This Pumpkin Bread with Cinnamon Sugar Streusel has a quick and easy trick for making canned pumpkin taste AWESOME! This is hands-down our favorite fluffy pumpkin bread recipe ever.
My 5-year-old and I have been straight up fangirling over this pumpkin bread.
Banana bread is usually our go-to but ever since this bad boy came into our lives it is all about the pumpkin!
We’re on our third loaf right now and I couldn’t wait a moment longer to hop on here and write the recipe up so y’all can join us in our obsession.
SO. FLIPPING. GOOD.
crazy awesome pumpkin bread tips + tricks
There’s an extra step that totally makes this bread, I wouldn’t dream of skipping it ever!
A quick little sauté of the canned pumpkin adds a full-bodied nuttiness to the pumpkin and completely transforms it.
Even better? We can totally make our pumpkin bread right in the pot!
It’s almost like we’re making luscious pumpkin butter for the base of our pumpkin bread.
The flavors are amazing!
Another thing I swear by is using scale measurements for my flour and sugar. I have a cute mini kitchen scale (this one) that I’ve been using for several years now. Instead of carefully spooning and scraping flour into a measuring cup, I just plop a small measuring bowl on my scale and fill it up! I find that my results are way more accurate and I’m not making half the mess I normally do. Measuring flour and sugar by weight has been a total game changer for me and I can’t recommend it enough!
Lastly, I like adding the streusel at the halfway point during baking and rotating the pan. This way the bread cooks evenly and the streusel perfectly golden and crumbly, without melting or over-browning. I’ve tried it a few ways and this is by far my favorite.
Ready to make some pumpkin bread?
Let’s do this!
Pumpkin Bread with Cinnamon Sugar Streusel
Pumpkin Bread with Cinnamon Sugar Streusel
Ingredients
PUMPKIN BREAD
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (120 grams)
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 1 TBSP avocado oil (coconut oil works too)
- 1 cup unsweetened canned pumpkin puree (226 grams or 8 oz)
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp pumpkin pie spice blend
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed (100 grams)
- 2 oz cream cheese cut into 6 pieces
- 2 large eggs
- ⅛ cup milk
STREUSEL TOPPING
- 5 TBSP light brown sugar, packed
- 1 TBSP all-purpose flour
- 1 TBSP unsalted butter slightly softened if possible
- ¾ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp salt
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to the center position and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. For best results, measure flour by weight or use the spoon and sweep method for your flour.
- Heat a medium-large pot to medium heat (my dial was at 6) and add your oil.
- One heated, add your pumpkin, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice blend. Cook, stirring often, for approx. 6 minutes.
- Remove pot from heat and add granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cream cheese. Stir and allow to cool for 5 minutes, then use a metal whisk to whisk well until ingredients are completely incorporated.
- In a small bowl whisk together milk and eggs, then add to the pumpkin.
- Gently fold in flour mixture until combined (some small lumps are totally okay) and pour into prepared loaf pan.
- For a 9 x 5 loaf pan: Bake for 30-35 minutes, adding streusel topping and rotating the pan at the 15 minute mark. Simply set a timer and you're good to go!
- Using an 8.5 x 4.5 loaf pan instead? Increase bake time to 45-55 minutes. Add stresuel at 35/40 minute mark.
- To make the streusel, use fingers to mix all ingredients together in a bowl until texture resembles crumbly wet sand.
- At the 30 minute mark, test with a butter knife for doneness. A knife inserted into center of the loaf will come out clean when the bread is cooked through. Allow to cool in pan for 20 minutes, then remove bread and let it finish cooling on a wire rack. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe adapted from America’s Test Kitchen New Family Cookbook (affiliate) <– we are bonkers for this cookbook!
If you get a chance to try this tasty recipe, let me know! Leave some love in the comment form below or tag your photos with @peasandcrayons on Instagram so I can happy dance over your creation!
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Seriously the best pumpkin bread I ever made. The cinnamon and sugar on top was perfect and sautéing the pumpkin ahead of time was brilliant. Thank you for the awesome recipe!!
I love this recipe and have made it several times for the family and it’s gone in no time! With the holidays approaching I was thinking about baking up a few loaves and dropping them off with our families but for the life of me I can not locate the version of the recipe that uses the whole can of pumpkin.
I’m so glad you’ve been loving this recipe Allison! Here are the doubled measurements for two loaves for two 9×5 loaf pans. I always suggest measuring it all out in advance before starting and weighing stuff like flour and sugar just to make sure it’s all exact as sometimes when recipes are doubled ingredients go flying LOL! (Girl you should see my kitchen haha!)
* 2 cup all-purpose flour (420 grams)
* 1.5 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
* 2 TBSP avocado oil (coconut oil works too)
* 1 (15-16 oz) can pumpkin
* 1 tsp salt
* 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
* 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice blend
* 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
* 1 cup light brown sugar, packed (200 grams)
* 4 oz cream cheese, cut into small pieces
* 4 large eggs
* 1/4 cup milk
STREUSEL TOPPING
* 10 TBSP light brown sugar, packed (1/2 cup plus 2 TBSP)
* 2 TBSP all-purpose flour
* 2 TBSP unsalted butter slightly softened if possible
* 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/4 sp salt
Can you use prepared pumpkin pie mix instead of puréed pumpkin and the spices?
Hi Bonnie! The recipe would need to be reworked as pumpkin pie mix contains “Pumpkin, Water, Sugar, Salt, Spices, Dextrose, Natural Flavors.” — the water and sugar will throw off the recipe’s ratios so it would need some testing and adjustment to work out any kinks from the swap.
I tripled the recipe and it came out terrible. Dense, rubbery, took a long time to cook. The stars off are for this not being a versitle recipe that you can just throw together. It’s too finicky. I gave it a star because I love pumpkin strusel bread, and another star for the interesting technique of heating up the pumpkin first.
Oh no! It for sure sounds like something went wrong here. I am happy to help troubleshoot if you need it – this recipe has been old faithful for us for several years now but I know soooo many factors can affect baking.
Delicious bread! Agree with another comment about the cook time. Mine took around 40 mins + and the topping is definitely more crumbled than streusel like, but still SO good!
This took WAY longer to cook than stated. 50-60 minutes. The top did kind of dissolve to a degree but it was almost candy like. The bread was extremely tasty. I will most definitely make it again. I only gave it 4 stars because of cooking time and crumbs weren’t really crumbs, but still oh so delicious.
Hi Kathleen! The longer cooker time will for sure dissolve the crumb topping into more of a crispy candy-like coating. Are you cooking at altitude or with an older oven by any chance? What size loaf pan did you use?
For myself and many others, the cook time works perfect (leaving the topping in tact) but you’re the third person who has cited needing a longer cook time. I’d love to get to the bottom of why the timing is perfect for most but off for a few, so I can make a note in the recipe for everyone digging into this yummy pumpkin bread. Thanks for your help!
OMG this is so good! I made the double batch so that I could use the whole can of pumpkin. I made a loaf with half the batter and a dozen muffins with the other half for on-the-go treats. I also added walnuts. The bread and muffins turned out so moist with plenty of pumpkin flavor.
The BEST part about this recipe is the streusel topping! The sweet crunch is just what each bite needs! I am adding this to my cookbook for the fall season!!! Thank you!
Yay!!!! I’m so stoked you enjoyed the recipe Valerie! Love it with walnuts – such a fun texture and flavor!
This bread is delish! However, the cooking time was way off for me. I make banana bread, zucchini bread, etc. quite often so I knew right away it’d take much longer than the 30-35 minutes mentioned in the directions. Perhaps it’s just my oven. I baked mine for 55 minutes and added the streusel at the 30 minute mark. It turned out perfectly!
Hi Brooke! The bake time will vary quite a bit by your loaf pan dimensions and darkness/lightness. Altitude will have an effect as well as well as oven calibration. Because I cook it in a dark 9×5 pan it’s a short/wide loaf of pumpkin bread and cooks quicker in my oven. Let me know if I need to make a note in here for variations based on these circumstances? I’m so used to the variations they’re commonplace for me at this point, lol. So stoked you enjoyed the bread! xoxo
Jenn, I wish you didn’t take such gorgeous photos! 🙂 I’m so hungry now.
Making this asap!
The streusel topping just melted into a mess and burned. I don’t know what I did wrong.
Hi Debbie! I’m here to help troubleshoot if you need me! Did you add the streusel at the 15-minute mark when rotating the bread? From experience, adding it too early can result in melting.
Mine did as well. It’s still in the oven but it looks yummy! Lol
Is there something I can use instead of cream cheese to make it dairy-free (I already have subs for the milk and butter)? It looks so yummy!
Hi Mandy! I’ve made this bread several times but not with these particular swaps so I can’t really advise with certainty. It will be a new recipe with the non-dairy ingredients but still may work if you’d like to experiment!
Hmm… What about trying my Pumpkin Spice Streusel Muffins recipe? You could bake them into a loaf if preferred (just use loaf baking times based on what you’re using) and they’re dairy-free aside from the streusel which can typically be made with a little coconut oil in place of the butter!
Unbelievably delicious! The bread was a perfect balance of soft and light. My entire family loved it. The topping was amazing!!
Super stoked you all loved the bread! I legit can’t stop making it and my 5 year old straight up BEGS! We ran out of pumpkin this past week and I thought she was going to have a meltdown, lol.
I’m already a pumpkin baked goods fanatic, and the addition of the streusel to the top sends this recipe over the top for me! So yummy!
Thanks Maggie! The streusel is so dreamy right?! Love it so!
This bread was amazing! So fluffy and tasted just like pumpkin.
Woot! So glad you enjoyed it Tatiana, thank you!
Couldn’t find how to double this. It was so good! Would you just double each ingredient?
Yes it’s just double everything and then you’ll want a second loaf pan as well – I’ll email you the measurements, Mary! xoxo
Put mixture in mini loaf pans.used same cookomg time.
Bread seem really dense.
Not sure what i did wrong.topping ok
Hi Wendy! Mini loaves would require a time adjustment (decrease) so they don’t overbake. Any other changes or swaps to the recipe? The bread should for sure be sponge-y, soft, and only slightly dense from the pumpkin; almost like a moist banana bread but in pumpkin form.
Can vegetable oil be used instead of avocado/coconut oil?
Absolutely!
Bread that eats like dessert! The fam is totally obsessed. This recipe is moist with all the crunchy goodness on top. Perfect fall treat; recipe is a keeper.
Total dessert bread status up in here! Thank you Kristin!