Craving the perfect fall treat that’s easy to make, gluten-free and dairy-free? This gluten-free pumpkin bread recipe has everything you need for delicious autumn baking. With a blend of warm spices, creamy pumpkin purée, and just the right amount of sweetness from brown sugar, it’s moist, tender, and packed with cozy flavor. Best of all, you probably have everything in your pantry—so let’s get baking!
Fall and baking just go together. So if you're craving something with pumpkin and spices, something easy to make and bake, here's the answer: gluten free pumpkin bread. The ingredients are simple and the results delicious.
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Why You'll Like This Recipe
- Warm spices for fall flavor.
- It's a "quick bread", easy to make with simple ingredients.
- Perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack.
- Freezes for up to 3 months.
- Serve it with this easy maple butter!
Here's another easy gluten-free bread recipe, my Irish Soda Bread. It's not just for St. Patrick's Day!
Recipe Ingredients
- Pumpkin puree: Use pure canned pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling.
- Flour: I tested with King Arthur Measure for Measure GF flour. Other flours may work, I just haven't tried them. If your blend does not have xanthan gum, add ½ a teaspoon to your flour. It helps bind, thicken, and emulsify the batter.
- Baking soda and powder: Both are needed as leavening agents for light fluffy structure.
- Sugar: I went with all light brown sugar for this pumpkin bread, for more flavor and moisture than white sugar.
- Eggs: Large eggs. I have not tested flax eggs for vegan pumpkin bread.
- Oil: Use a healthy neutral oil.
- Vanilla: Use good vanilla extract, the real stuff. Here is the best vanilla and my favorite brand. If you love vanilla, get some of their vanilla paste too.
- Warm spices: Use ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, allspice, ground ginger, and a little ground cloves.
For measurements please see the recipe card. You'll need a 9x5 light metal baking loaf pan.
For another easy baking recipe, try this naturally gluten-free cornbread.
Chef's Tip on Oil: I use Zero Acre Farms and it's terrific for all neutral cooking oil needs. It's fermented from sugarcane plants (isn't that cool?), full of monounsaturated fat, with a high smoke point and a clean taste. Don't use vegetable oil. It's industrially processed and terrible for you. Toss it. We have better options today. This is now my #2 oil along side olive oil.
Substitutions and Variations
- For other oil options, use quality avocado oil or coconut oil melted, or expeller pressed grapeseed oil.
- If you like nuts, add ½ cup - ¾ cup of finely chopped pecans or walnuts to the batter. Fold it in by hand before baking.
- Swap a pumpkin spice blend for the individual spices.
- For coconut sugar, substitute a cup of coconut sugar for the brown sugar, with one note. Coconut sugar looks and tastes a lot like brown sugar, but it doesn't hold as much moisture. This pumpkin bread is super moist, so it should work without becoming dry.
For another homemade baked treat, try this golden gluten-free cornbread.
How to Make Pumpkin Bread
Gluten-Free Baking Tips
This is why gluten-free pumpkin bread is done as it is. Many of these tips are also for general gluten-free baking.
- Gluten-free flours need resting time to hydrate for best results. Don't skip this step.
- Since there is no gluten to toughen the bread from beating, beat it well to aerate and help build structure.
- More leavening is needed to lighten the batter and final result, so I use more baking soda and powder.
- Gluten-free baking often requires a little lower temperature (25°F) and maybe a longer bake time.
- Use a GF flour blend with xanthan gum to bind the ingredients, which is usually the role of gluten in wheat flour.
Chef's Tip: Pumpkin and chocolate chips is a great combination, try this pumpkin cake with chocolate chips sweetened with maple syrup.
Serving Suggestions
Gluten-free pumpkin bread is terrific with a cup of coffee at breakfast or a cup of tea for an afternoon snack. Tuck a wrapped piece into a briefcase or lunch bag. It's a welcome treat pretty much anytime especially in fall.
It's delicious plain but also nice dressed up for dessert with a dollop of softly whipped cream sweetened with a little sugar and vanilla extract. Also nice is a little cream cheese frosting. Serve it at room temperature or warm it up.
How to Freeze Pumpkin Bread
Be sure the pumpkin bread is completely cooled in a wire rack. Wrap and seal in plastic wrap, then in aluminum foil, and then into a freezer bag. This keeps the bread from drying out and avoids freezer burn.
Be sure to label and date the package. Bread freezes well for up to 3 months. To thaw, place overnight in the refrigerator.
Recipe FAQs
The best gluten-free flour blend for pumpkin bread is the one that the recipe creator identifies in the recipe as tested with. There are many differences in gluten-free flour blends. Even when the ingredients look the same or similar, they may provide a different result.
Choose a gluten-free flour blend that has xanthan gum, or add it. It helps with structure, acts as a binder (because gluten is a binder), and helps the moisture of the pumpkin bread batter so your pumpkin bread doesn't crumble. If your blend does not have xanthan gum, add a ¼ teaspoon per cup of flour. It's the secret weapon of GF baking.
Yes, but realize your result when experimenting might be a little different than the original recipe, plus any changes may effect baking times. That being said, you can generally swap coconut sugar, turbinado, demerara or sucanat (coarse brown raw sugars) for brown sugar. To swap maple syrup or agave syrup for sugar, use ⅔ as much.
Another swap, to reduce sugar and carbs is to use either a white granulated monk fruit/allulose blend or the golden monk fruit. Try substituting half and half to start, and if you are happy with that, try all monk fruit.
Pumpkin bread can be stored on the kitchen counter well wrapped for 3 days. If you prefer, it can also be refrigerated. For freezing, wrap in plastic film, then sealed in foil, then into a freezer bag with the air pressed out for up to 3 months.
More Pumpkin Recipes
For more delicious fall recipes with pumpkin, try these pumpkin recipes. From soups to smoothies, pumpkin is for more than dessert!
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📖 Recipe
Gluten-free Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups gluten-free flour blend I used KA Measure for Measure, see notes
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder aluminum free
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground clove
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup canned pumpkin pure (not pie mix) 8.4 ounces
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed 6 ounces
- 1 ½ teaspoons real vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup neutral flavored oil melted coconut oil or MCT oil
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Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 325°F. Spray a 9x5 light metal baking loaf pan.
- Measure out all of the dry ingredients and sift into a medium bowl or onto parchment or waxed paper.
- To a medium bowl add all of the wet ingredients. With an electric hand mixer whip until it's smooth and blended, about 1 minute.
- Add the dry ingredients into the smooth wet batter, start on low and build to high speed beating for 4 minutes. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth it out with a spatula. Bake for 1 hour, until a cake tester or long thin skewer comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs.
- Remove pan from the oven. Run a thin knife or thin metal spatula around the inside of the pan then gently turn the pumpkin bread out onto a wire cooling rack. Allow it to cool completely before slicing. Pumpkin bread lasts 3-4 days well wrapped on the counter or can be refrigerated. for freezing, after completely cooled, wrap in plastic wrap, then in aluminum foil, then place in a freezer zip bag for up to 3 months. Be sure to label and date the bag.
Notes
Nutrition
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