This recipe makes four mini loaves of pumpkin bread that you can give as holiday gifts. It’s a good quick bread, pumpkin dessert recipe that makes a nice Christmas treat. The combination of spices makes it a traditional holiday bread, and it’s an easy DIY Christmas gift to give to friends and family. You can also use this recipe to make pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin bread is a fall staple for bakers, and this pumpkin bread recipe to make mini loaves for gift-giving is a delicious version. It has a little extra spice in it that makes it irresistible! (I ate almost an entire mini loaf today, so yeah…)
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Supplies you’ll need.
This is a basic quick bread recipe but you’ll need a few spices to make this exact version. I used cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom, which is the ringer for making it taste mysteriously delicious. You can use pumpkin pie spice instead, or add other spices, nuts, or even chocolate chips if you want to fancy it up a little.
You’ll also need a hand mixer or a stand mixer to beat the fats and sugar, and little mini loaf pans. You can get everything you need on Amazon or at a grocery store near you if they sell hand mixers.
Pumpkin Spice Bread Mini Loaves
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
- Put the dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
- Put the butter, eggs, and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with a mixer until it's light and fluffy, stopping to scrape the bowl to make sure everything is combined.
- Add the pumpkin and vanilla to the butter mixture and combine well.
- Add the flour mixture into the butter in three additions, alternating with the milk. Stir with the rubber spatula to combine well.
- If you want to add nuts or chocolate chips, toss them in a little flour and fold into the batter at this point.
- Spray the bottom of the mini pans with cooking spray.
- Fill the pans evenly with the batter.
- Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Cool completely on a wire rack
- Leaving the loaves in the pans, wrap them with plastic wrap, or put in a ziplock baggie and freeze after wrapping them in plastic wrap.
Tips for making the pumpkin bread.
When you measure the flour, either sift it or spoon it into the measuring cup, don’t scoop the flour. Scooping flour from the bag packs it into the measuring cup, and you’ll end up with more flour than you need, which will make your pumpkin bread tougher.
You can use either butter or shortening for this recipe. The butter will give you a softer loaf, and you could also use that version for soft muffins. Shortening will make the loaf a little firmer. If you want to make a totally fat-free pumpkin cake recipe, click here for that.
When you beat the butter and sugar, make sure to give it enough time to get really fluffy, not just mixed up. Beat it for as long as it takes to get a lighter texture, and scrape the bowl every few minutes to make sure that everything is incorporated.
Once the pumpkin is mixed into the butter mixture, switch to hand mixing it to avoid overbeating it. Beating it too much will develop more gluten, which makes the pumpkin bread tougher. Stir it until it’s incorporated but avoid overmixing it.
Let the bread cool off completely before wrapping it up.
For a recipe for pumpkin cinnamon rolls, click here.
How to wrap and store the pumpkin bread.
Wrap it in plastic wrap first, then put it in a gift bag, box, or cellophane to give the loaves as gifts. You can get labels and gift boxes to customize in my Zazzle shop here:
This is a delicious little pumpkin bread recipe…Your friends will be happy to get it, and you can give them this link if they ask for the recipe! If you’re looking for more recipes for holiday gift-giving, click here for a list of Christmas cookies. And here’s a bunch of ideas for packaging food gifts for the holidays.
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Watch the video of me making it here:
