Pumpkin Walnut Bread with Maple Glaze

Cozy sweater weather and pumpkin season to me means it is time to make a loaf of pumpkin bread! Based on my pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting, this moist and fluffy pumpkin bread is made in just 1 bowl.

I've topped it with a delicious maple glaze, but you can keep it plain or use my cream cheese frosting if you want to make it extra decadent. This is the same maple glaze I use in my pecan pumpkin muffins, but there I added a little kick of coffee!

You don't need any fancy equipment to make this pumpkin walnut bread, just a bowl (or two if you're making the glaze!) and a whisk. This quick bread is perfect with a hot cup of coffee as an afternoon snack!

If you want even more pumpkin recipes, you have to try this pumpkin pie with graham cracker crust, pumpkin white chocolate chip cookies, and pumpkin muffins with streusel topping.

Ingredients Needed

• Canned Pumpkin: make sure you're using 100% pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling.
• Sugar: I'm using white sugar for this recipe.
• All Purpose Flour: I've only tested this recipe with all purpose flour. If you're based in the UK this is plain flour!
• Spices: I'm adding lots of warm spices here to bump up the pumpkin pie flavor! This includes cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a pinch of black pepper (trust me on this!)
• Walnuts: you can swap these out for pecans if you prefer.
• Oil: use a neutral oil like vegetable oil, sunflower oil or canola oil. You don't want anything with a strong flavor.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions

• Nuts - swap out the walnuts for pecans, mini chocolate chips, or leave them out entirely.
• Fruit - turn this into a pumpkin cranberry bread by swapping out the walnuts for dried cranberries or raisins!
• Spices - swap out cardamom for ground ginger.
• Maple Glaze - don't add the maple glaze and add a cream cheese frosting.

Step by Step Instructions

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350ºFahrenheit. Grease and line a 8.5x4.5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree, sugar, vanilla extract and oil until smooth.

Step 2: Add in all of the dry ingredients - the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Use a rubber spatula to fold until it's smooth.

Step 3: Mix in the chopped walnuts.

Step 4: Pour batter into your prepared loaf pan and bake in the oven for 65-75 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean! Let the bread cool completely in the pan.

Step 5: In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the glaze ingredients. I recommend sifting the confectioners' sugar first so the glaze is smooth!

Step 6: Take the pumpkin bread out of the loaf pan once cool and drizzle the glaze over.

Recipe Tips & Tricks

• Kitchen Scale: I always recommend using a kitchen scale to weigh your ingredients, especially your flour! It is so easy to add to much flour making your pumpkin bread super dry and dense.
• Loaf Pan Size: I'm using a 8.5x4.5-inch loaf pan, not a 9x5-inch loaf pan. I prefer this slightly smaller one because it gives you taller loaves! If you use a 9x5 loaf pan it will need less time in the oven so keep an eye on it. It also won't be as tall.
• Don't Over-mix: use a rubber spatula and not a whisk to mix in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Make sure not to over-mix the batter! Mixing too much will make the bread dense.
• Chopping Walnuts: Make sure the walnuts are in small pieces, if they're too big they might sink to the bottom!
• Foil on Top: If the top of your pumpkin bread is getting too brown you can cover it with aluminum foil!
• Use a Light Metal Pan: I recommend using a light metal pan, if you use one that's dark metal then the outside of the loaf will cook faster and be much darker!
• Muffins: to make a muffin version of this recipe check out my pumpkin muffins with streusel.

What do I do with the leftover canned pumpkin?

This recipe doesn't use a full can of pumpkin puree, so here are a few suggestions on what to do with leftovers!

• Make a pumpkin pie smoothie.
• Bake these pumpkin sour cream muffins.
• Bake up a batch of chewy pumpkin white chocolate chip cookies!
• Have pumpkin spice lattes at home with this pumpkin sauce for your coffee!

Frequently Asked Questions