We had a great pumpkin harvest this past fall. Little by little we have been making our own pumpkin puree to use and freeze. Consequently, pumpkin is our not-so-secret ingredient in everything these days. We have really become pumpkin connoisseurs.
We cooked up our second-to-last pumpkin last week. At 70+ lbs, it yielded around 4.5 gallons of pumpkin puree. We froze some, but most of it we ate in the form of pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin soup, pumpkin custard, and pumpkin pancakes. Believe it or not, we aren’t even tired of pumpkin.
I use the same recipe for pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins, which was great when I made three triple batches the other day. Otherwise, I would have run out of bread pans or muffin tins. For the record, three triple batches made 6 regular loaves, 3 medium loaves, 12 muffins, and 24 mini-muffins.
Pumpkin Bread or Muffins (single batch)
I rarely bake a single batch. I usually triple the recipe because we have no shortage of pumpkin (or pumpkin bread lovers). I love that this recipe doesn’t need oil!
- 1 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cup flour (I use wheat flour, but white would be fine)
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (I just add a dash of a few of the following: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, or whatever happens to be in my spice cupboard)
Mix together pumpkin, eggs, and sugar until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins or bread pans with shortening rather than using a spray. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until muffin tops spring back when touched. Bake bread for 45-60 minutes, depending on the thickness of your bread and size of your pan. The touch test is my favorite indicator of done-ness, but you could see if a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, if that’s more your style.
Cool in pan for a minute. Loosen the bread from the pan by sliding a spatula between the bread and sides of the pan. Let cool on wire rack. Enjoy!
I love freezing pumpkin bread and muffins. To freeze, wrap each completely cooled loaf in plastic wrap. Then, I place the loaves in freezer Ziplock bags (which, you may have noticed, I reuse).
Pumpkin bread is the perfect breakfast for our family. The kids LOVE it because it’s yummy (and it’s not oatmeal) and I love it because it requires zero preparation (except maybe taking a loaf out of the freezer). It’s perfect for school lunches and after-school snacks. There really isn’t a bad time for this moist pumpkin treat.
- 1⅓ cup pumpkin puree
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1½ cup flour (I use wheat flour, but white would be fine)
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
- Mix together pumpkin, eggs, and sugar until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until combined.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins or bread pans with shortening rather than using a spray.
- Fill muffin cups ¾ full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until muffin tops spring back when touched. Bake bread for 45-60 minutes, depending on the thickness of your bread and size of your pan.
- The touch test is my favorite indicator of done-ness, but you could see if a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, if that's more your style.
- Cool in pan for a minute. Loosen the bread from the pan by sliding a spatula between the bread and sides of the pan. Let cool on wire rack.
This looks scrummy! I wish I had thought to be more creative with pumpkin – I bought lots on offer and made many batches of pumpkin soup which I later froze. But this look way tastier. Hats off to you for making your own puree!
That’s great that you made enough soup to freeze! Baking with pumpkin is my favorite way to use it. Next fall you can try your own puree too 🙂
Oh my! These look delicious! I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Mmm . . . this looks delicious. I will definitely be trying this at home. We are also in the same SITS tribe. I look forward to getting to know you and your blog.
Mouth is watering! I really need to go eat lunch now, this made me so hungry!
Wow! I can’t wait to try your recipe. My daughters love pumkpkin bread for breakfast along with yogurt or a glass of milk for some added protein. My favorite recipe calls for quite a bit of oil, so I am excited to try one without any. I had a question about the recipe. Is there a reason that you specify to not use spray? Is it just preference or do the muffins/bread maybe stick since there is no oil in the recipe?
Thanks!
Hi Amanda! That’s a great question. I don’t think they would stick too much, but greasing the pans by hand (especially muffin tins) just ensures that they get well-coated. Sometimes getting spray evenly on the sides of muffin tins is tricky. It might work just fine for you though. I just wanted to give the tips that have given me the most success 🙂
If you try using Pam or some other spray, come back and tell us how it worked!
I made them last night and they are wonderful! I did go ahead and use a spray, simply because that is what I had on hand. It worked great. The muffins released very easily. Thanks again Stephanie for sharing such a great recipe. It will be my new go-to recipe for pumpkin muffins. It is easier, quicker and healthier than my old recipe. These muffins also have a better texture.
That’s wonderful news Amanda! Thanks for sharing. I’m so glad you liked them and that the spray worked!
Um, that looks really yummy!
I’ve been getting back into the baking mode. It saves so much money and like you said, the ingredients are readable.
It is yummy and moist! I love knowing what is in my food and not having weird preservatives and other fillers. I think most everything you bake or cook from scratch is healthier than the store-bought counterpart.
I absolutely love pumpkin anything. Muffins are never healthy (they are pretty much cake), but at least you use wheat flour!
It’s true that they still have sugar. 🙂 In addition to wheat flour, they don’t have any oil. Making them at home means I can pronounce all the ingredients too.