Healthy Pumpkin Bread
- By Amy Dong
- Updated Oct. 25, 2023
This is the most moist and delicious healthy pumpkin bread you’ll bake and eat. This pumpkin bread recipe is made with pure honey, plenty of real pumpkin, and whole grain. You’ve got to try it to believe how good it is.
In This Article
This post may contain affiliate links, at no additional cost to you.
Why This Recipe Stands Out
- Moisture: This bread is extremely moist and tender, never dry.
- No Refined Sugar: We use only pure honey to sweeten this healthy pumpkin bread.
- Dairy-Free: Olive oil is used instead of butter, and apple cider juice is used in lieu of milk.
- Whole Grain: White-whole-wheat flour provides whole grain goodness that remains tender when baked.
- Delicious Flavors: This pumpkin bread is teeming with your favorite fall spices and plenty of pure pumpkin.
- Family Favorite: Your family will come running to the aromas of this pumpkin bread baking in your kitchen.
Key Ingredients
- Pumpkin: you’ll have the chance to use a whole cup of pure pumpkin puree.
- Honey: use raw unfiltered honey for a wholesome sweetener.
- Oil: use extra virgin olive oil for nutrition and moisture.
- Apple Cider: be sure you’re using apple cider juice, not vinegar.
- Extract: pure vanilla extract provides a wonderful aroma to this bread.
- Eggs: these are the binding agents, as well as providers of protein and nutrition.
- Dry Ingredients: white whole wheat flour provides the whole grains, without compromising on tenderness. Baking soda and salt are added to this mixture.
- Spices: plenty of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves bring out the big fall flavors in this beautiful pumpkin bread.
Substitutions and Variations
Flour: You can use regular whole wheat instead of the white-whole-wheat, though regular whole wheat will result in a slightly more grainy bread. You can also just use all-purpose flour as well.
Oil: We love baking with olive oil, as it is a super healthy oil and does not impart any olive flavors. However, you can use melted coconut oil or canola oil as well.
Eggs: If you’d like, you can replace the eggs with flax eggs. The texture will likely be a bit different from original.
Sweetener: Feel free to use maple syrup or agave syrup, in place of the honey. You can also use a mixture of sweeteners.
Add-Ins: Your favorite add-ins would go well in this healthy pumpkin bread. Toasted chopped nuts, chocolate chips, chopped apples, or cranberries are great ideas.
Toppings: Feel free to use a simple icing like we use for Pumpkin Coffee Cake or make a cream cheese frosting to drizzle over the bread. We also love 4-Ingredient Salted Caramel Sauce as a decadent drizzle over any quick bread. Lastly, a crispy streusel like we use in this Streusel Pumpkin Pie Recipe is simply amazing.
Step-By-Step Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin honey, oil, cider, vanilla, and eggs until fully incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, use hand whisk to fully combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
- Use rubber spatula to gently fold flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture, just until no dry flour streaks remain. Do not over-mix.
- Use rubber spatula to transfer mixture into prepared loaf pan. Even out the top so that corners are filled. If desired, sprinkle top evenly with turbinado sugar and bake 45-50 minutes or just until toothpick inserted into center comes out with a few tender crumbs attached.
Prep-Ahead Tips
Spices: The spice mixture of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves can be combined weeks ahead of time and kept in the pantry until ready to use.
Dry Ingredients: The dry ingredients, including flour, baking soda, salt, and spices can all be whisked and combined together several days in advance.
Freeze: Baked loaves can be cooled to room temperature and wrapped airtight. Then, freeze loaves for up to 1 month.
Tips for Super Moist Results
Too many healthy pumpkin breads turn out dry, crumbly, or bland. That’s not the type of “treat” we want to eat. Here’s what we do to bake up loaves of healthy pumpkin bread that’s actually moist and tender and full of fall flavors:
- We use a mixture of raw unfiltered honey and extra-virgin olive oil. Your bread won’t taste olive-y. It’ll just have the benefits of olive oil, which includes a tender crumb.
- In lieu of milk or sour cream, we use apple cider. There’s definitely a difference in taste between apple juice vs. apple cider, so be sure you’re using apple cider for best flavor.
- Opt for white whole wheat flour for tender whole grains. You can certainly use regular whole wheat flour, if you don’t mind a slightly more grainy texture.
Commonly Asked Questions
You can certainly use 1:1 substitute gluten free baking flour, as long as you’re aware that the final texture will probably vary from original.
You can use flax eggs instead of the eggs for this bread. Final texture will vary a bit from the original recipe. You can also try our Vegan Pumpkin Bread, which is super moist and tender.
You can increase the fiber by adding a tablespoon of flax to the batter, or by adding nuts and dried fruits to the bread.
Fresh pumpkin puree can certainly be used. Just be sure to drain out as much excess moisture from the puree before using it.
This healthy pumpkin bread can be kept in an airtight container at mild room temperature for up to 3 days. After that, you can freeze the bread.
Wrap completely cooled pumpkin bread airtight and freeze it up to 1 month.
You can add your favorite toasted chopped nuts, shredded toasted coconut, diced apples, cranberries, or chocolate chips into pumpkin bread.
Aslo Try this One-Bowl apple cake
Did you make this?
Please give us a rating and comment below. We love hearing from you!
Healthy Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup pure pumpkin puree
- ½ cup pure honey
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup apple cider, see notes
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 ¾ white whole wheat flour, see notes
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp table salt
- 1 TB turbinado raw cane sugar, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F with rack on lower middle position. Grease a nonstick 9×5 loaf pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin honey, oil, cider, vanilla, and eggs until fully incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, use hand whisk to fully combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Use rubber spatula to gently fold flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Batter should be rather thin, so you only need to fold a few times just until no dry flour streaks remain.
- Use rubber spatula to transfer mixture into prepared loaf pan. Even out the top so that corners are filled. If desired, sprinkle top evenly with turbinado sugar and bake 45-50 minutes or just until toothpick inserted into center comes out with a few tender crumbs attached. Do not wait until toothpick is fully dry/clean, as it's often overdone by then.
- If desired, sprinkle extra turbinado sugar over top of freshly baked pumpkin bread and let cool completely in pan at room temp. Once cooled, run thin knife carefully around edges to loosen and lift bread.
Notes
- You’ll get more accurate flour measuring results by using scoop-scrape method: Gently scoop flour into measuring cup and use flat end of a knife to scrape off excess flour off the top. This requires that you have flat measuring cups without rims. Never tap down or pack down when measuring flour.
- If you prefer to use regular whole wheat flour, that is fine; bread will have a bit more of a grainy texture.
- Use sweet apple cider (the juice) and not vinegar. Unfiltered apple cider has more flavor than regular apple juice.
- Olive oil works great for baking and does not impart any olive flavors. However, you can also use melted coconut oil or canola oil instead of olive oil.
- If you enjoyed this recipe, please come back and give it a rating. We ❤️ hearing from you!
Nutrition (per serving)
More to Bake and Eat
- Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies – these are the ultimate fall cookies.
- Pumpkin Coffee Cake – this is forever popular with friends and family.
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Dip – try this dip with apple slices and gingersnaps.
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread – a dose of chocolate amps up this wonderfully moist pumpkin bread.
- Pumpkin Pasties (Hand Pies) – if you have any Harry Potter fans, this is a must-try.
- Vegan Pumpkin Bread, Super Tender – if you want a vegan version, this one is fantastic.