Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

This is a moist and beautifully spiced pumpkin bread recipes, known as downeast Maine pumpkin bread made very simply with no mixer, a handful of ingredients, and no pumpkin pie spice necessary. You’ll love this, and make it all season long!

Jump to:

• What’s so good about this Maine pumpkin bread:
• Ingredients you need for this Maine pumpkin bread recipe:
• How to make this recipe:
• Downeast Maine pumpkin bread tips and tricks:
• Great pumpkin bread mix-ins:
• Recipe FAQS:
• How to store leftover pumpkin bread:
• For more easy loaf cake recipes:
• Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

What’s so good about this Maine pumpkin bread:

• It comes together in a couple of bowls, with just a few minutes of mixing. No stand mixer or electric mixer required. It’s such a good basic quick bread recipe to have on hand, that you can embellish with whatever mix-ins and toppings you like. It’s amazing plain too!
• The moisture level is insane. This comes from the pumpkin puree itself, as well as using oil instead of butter. The bread will stay moist for days!
• The amount of sugar is totally balanced. I barely adapted this recipe from Allrecipe’s crazy popular Downeast Maine Pumpkin bread (it has over 10,000 reviews so you know it’s a great recipe). With experimentation, I managed to reduce the amount of sugar so the bread isn’t TOO sweet, but just sweet enough.
• This makes one loaf of a 9×5 inch bread. This is the most commonly used loaf pan size, so you don’t need to buy anything especially for this recipe or do any weird pan conversions.
• You can easily double the recipe, and freeze one loaf of pumpkin bread for later. The bread freezes really well!

Ingredients you need for this Maine pumpkin bread recipe:

Pumpkin puree- out of a can, how simple can it get? I like using Libby’s, but you can use any preferred brand. This is not the same as pumpkin pie filling, which comes already spiced!

Eggs: Try to take them out of the fridge 20-30 minutes before baking to get them at room temperature, so they’ll mix together more easily with the batter.

Vegetable oil: The secret to the moistest pumpkin bread that stays moist day after day.

Water: Just a little for extra moistness

Granulated sugar: Again, I reduced the amount by 1/2 a cup from the original recipe. I think it’s perfectly balanced this way! You could do half white and half brown sugar if you prefer.

Flour

Baking Soda

Salt

Spices: cinnamon powder, nutmeg, ground cloves, ground ginger. I actually love using fresh nutmeg that I grate, adds SO much flavor, but you can also use powdered nutmeg. If you prefer to sub the spice mix with pumpkin pie spice, you absolutely can.

How to make this recipe:

1. Preheat the oven, and get your loaf pan prepped by lightly greasing and lining with parchment paper. I like to leave a little parchment paper overhanging so it’s easy to lift the bread out of the pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until combined.
3. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and barely mix until combined.
5. Pour the pumpkin bread into the prepared tin. Bake for 45-50 min until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Downeast Maine pumpkin bread tips and tricks:

• Don’t over mix once you add the flour to the wet ingredients, or you risk overdeveloping the gluten which will make the bread tough.
• Make sure you don’t take the bread out until the toothpick comes out clean, otherwise it’ll still be gummy in the center.
• To make a perfect crack down the center of the loaf, dip a butter knife in some vegetable oil or melted butter, and score down the center of the loaf. As it bakes, it’ll crack around the fat and give you a picture perfect loaf.
• Double the recipe to use the whole can of pumpkin puree, or you can freeze the pumpkin puree and use it in any recipe in the future!
• Eat a slice warm, with some butter spread on top. YUM.

Great pumpkin bread mix-ins:

• Try adding some chocolate chips. It’ll be so good! About 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or milk, or butterscotch chips) will pair really beautifully with this loaf.
• Add 1/2 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts. Nuts and pumpkin are great together.
• Try swirling the top of the pumpkin bread with some Lotus Biscoff spread. The cinnamon flavor of the cookie butter will be delicious.
• You can make an easy maple glaze or streusel to top the Maine pumpkin bread with, similar to this recipe.

Recipe FAQS:

How to store leftover pumpkin bread:

This bread will keep well on the counter for up to 2 days, tightly covered. After that, shift it to the fridge for another 3 days max.

My favorite way to reheat pumpkin bread is to take a slice and put it in the toaster for 30 seconds. It comes out just like fresh!

You can tightly wrap the pumpkin bread, or cut slices and wrap individual slices for easy thawing, and freeze for up to 3 months. Slices will defrost very quickly, a whole loaf may take a couple hours in the fridge or at room temperature.

For more easy loaf cake recipes:

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