Pumpkin Molasses Bread
You need to make this Pumpkin Molasses Bread for dessert on Thanksgiving this year. Trust me. It’s really easy to whip up (who needs something complicated on Thanksgiving? NO ONE), it’s super delicious, and it totally tastes like Autumn. The deep flavor of molasses brings extra richness to the pumpkin spice flavor and keeps the loaf deliciously moist and tender. Plus this pumpkin spice bread will make your house smell better than any autumn flavored candle, hands down. ;)
Originally posted 11/14/2012, updated 11/5/2021.
Recipe Updates
I made some significant changes to this recipe, since many readers had a difficult time getting their bread to cook all the way through. I reduced the ratio of molasses and other wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and reduced the cooking temperature slightly in order to help the bread bake more evenly. The result is a tender but moist crumb, without any pockets of unbaked batter in the center.
What Kind of Loaf Pan to Use
I used a standard loaf pan, which is 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches. My loaf pan is made of metal, which heats quickly in the oven. You can use a ceramic or glass loaf pan, but you may find that you need to bake your bread slightly longer.
How Do You Know When the Bread is Done?
Ovens can vary a little bit so it’s always best to test your bread to make sure it’s cooked through. There are a couple of different reliable methods.
- The Toothpick Method: insert a clean toothpick into the center of the bread. If the toothpick is coated with raw batter when you pull it out, the bread needs to bake longer. If it just has a few moist crumbs stuck to it, the bread is finished baking.
- An Instant Read Thermometer: The same instant read thermometers used to check the doneness of meat can also be used to check the doneness of quick breads! For quick bread, like this Pumpkin Molasses Bread or Banana Bread, you want the internal temperature to be between 200-205ºF. This is the temperature at which the batter will be set into a nice crumb.
What Kind of Molasses to Use
I used Grandma’s Original Molasses, which is the type you’re most likely to find in most U.S. grocery stores. You can usually find it in grocery stores either near the pancake syrup, jams and jellies, and peanut butter, or in baking aisle. It just depends on the store. I have not tested this recipe using black strap molasses, which has a thicker texture and more pronounced flavor (some would say it’s slightly bitter).
How to Serve Pumpkin Molasses Bread
This rich and sweet bread is absolutely divine with some softened butter smeared over top. The creaminess of the butter perfectly compliments the warm spices and sweet molasses flavor. The flavors in this bread would also be absolutely perfect with a hot cup of coffee. :)
Pumpkin Molasses Bread
Ingredients
- 1 15oz. can pumpkin purée ($0.95)
- 2 large eggs ($0.58)
- 1/3 cup cooking oil ($0.21)
- 1/4 cup molasses ($0.59)
- 3/4 cup sugar ($0.12)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour ($0.14)
- 1 tsp cinnamon ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg ($0.05)
- 1 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 1.5 tsp baking powder ($0.05)
- 1 tsp butter ($0.03)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin purée, eggs, oil, molasses, and sugar.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, and baking powder.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients, and stir them together just until combined. It's okay if there are a few small lumps. Avoid over stirring.
- Coat the inside of a loaf pan with butter. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and spread it out smooth.
- Bake the pumpkin bread for about one hour, or until the internal temperature reaches 200ºF, or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (a few crumbs are okay, just no raw batter stuck to the toothpick).
- Transfer the bread to a wire rack to cool, then slice and serve.
Nutrition
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How to Make Pumpkin Molasses Bread – Step By Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl, whisk together one 15oz. can pumpkin purée, 2 large eggs, ⅓ cup cooking oil, ¼ cup molasses, and ¾ cup sugar.
In a separate bowl, stir together 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tsp salt, and 1.5 tsp baking powder. Make sure they’re very well combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients.
Stir just until they are combined. Avoid over stirring. It’s okay if it’s slightly lumpy.
Use a teaspoon of butter to coat the inside of a loaf pan. transfer the batter to the loaf pan and spread it out smooth.
Bake the pumpkin molasses bread in the preheated 350ºF oven for about one hour, or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 200ºF, or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (a few crumbs are okay, just no raw batter stuck to the toothpick).
Transfer the pumpkin bread to a wire rack to cool. Once cool, slice, serve, and enjoy!
Beth: I would love to make these into muffins. Could you offer some advice or suggestions? I appreciate your advice.
I’d need to test it before offering any concrete advice, but to test it I would just pour the batter into a muffin tin instead of bread pan, bake at the same temperature, and just keep an eye on what the muffins look like. Once they’re domed and probably cracked on top I’d use a toothpick to see if they’re done in the center and go from there. :) If you try it, let me know how it turns out!
I’ve always made this recipe as muffins. I change nothing, really… Just divide the batter between the cups and bake at 350 as specified. Usually takes somewhere around 20 min, but I usually check them with a toothpick for the first time at 16 min to keep from overdoing it. Since I’ve never made it as a loaf, I don’t know if my muffins work out PERFECTLY compared to the original, but they’re pretty darn tasty to me.
Amazing, simple recipe! I made this without having to go grocery shopping. Love that it uses oil instead of butter… saves me from having to have it on hand AND softening it! Delicious. Will be making again. Mine took 10 extra mins in the oven (70 total).
This loaf tastes nice but it didn’t bake up well. I baked it at 350 for an hour and 8 minutes and I tented it with tin foil for the last 8 mins to avoid excessive browning. The bottom and sides are a big tough from baking and the top middle area is still gummy. The spice mixture is nice but I think ultimately this recipe has too much pumpkin in it, I’m Canadian so I googled the conversion and used 1 3/4 cup of pumpkin puree.
I followed the recipe exactly for a quick Thanksgiving breakfast, and it came out perfect!! Not to sweet, and not really pumpkin pie flavored. It’s got a nice pumpkin flavor that went really well with the molasses. Super moist too, I will be making this again!
I hate to give this a low score because it was quite yummy, but I just had to make too many tweaks (using advice from the comments) for this to be a successful recipe. It tastes nice, but I recommend finding a different recipe for pumpkin molasses bread.
Pssst… this comes up as yeast bread. I think it just got sorted into the wrong category. (Looks fantastic, though!)
Thanks Alex! I’ve fixed that :)
I also had to use a small pan and a larger pan to bake all the batter, and thus had to play around with baking times (smaller took 55 minutes, the larger took about 75, checking every 5 minutes). But that said, they are scrumptious! This is exactly what I wanted out of a pumpkin bread – richly spiced flavor; moist, soft texture; and just the right amount of sweet-but-not-too-sweet. If you like molasses cookies, and you like pumpkin bread, this is an excellent hybrid of flavors.
It’s actually a perfect recipie as is ! I only had two smaller loaf pans and it was perfect amount of sweet :)