten and all I did was substitute the wheat flour for the same amount of brown rice flower… I would have used gluten free all purpose flour if I had remembered I had it, but the muffins still came out SO fluffy, moist, and absolutely DELICIOUS! I used the applesauce, added a few generous shakes of pumpkin pie spice, and I am IN LOVE! I also added cacao nibs, which on their own I am not a very big fan of, but in this recipe, they taste EXACTLY like chocolate chips! I cannot wait to try the rest of your recipes, they all look amazing. Thank you so much for this recipe, definitely making these for Thanksgiving!
Cheryl
December 23, 2015 at 11:26 amI made this bread for a cookie exchange. It was sooooo good and a big hit. Thank you so much for keeping up the web site. It is so helpful with my quest to become 100% fat free vegan. It is a work in progress.
Stacy
December 23, 2015 at 12:46 pmI eat gluten free and have made this recipe using Cup 4 Cup gluten free flour. It’s fabulous! And seriously, you just sub the Cup4Cup for whatever flour any recipe calls for. No one can tell the difference. One of my daughters is a professional baker and they use Cup4Cup in their bakery.
Stephen Timmons
March 30, 2016 at 7:17 amI notice nutritional info does not list any sugar yet my there is sugar in recipe. Please advise. Recipe looks great.
hillary
October 1, 2017 at 9:59 amMan I just cannot get the large loaf to bake through! I’ve made two attempts, the first pretty much following the directions and baking for 70 min. The second attempt I baked a little higher temp 360, and 80 min, and at that point I turned off the oven but left the bread in there to cool so it would stay hot longer. It’s kind of strange because its like the whole bottom of the bread is what doesn’t get done, about 1 1/2 in up from the bottom through the whole loaf. So sad because the flavor and texture of the part that is done is amazzzinggg Anyone have any tips?
hillary
October 1, 2017 at 3:10 pmI think I identified my mistake!!! I was adding 1 CAN (15 oz) of pumpkin, when skimming I didn’t see it says 1 CUP! I made it again, but this time I ran out of PAM so couldn’t make it in a big loaf, used cupcake liners to make muffins and they are 5 stars for sure!!! Thank you!
Susan Voisin
October 1, 2017 at 5:10 pmI’m so glad you figured out the problem! I admire how you stuck with the recipe even after it wasn’t successful at first. Thanks for coming back and letting me know.
val Anderson
December 11, 2017 at 1:42 pmHi there I would love to make this but unsure of where to get canned pumpkin – would pumpkin soup suffice. I am in New Zealand
SFerd
December 17, 2020 at 2:21 pmVal–unfortunately, pumpkin soup won’t work.
We lived in NZ 2006-2010. I would have my mother mail me cans (tins) of pumpkin. There’s no real substitute. I had a friend from the EU ask me once: “why are all the Yanks obsessed with tinned pumpkin?”
Your question brought such a smile to my face! Kia Ora!
Karle
December 23, 2017 at 4:48 pmI made four small loaves of Pumpkin Spice Bread. I taste tested one of them, delicious. The rest are going to my neighbors. Thanks so much for this moist tasty bread recipe. I’m making a large loaf later today.
Cherie
December 31, 2017 at 12:56 amI made this recipe. The ener-g-replacer I dissolved in water as directed but it still leaves little balls , I stirred wet ingredients but could see them throughout the batter so I decided to blend in vitamix. I baked the loaves in little pans and they are a little gooey. I am thinking maybe this was because I blended the wet ingredients. I am not sure if the texture of the ener-g-replacer was normal. Any feedback would be helpful.