Healthy Pumpkin Bread
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An easy healthy pumpkin bread recipe made with whole wheat flour and maple syrup. Try a lightened up version of a delicious fall favorite! This post is sponsored by my friends at Bob’s Red Mill.
Healthy Pumpkin Bread is all the things you love about fall wrapped up in a delicious baked good!
This healthy bread is filled with warm fall spices and flavors, real pumpkin puree, and wholesome ingredients that make the most perfect fall treat. This bread has amazing texture and can be served cold or warmed in the oven!
I used whole wheat flour in this recipe rather than bleached white flour because it is a great source of whole grains and much better for you!
It is sweetened only by pumpkin puree and a touch of maple syrup. Many pumpkin bread recipes are loaded with sugar, but this has only 13g of all natural sugar per slice. Instead of using a ton of butter or canola oil, this recipe uses a tiny bit of olive oil to keep it moist. The pumpkin also helps keep the bread moist, which makes it pretty low fat (only 6g of fat per slice).
Enjoy it plain, slather it with pumpkin cream cheese, or have it alongside a Low Sugar Pumpkin Spice Latte.
Liz’s top tips for healthy pumpkin bread
- The best way to tell if your pumpkin bread is done is to stick a toothpick in the center of the bread. If the toothpick comes out clean, the bread is finished cooking. If it has doughy batter stuck to it the bread is likely not finished cooking and needs more time.
- If your pumpkin bread doesn’t rise, it could be because your baking powder or baking soda is old. Make sure to use fresh baking powder and baking soda. You also could’ve added too much liquid or overfilled your pan
- If your pumpkin bread is sinking, it’s probably because you added too much liquid. Make sure the bread is fully cooked before removing it from the oven. Even if the bread has sunk, it probably will still taste good. You could break it apart and turn it into a pumpkin parfait or trifle if you’d like.
- Why is my pumpkin bread so dense? Your pumpkin bread might be dense from over mixing or using the wrong ratio of dry and wet ingredients.
Ingredients
substitutions
Olive Oil: You can substitute olive oil with melted coconut oil or melted butter.
Egg: We have not tried this recipe with a flax egg so I don’t know how it would work.
Maple Syrup: You can sub maple syrup for honey in this recipe. We don’t recommend using any of the fake ‘zero sugar’ sweetener alternatives.
Pumpkin: If you’re out of pumpkin, you can use mashed banana. You could also make these Healthy Banana Muffins!
Whole Wheat Flour/Gluten Free: You can substitute gluten-free oat flour or homemade oat flour for whole wheat flour 1:1. Almond flour and coconut flour can never be substituted for whole wheat flour 1:1. We don’t recommend trying it.
Spices: You can use 3.5 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice in these muffins. If you do not have nutmeg or cloves, just add a little bit more cinnamon/ginger.
Mix ins: I like adding chocolate chips. Chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts) or cranberries would be great add ins! You can top this with some greek yogurt and pumpkin pie spice for a high protein option!
Vegan: I have not tried making this bread vegan, but you might be able to substitute the eggs with flax eggs.
Muffins: I would recommend following this Healthy Pumpkin Muffins Recipe.
If you have any questions about substitutions, leave a comment below- I will do my best to help you!
We love baking with Bob’s Red Mill! Whether it’s their Oat Flour, or Organic Whole Wheat Flour – we use their products in some of our favorite treats.
From Healthy Blueberry Muffins, to Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal or Healthy Zucchini Bread we always choose Bob’s Red Mill for baking!
The Organic Whole Wheat Flour is my favorite because it makes the perfect light, fluffy baked goods, while adding a little bit of extra nutrition. It’s 100% stone ground from hard red wheat, with all of the nutritious bran and germ still intact.
If you’re gluten free or can’t eat wheat, don’t worry! You can also use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oat Flour in place of whole wheat flour.
How to make healthy pumpkin bread
- Whisk together olive oil, egg, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and pumpkin puree in a large bowl.
- Stir in dry ingredients (flour, spices, baking powder, and baking soda).
- Pour pumpkin bread batter into a greased 8×4 loaf pan.
- Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the bread.
Serving Suggestions
This pumpkin bread is delicious on its own but I love spreading peanut butter or pumpkin cream cheese on top. You can also whisk together greek yogurt and pumpkin pie spice for a delicious creamy topping with some added protein!
It’s great for breakfast or a snack paired alongside a Pumpkin Spice Latte and a slice of Potato Crust Quiche.
Storage Options
How long will this healthy bread last? This low fat pumpkin bread won’t last long in your house. I love to snack on it with a Pumpkin Spice Latte or Vanilla Latte!
Storing Pumpkin Bread: You can store this bread covered on your counter for up to 3 days, but I recommend keeping it in the refrigerator in an airtight container for freshness!
It will last up to a week in the refrigerator – but will lose its freshness after about 3 days on the counter.
Can you freeze pumpkin bread? Yes, you can freeze this pumpkin bread! Put it in an airtight container or ziploc bag. To defrost, leave out the night before in the fridge and they will thaw out. Or – just pop in the microwave for 1-2 minutes!
Other healthy pumpkin recipes we love:
We love healthy pumpkin recipes so much that we created a Free Fall Ebook with over 15 pumpkin and apple recipes. Here are some of our favorite healthy pumpkin recipes:
Healthy Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 egg room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1.5 cups Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour OR oat flour
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a greased 8×4 loaf pan. You can grease the pan with baking spray, olive oil, coconut oil, or butter.
- In a bowl, whisk together olive oil, egg, vanilla extract, maple syrup and pumpkin puree.
- Stir in flour, spices, baking powder and baking soda and mix together.
- Pour batter into a greased 8×4 loaf pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the bread. Let the bread rest for about an hour, slice 1 inch thick pieces, serve and enjoy!
I tried to pin this recipe for later, and the following came up on my Pinterest:
“You don’t have permission to create content for this domain. To use this domain, you must first verify domain ownership in your business settings.”
Thanks for your help!
I’m sorry but I have no idea why it would say that. Did you use the pin button at the top of the page? No one else has reported this, but I’d love to see if I can help!
Yes, I used both pin buttons. I also tried to pin a recipe from another site where I’ve been able to do so before, but now I can’t. It must be something with my computer or browser or? Thanks for your reply!
It seems to be a sitewide issue. I and many others are also having this issue today, it’s not just you.
Are you having this issue on other website or only my own? How are you trying to pin? using the button at the top of the page? In the recipe card? Or using the pin button on your browser. I’d really like to get to the bottom of this!
Hi Liz, I was able to pin the recipe today. I had read that if too many pins per day are posted by someone, you can’t post more until the next day. Apparently, there is a limit on number of pins that can be pinned by individuals. I don’t recall posting too many, but some sites have multiply recipes that can be pinned as a group. Perhaps that’s where too many pins came from.
Thank you for your healthy recipes!
Liz, this bread was excellent! Super easy to make, very moist, great taste and smelled wonderful when baking! I had to sub Allspice for the Nutmeg since I did not have any. Baked this for friends who came from out of town, everyone loved it with several comments on how moist it was and the flavor. This receipe is a definite keeper!!!
So glad you liked it!! Thanks for giving it a try!
Unfortunately ours came out dry and we couldn’t taste the pumpkin or maple syrup. Felt like a waste of ingredients.
Did you make any substitutions to the recipe? This recipe has almost 2 tablespoons of ground spices. I find it hard to believe it didn’t taste like pumpkin so I’m curious if you missed something? Making substitutions can alter the flavor of the bread.
Love this simple recipe! Loaf came out super moist and flavorful. I am a huge fan of your recipes, so I will continue to try more. Thanks!
So glad you liked it, Jordan! Thank you!
limited pumpkin taste and limited spicy flavor
Sorry you felt that way, Anthony. Did you make the recipe as described? With almost 2 tablespoons of ground spices, I can’t see how this could be lacking in flavor so I’m wondering if you missed an ingredient?
I understand this may not be the healthy route, but can you use regular flour as a substitute?
Unfortunately I haven’t tried that so I’m not sure! sorry!
Any way to decrease the amount of Sugars in the recipe?
This is pretty low sugar compared to other pumpkin bread recipes, I wouldn’t recommend decreasing the amount of sugar!
Wow! I am honestly shocked at how good this turned out! I was skeptical but it is as moist and sweet as a “normal” pumpkin bread. I feel better about eating this than anything store bought! Amazing.
Love this recipe. The muffins are a perfect combination of spices and maple syrup so they are not too sweet and give that pumpkin flavor I love so much. The chocolate also very satisfying. Thank you.!
I wanted to find a recipe that used whole ingredients but didn’t sacrifice taste. This recipe was perfect! My kids (13 & 8) normally eat banana bread with quite a bit of sugar so I wasn’t sure how’s they do with the pumpkin & using maple syrup as a sweetener. They both enjoyed it and ate seconds! The texture was great and it was easy to make. It will definitely be a staple especially with the holiday coming up!
Perfect healthy receipe from looking at ingredients (I will get back to yo when I make one
this is very similar to my healthy banana bread
I have been looking for a recipe that gets as close as possible to the ones in coffee shops, and I have to say this one is AMAZING! The best recipe I’ve tried so far 😋
I live in France so I wasn’t sure if I converted the measures in the right way, but it worked!
Will save it for sure for another time, thank you!
I’m so glad you liked it, Ariane!
Super yummy! My 3 yo daughter and I had fun making it together!!
So glad you both enjoyed it! xoxo
This recipe is delicious, comes together easily was lovely ad moist as well. I added so dried cranberries to it and wow it was so yummy. Thanks so much.
Love that addition Gail! I need to try that!
This was such a super easy recipe! I whipped it up in no time and it was soooooo good! The perfect amount of sweet and super moist. Thank you for this deliciousness!! I’m definitely making them again and highly recommend them! By the way I just love your realness! 😉
So happy you liked it, Lisa! Thank you so much!