Full of rich spices and the hearty sweetness of pumpkin, this Vegan Pumpkin Bread is one of my favorites to make during the fall and winter. It pleases everyone at the table, and is naturally egg-free and vegan.
Serve this spiced pumpkin bread at a Holiday Brunch alongside Spiced Pear Cake and Sweet Almond Toasts. If you have an extra loaf, freeze it for later for a quick treat to have on hand.
I suppose everyone has a favorite pumpkin bread recipe, right? If you don’t, you need to try this one.
This Vegan Pumpkin Bread needs no adornment. It’s moist, flavorful, and perfectly captures the tastes of fall. I’ve been making for over 20 years, and it doesn’t really need much messying with.
Why Make This
It’s egg-free and vegan. Using flax seed as a substitute for eggs works wonderfully this way if you want to eliminate eggs, to enjoy more heart-healthy flax in your diet, or to serve to vegan eaters.
It freezes beautifully. If I’m really going to bake myself happy, I bake two batches of this. At least one loaf to eat fresh out of the oven and three to cool and freeze. I love being able to pull a loaf of this Vegan Pumpkin Bread from the freezer for a yummy breakfast, snack, or dessert.
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to bake vegan pumpkin bread:
flax seed meal – I use flaxseed meal as an egg substitute whenever I’m baking without eggs. It works really well. It’s fairly affordable and a bag lasts a long time.
water – You’ll need water to rehydrate the flaxseed meal for the egg substitute.
sugar – For a truly vegan pumpkin bread, be sure to use a vegan sugar. I usually buy Zulka brand at ALDI or Walmart where it’s very affordable. This is a sweet bread. Read the comments if you’d like to reduce the sugar.
neutral oil – A neutral oil is one that doesn’t impart a lot of flavor to the recipe. I like to use avocado oil, but you can also use something like sunflower or canola.
pumpkin puree – Pumpkin puree that comes in a can is often labeled 100% or pure pumpkin. Be sure NOT to use pumpkin pie filling. If you like, you can make your own pumpkin puree or use Butternut Squash Puree instead of canned.
flour – I like to use unbleached, all-purpose flour in my baking, but you can use bleached or even whole wheat pastry flour if you’d like a whole grain vegan pumpkin bread.
spices – Ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon complement the pumpkin flavor so well. Don’t leave them out. If you’re in a pinch, you can use one or two or substitute pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice.
leavening – Salt, baking powder, and baking soda are all needed for this recipe. Don’t omit them.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Prep step: Preheat the oven to 350 °. Grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray or line them with parchment paper.
1. Make your flaxseed “egg”. In a small mixing bowl combine the flax seed meal and water. Allow this to set.
2. Mix the dry ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.
3. Prep the wet ingredients. In another mixing bowl, combine the oil and sugar. Beat until well combined.
4. Add the flaxseed mixture and the pumpkin puree to the oil and sugar mixture. Stir well to combine.
5. Add the dry mixture to the pumpkin mixture in the bowl. Fold gently until all the ingredients are incorporated.
6. Divide the batter into the two prepared pans and bake 50 to 60 minutes or until a tester inserted comes out with a few crumbs attached.
Remove from the pans and cool on racks. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Store the bread in an airtight container for about 5 days. Freeze for longer storage.
Freezing Instructions
Just wrap cooled loaves of vegan pumpkin bread in plastic wrap and then place in a ziptop freezer bag in the freezer for up to 3 minutes. Thaw at room temperature, in its wrappings.
FAQs
This bread will be good at room temperature for about 5 days, stored in an airtight container. Refrigerate in hot weather. Freeze for longer storage.
There are so many ways to dress up this vegan pumpkin bread. Feel free to stir in raisins, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, or chopped nuts. You can also add a Nutty Streusel Topping to the bread prior to baking if you like. Or glaze it with a powdered sugar glaze after its cooled.
Though it does bake for almost an hour, pumpkin bread is called a quick bread because it doesn’t have yeast. Most yeast breads need to rise for several hours before they even get to the oven.
Recipe Costs
Knowing how much it costs you to prepare a recipe can help you decide if it’s the type of recipe to make regularly or one you might want to save for special occasions. Let’s crunch some numbers and see how this recipe pencils out.
- flaxseed meal – $0.12
- sugar – $0.22
- oil – $0.32
- pumpkin puree – $0.98
- flour – 0.45
- spices – $0.10
- baking soda – $0.02
- salt – $0.01
- baking powder – $0.02
While your mileage may vary depending on where and how you shop, you can expect to pay about $2.24 for this batch of vegan pumpkin bread or $1.12 /loaf.
How to Save More
You know I don’t typically want to make something if I can’t make it good as well as cheap. Here are some of the strategies you can use to make this recipe more economical:
- Bake it yourself from scratch – Don’t buy mixes. Don’t buy pricey vegan pumpkin bread from the bakery. You can make your own better and cheaper at home!
- Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale. When I find regular kitchen staples on sale, I buy a lot. I’m currently using a price book to track prices and that’s saving me money. For this recipe, keeping an eye on the price of flour and pumpkin can help keep the price down. When it’s the holidays I like to stock up on pumpkin when I see it!
- Buying in bulk – It’s rare that I would buy small bags of flour. I also have gotten into the habit of buying cases of flour from Bob’s Red Mill or VitaCost so that I always have baking supplies on hand.
Recommended Pumpkin Recipes
Vegan Pumpkin Bread Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp flax seed meal
- 9 tbsp water
- 2 cup unrefined cane sugar like Zulka
- 1 cup neutral oil
- 2 cup pumpkin puree or one 15-ounce can
- 3 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °. Grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a small mixing bowl combine the flax seed meal and water. Allow to set.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.
- In a large mixing bowl beat together the sugar and oil.
- Mix in the flax mixture and pumpkin.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and fold gently to combine.
- Divide the batter equally between the two loaf pans. Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a tester comes out clean. Transfer the pans to a cooling rack; cool 10 minutes. Loosen loaves from edges of pan. Turn onto racks and cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published September 29, 2010. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Gen
If I do want to use egg instead of the flax seed, how many would I need?
Thanks!
Jessica Fisher
Great question. If you prefer to use eggs instead of flax seed meal, use three whole eggs. Omit the water and flax.
anna
It’s that time of the year- pumpkin everything. I’ve been missing it (here in Mali), although there are some pumpkins that should be ripe before Thanksgiving. Thanks to friends back home, I’ve gotten some Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Butter and some Starbucks Via Pumpkin Latte mix.
I have my favorite Pumpkin Bread recipe, too, and I do add chocolate chips to it. I made peanut butter chocolate swirl brownies yesterday, and I was thinking that I could sub the peanut butter with pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice instead.
Jessica Fisher
Sounds yummy!
Lisa
Can I use less sugar or substitute it? It seems like ALOT for 2 loaves…
Jessica Fisher
It’s actually a pretty typical amount of sugar, but I often reduce sugar in baking.
Mandy
Have you tried substituting whole wheat pastry flour or whole wheat flour for any of the white flour?
Jessica Fisher
Yes, I usually do half and half.
Cherish
Oh my goodness, YUM! Cute pans.
Mara ~ Kosher on a Budget
Cute pans! I can totally see it as a stage coach. Good thinking.
I am needing a new pumpkin bread recipe, so I’m excited to have so many to choose from.
Cara
Pumpkin is my favorite! I’m a little slow linking up this week. Thanks so much for hosting so I can find some additional pumpkin recipes to satisfy my cravings this fall!
Tarrah Dame
Im loving this pan! I want it!
http://damegoodeats.blogspot.com
MNGal
Hands down, this was the best recipe I’ve ever had! I did feel it was too sweet (I know you said it’s typical of this bread recipe), so I plan to cut the sugar in half. I also used half brown sugar and half regular sugar, which I felt helped with the taste – but perhaps also made it too sweet. I will definitely make this again!
Jessica Fisher
You will love our Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Maple Glaze. It’s the opposite end of sweetness (for a cake). LOL. Thanks for taking the time to leave a review!