Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread made in one bowl with gluten free flour, brown sugar, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice, topped with a sweet pumpkin spice glaze and ready in under 60 minutes!

For more of my fall go-to recipes, check out these Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins and Gluten Free Pumpkin Streusel Muffins! 

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread has a perfect fluffy texture, and is a one-bowl recipe for a busy morning! It’s basically the fall version of banana bread, but with great pumpkin flavor.

I love serving this quick bread when I have guests over, because everyone can get breakfast as they wake up instead of waiting!

I’ve made this gluten-free pumpkin bread recipe dairy-free, except for the glaze. I make this both with and without the glaze pretty often, so if you’re dairy free just leave it off entirely. 

Ingredients You’ll Need

Gluten Free Flour. I always use a 1:1 gluten free flour, so my recipes are easily translated to regular flour if you’re not gluten free. 

Try to use one of the gluten free cup-for-cup flour blends, because these mostly already have xanthan gum in them. This helps prevent the bread from breaking apart and gives it the perfect texture. My favorite gluten free flour blends are King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill. 

Sugar. A mix of white granulated sugar and brown sugar helps add a sweet flavor, and the brown sugar brings a deeper flavor along with some moisture. If you don’t have brown sugar, you can use all white sugar.

Baking Soda. Baking soda is a key ingredient to help the bread rise. Don’t skip this!

Spices. You can use a store-bought pumpkin pie spice, or you can make it yourself. It’s a lot cheaper to make a jar of it at home and have it all season! I’ve included the ingredients below. 

I also add some kosher salt to balance the sweetness of the bread. 

Eggs. Eggs are a binding agent that helps hold everything together, as well as adding a small amount of moisture and fat. 

If you want to make this bread vegan, replace the eggs with 1/4 cup of applesauce per egg.

Pumpkin Puree. Pumpkin puree is one of the main ingredients for flavor, and also adds moisture to the bread.

It’s also a vegetable, so I feel good about adding this to almost anything!

Vegetable Oil. Vegetable oil adds fat to the bread, giving it a soft moist texture. 

You can replace the vegetable oil with melted unsalted butter, or another 1/2 cup of applesauce if you don’t have oil on hand. 

Unsweetened Applesauce. I like to use applesauce to help cut down on some of the fat. It also adds a lot of moisture to the bread, and a small amount of sweetness from the apples. 

Water. This liquid helps bring everything together. You can also use milk, but I’m keeping the bread itself dairy-free (the glaze is optional if you’re not dairy-free). 

This can also be replaced by a dairy-free milk alternative, like almond milk. 

Vanilla. This adds some flavor to the bread. 

How to Make Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease and flour two bread pans. In a mixing bowl whisk together all dry ingredients until evenly disbursed. 
2. Add all of the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing until everything is totally combined. Use the spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is mixed. 
3. Pour the batter evenly into the two prepared loaf pans. Tent tinfoil over the bread pans, leaving room for the bread to rise. Bake in a preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and the loaf is golden brown.
4. Once done, let the bread cool, then remove them from the pan. Drizzle with glaze and serve. 

How to Make Pumpkin Spice Glaze

The pumpkin spice glaze is optional. Sometimes I make it if I want a nice presentation, like Thanksgiving breakfast. And other times I leave it off.

For the glaze you’ll need these ingredients:

Unsalted Butter. The melted butter gives the glaze some flavor and also some fat to help with texture. 

Confectioner’s Sugar. This is the same thing as powdered sugar, which is basically really fine grain sugar. You can make confectioner’s sugar by putting white sugar into a food processor or coffee grinder. 

This adds sweetness to the glaze and also will harden as it cools. 

Milk. Milk helps thin out the glaze. You can add more or less as needed. 

Vanilla Extract. Vanilla extract adds flavor. You can also add a tablespoon of maple syrup, for more of a maple syrup flavor. 

Pumpkin Pie Spice. This is also for flavor. You can leave this out if you want a classic vanilla sugar glaze. 

To make the glaze, you want to melt the butter in a saucepan, then whisk everything in with it until smooth.

From there, you can drizzle over the bread decoratively. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Make Pumpkin Pie Spice

Just add this blend of spices to a jar, and stir or place the lid on and shake them together!

• 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

More Pumpkin Recipes

• Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake
• Breakfast Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
• Homemade Pumpkin Pie & Streusel Topping
• Easy Pumpkin Pie Dip

Storage

Store this gluten free pumpkin bread at room temperature in an airtight container for 3-4 days. Place a paper towel at the bottom of the container to help absorb any moisture that might accumulate. 

Refrigerate gluten free pumpkin loaf for up to a week in an airtight container.

Freeze pumpkin bread for 2-3 months in an airtight container. Bring to room temperature before eating. 

Recipe Variations

• Add a cup of chocolate chips to the pumpkin bread batter to make a pumpkin chocolate chip bread!
• Add a cup of raisins, dried cranberries, chopped walnuts or pecans for extra crunch or sweetness!
• Add the batter to a muffin pan to make pumpkin muffins instead! Muffins will have a shorter baking time of 15-20 minutes.
• You can make this recipe using a bundt pan! Pour all of the batter into one bundt pan, and increase the cooking time to 50-60 minutes. Check it at the 50 minute mark to avoid over-baking. 
• Add pumpkin seeds decoratively to the top of the bread before baking. 
• Use leftover pumpkin bread to make pumpkin french toast the next morning!
• Instead of the glaze, try mixing 1/4 cup white sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Top the loaves with the cinnamon sugar mixture before baking. You can also try using maple sugar for a different flavor!

Cooking Tips

• Use canned pumpkin puree (or homemade pumpkin puree), not pumpkin pie filling. The pie filling has sugar in it already, and other ingredients that can change the flavor and texture of the bread. If you only have pumpkin pie filling, consider reducing some of the sugar in the recipe. 
• I prefer to grease my loaf pans with butter or nonstick spray, then lightly dust them with flour to prevent the bread from sticking. You can also line them with parchment paper. 
• I like to add an extra teaspoon cinnamon to my bread because I like the flavor, you can replace it with pumpkin pie spice if you want more pumpkin spice flavor.
• Serve warm with soft butter, jam, nut butter, or cream cheese and hot coffee in the morning. 

If you loved this recipe, be sure to leave a 5 Star review below, and tag me with a photo of your finished recipe on Instagram @Jacqui_DishingDelish!

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