Learn how to make this healthy pumpkin bread with this easy recipe that's mixed by hand and is also eggless, dairy-free, low-fat, and vegan! This pumpkin bread is great toasted for breakfast and freezes very well. It's made with less sugar, so it's a healthier pumpkin bread than most!
This is a "healthier" pumpkin bread without affecting the texture of the bread or how moist it is! It's a variation of my eggless banana bread recipe, which calls for half the fat and less sugar than most loaf cakes of this size, which often have at least ½ cup of fat (oil or butter and 200 grams (1 cup) of sugar. This is another example to show that baking with less sugar is possible, just like with these blueberry bran muffins and these hearty apple blackberry muffins.
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How To Make A Pumpkin Bread Recipe Without Eggs
A typical pumpkin loaf cake recipe would have eggs in it, but it turns out that canned pumpkin makes a great egg replacer, as do other fruit purées, like mashed banana in this eggless banana bread. So you can easily make eggless pumpkin bread without changing much of anything and without resorting to egg replacers, like chia eggs or flax eggs. That's great news if you are looking for dairy-free or vegan fall desserts or recipes made with canned pumpkin! Here's what you need to make this pumpkin loaf cake:
- pumpkin purée: I prefer to bake with canned pumpkin purée for its convenience. If using homemade purée, read through the next section because it is too watery for this recipe
- sugar: I have tested this recipe with regular granulated sugar and also brown sugar. Both work really well
- flour: I bake with bleached all-purpose flour, though unbleached should work fine
- oil: I use canola oil but any neutral oil will work here
- salt: I bake with Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount to avoid making the cake too salty.
- leavening: this recipe calls for baking soda because canned pumpkin is slightly acidic
- spices: I use a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, but you can also add a little ground ginger or cloves. You can also use pumpkin pie spice instead!
Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.
Tip: if you prefer to bake with butter, a common baking substitution would be to replace the canola oil with the same amount of melted butter (which works out to 58 grams of melted butter) or slightly more (like 77 grams or ⅓ cup) since butter has less fat than oil. That would work just fine too!
Canned Pumpkin Versus Homemade Pumpkin Purée
If you feel like using your own homemade pumpkin purée, instead of canned pumpkin, you absolutely can in this recipe. If you go this route, make sure to save the seeds so that you can make a batch of toasted pumpkin seeds to snack on later. I have one recommendation for homemade purée: remove the excess water!
- strain your homemade pumpkin purée through a few layers of cheesecloth in order to remove some of the water because homemade pumpkin purée can be watery, and that can lead to a wet or gummy cake on the bottom. The cake might take a very long time to bake properly. Feel free to keep that pumpkin water for other recipes, like for making smoothies. This way, nothing is wasted!
- heat the pumpkin purée to boil down the liquid. I do this with defrosted bananas to concentrate it and avoid adding too much moisture to banana bread.
- dry it out on paper towel. Some people prefer to spread the purée on a paper towel so that the paper absorbs the liquid. Make sure to use a high-quality paper towel to avoid it breaking down.
Making Vegan Pumpkin Bread, Step-By-Step
Because this pumpkin loaf cake is vegan, the recipe calls for canola oil (or your favourite neutral-tasting oil), which means the batter for this pumpkin bread can be mixed in a bowl with a whisk or a wooden spoon, instead of having to resort to the creaming mixing method. No mixer required here, which means this recipe is very easy to make because all you do is mix the ingredients together.
Step 1: Combine the wet ingredients (pumpkin, sugar, oil) in a large bowl (image 1). Whisk them together until smooth (image 2). I like to use a Danish dough whisk.
Step 2: In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk them together really well (image 3), then pour the dry mixture over the wet (image 4). Stir to combine. The batter will be thick (image 5).
Step 3: Dollop the thick batter in a prepared loaf pan (image 6) and smooth it out with a mini offset spatula or the back of a spoon (image 7). Bake until the edges begin to separate from the pan and a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean (image 8). Let cool completely before serving.
Note: You may notice holes in your cake when you slice into it: these likely form because the batter is thick and so gaps in the batter will occur as you fill the loaf pan. If you over-mix the batter, this could also cause larger holes in your cake, so please be sure to mix just enough to form a cohesive, even batter, but not so much that you develop too much gluten. You'll also want to make sure that you take the time to whisk together the dry ingredients so that the baking soda disperses evenly throughout the batter.
More Pumpkin Recipes
This eggless pumpkin bread makes a flavourful loaf that makes great toast in the morning. I also like to slice the whole loaf and then freeze it. Then you can pull out a slice when you want it and toast it in your toaster. If you want to use maple syrup instead of the sugar, try this pumpkin bread with maple syrup.
If you like to explore more pumpkin baking recipes, order your copy of the e-book All About Pumpkin so you can celebrate this star ingredient!
If you tried this recipe for the best healthy pumpkin bread (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Eggless Pumpkin Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 375 mL pumpkin purée or strained homemade pumpkin purée
- 60 mL canola oil or melted butter
- 150 grams granulated sugar or brown sugar or a mixture of both
- 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 5 mL baking soda
- 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 5 mL ground cinnamon
- 2.5 mL ground allspice
- 2.5 mL ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C). Grease and flour a 9x5-inch (23x12.5 cm) or 8.5x4.5-inch (21.5x11.5 cm) loaf cake pan, then line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment.
- In a large bowl, combine the canned pumpkin with the sugar. Whisk in the oil.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour with the baking soda, salt, and spices.
- Fold the dry ingredients in the bowl with the wet batter and stir everything together to incorporate it and form a thick batter. Don't overmix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 60-65 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the centre of the bread comes out clean.
- Let cool 10 minutes, then unmold onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
- This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
- This recipe has been tested with granulated sugar and brown sugar. Both work.
- You can add up to 1 cup of toasted chopped nuts or chocolate chips. You can also add raisins or dried cranberries.
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Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should only be used as an approximation.
Ashley Carter says
I have a toddler play date tomorrow and wanted to bring muffins. I didn’t have eggs on hand and found this in a google search for eggless pumpkin recipes!! It was perfect! My 2 year old taste tested it with me tonight. 😋
Bob says
Love this recipe, and I wanted to say thank you for posting it! It's just so easy, very sweet despite the reduced sugar, and it does work well with not-too-moist homemade puree, just as you describe. It'll be going into my notebook, and I'll be sure to share your link with anyone who asks.
Sarah K says
I love this recipe especially since my son is allergic to eggs. I used olive oil instead of canola, and added vanilla extract and a few extra dashes of pumpkin pie spice (this adds ginger & cloves) to give it extra fall spice flavor. I wish the recipe would have said 1 can of Libby's pumpkin instead of a cup and a half, I could have avoided dirtying those measuring cups 😄
Janice Lawandi says
Hi! Thanks for your comment about the can size! It's so helpful! I'll add a note about it in the recipe card - I am in Canada, and our cans of pumpkin purée are much larger. For us, it's much less than 1 can of pumpkin. I avoid using cans as a quantity because the size of a can varies from country to country.
Michelle says
Were you able to taste the olive oil? How much olive oil did you use for the 1x?
Deborah says
I am an experienced baker, and 1 teaspoon of salt is too much! Seriously, that much salt makes the dish anything but healthy. I decided to follow your recipe exactly as written, and it turned out to be way too salty. 1/4 teaspoon is enough salt.
Janice Lawandi says
Hi, Thanks for your comment. Is it possible you used regular table salt instead of Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt? If you did, this would explain why the bread was too salty.
I will add a note to remind readers that the recipe calls for Diamond Crystal specifically in the ingredient list or else to adjust the amount.
Stephanie says
Hi Janice,
I love your recipe, thank you for sharing!
I wanted to make mini loaves for gifting. How should I adjust the cooking time?
Thank you!
Eileen F says
Hi, Janice! I would like to try making your eggless, dairy-free pumpkin bread for Christmas. Which flour alternative (e.g., almond, oat, etc.) would you recommend for those of us who must eat gluten-free? Two family members and I cannot eat all-purpose flour.
Thank you!
Janice says
Hi Eileen,
I'm made banana bread with oat flour and it worked well, but for that I had a recipe with eggs. In this case, an eggless recipe, I think your best bet would be to use a gluten-free flour all-purpose blend that contains something like xanthan gum to contribute structure, since you can't rely on the gluten in regular all-purpose flour. But this will take some testing because they don't all behave the same... I'd try replacing gram for gram to see if that works, then adjust from there, like if you notice an unbaked layer on the bottom, you likely needed more flour in the batter.
I'm sorry I don't have a more concrete answer for you, but I hope this will at least get you moving in the right direction! Good luck and let me know what flours you test and how it goes!
ce says
Perfect!