You need to make this Pumpkin Molasses Bread for dessert on Thanksgiving this year. Trust me. It’s really easy to whip up (who needs something complicated on Thanksgiving? NO ONE), it’s super delicious, and it totally tastes like Autumn. The deep flavor of molasses brings extra richness to the pumpkin spice flavor and keeps the loaf deliciously moist and tender. Plus this pumpkin spice bread will make your house smell better than any autumn flavored candle, hands down. ;)
Originally posted 11/14/2012, updated 11/5/2021.
Recipe Updates
I made some significant changes to this recipe, since many readers had a difficult time getting their bread to cook all the way through. I reduced the ratio of molasses and other wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and reduced the cooking temperature slightly in order to help the bread bake more evenly. The result is a tender but moist crumb, without any pockets of unbaked batter in the center.
What Kind of Loaf Pan to Use
I used a standard loaf pan, which is 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches. My loaf pan is made of metal, which heats quickly in the oven. You can use a ceramic or glass loaf pan, but you may find that you need to bake your bread slightly longer.
How Do You Know When the Bread is Done?
Ovens can vary a little bit so it’s always best to test your bread to make sure it’s cooked through. There are a couple of different reliable methods.
- The Toothpick Method: insert a clean toothpick into the center of the bread. If the toothpick is coated with raw batter when you pull it out, the bread needs to bake longer. If it just has a few moist crumbs stuck to it, the bread is finished baking.
- An Instant Read Thermometer: The same instant read thermometers used to check the doneness of meat can also be used to check the doneness of quick breads! For quick bread, like this Pumpkin Molasses Bread or Banana Bread, you want the internal temperature to be between 200-205ºF. This is the temperature at which the batter will be set into a nice crumb.
What Kind of Molasses to Use
I used Grandma’s Original Molasses, which is the type you’re most likely to find in most U.S. grocery stores. You can usually find it in grocery stores either near the pancake syrup, jams and jellies, and peanut butter, or in baking aisle. It just depends on the store. I have not tested this recipe using black strap molasses, which has a thicker texture and more pronounced flavor (some would say it’s slightly bitter).
How to Serve Pumpkin Molasses Bread
This rich and sweet bread is absolutely divine with some softened butter smeared over top. The creaminess of the butter perfectly compliments the warm spices and sweet molasses flavor. The flavors in this bread would also be absolutely perfect with a hot cup of coffee. :)
Pumpkin Molasses Bread
Servings 8 1-inch thick slicesIngredients
- 1 15oz. can pumpkin purée ($0.95)
- 2 large eggs ($0.58)
- 1/3 cup cooking oil ($0.21)
- 1/4 cup molasses ($0.59)
- 3/4 cup sugar ($0.12)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour ($0.14)
- 1 tsp cinnamon ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg ($0.05)
- 1 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 1.5 tsp baking powder ($0.05)
- 1 tsp butter ($0.03)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin purée, eggs, oil, molasses, and sugar.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, and baking powder.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients, and stir them together just until combined. It's okay if there are a few small lumps. Avoid over stirring.
- Coat the inside of a loaf pan with butter. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and spread it out smooth.
- Bake the pumpkin bread for about one hour, or until the internal temperature reaches 200ºF, or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (a few crumbs are okay, just no raw batter stuck to the toothpick).
- Transfer the bread to a wire rack to cool, then slice and serve.
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Nutrition
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How to Make Pumpkin Molasses Bread – Step By Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl, whisk together one 15oz. can pumpkin purée, 2 large eggs, ⅓ cup cooking oil, ¼ cup molasses, and ¾ cup sugar.
In a separate bowl, stir together 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tsp salt, and 1.5 tsp baking powder. Make sure they’re very well combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients.
Stir just until they are combined. Avoid over stirring. It’s okay if it’s slightly lumpy.
Use a teaspoon of butter to coat the inside of a loaf pan. transfer the batter to the loaf pan and spread it out smooth.
Bake the pumpkin molasses bread in the preheated 350ºF oven for about one hour, or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 200ºF, or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (a few crumbs are okay, just no raw batter stuck to the toothpick).
Transfer the pumpkin bread to a wire rack to cool. Once cool, slice, serve, and enjoy!
Dreadful. Burnt after 50 minutes at 350 degrees F, tasted like bitter dirt, and fell apart when serving. Ruined my Thanksgiving.
Made as directed, baked for 50 minutes, perfection!
Thank you for sharing.
It never really baked and I have made 4 batches of my tried & true, they all turned out beautiful. I was very disappointed. Baking is expensive and we could not eat this bread.
Moist but not very sweet. Not a fan of the molasses flavor. A little too funky.
Delicious! I was torn between the two pumpkin bread recipes on the website, but decided to go with this one because the ratio of wet to flour seemed like the pumpkin flavor would be more pronounced and because I wanted to sub the flour and less flour meant less room for possible error. We are trying to increase our fiber but I need a baked good, so I kept everything the same other than swapping the 2 cups of flour for one cup whole wheat flour and one cup oat bran. I baked in a cupcake tin because I didn’t have the patience to wait for the longer cooking time of a load pan. They taste amazing.
What kind of molasses? I have black strap on hand.
Hi Cathy, I used Grandma’s Molasses. I have not tested black strap in this recipe. See my notes on what type of molasses to use in the paragraph titled, “What Kind of Molasses to Use” above the recipe for more info.
The bread has great flavor, but was too dense. Mine did not rise well in the oven, so maybe not enough baking powder?
Beth: I would love to make these into muffins. Could you offer some advice or suggestions? I appreciate your advice.
I’d need to test it before offering any concrete advice, but to test it I would just pour the batter into a muffin tin instead of bread pan, bake at the same temperature, and just keep an eye on what the muffins look like. Once they’re domed and probably cracked on top I’d use a toothpick to see if they’re done in the center and go from there. :) If you try it, let me know how it turns out!
I’ve always made this recipe as muffins. I change nothing, really… Just divide the batter between the cups and bake at 350 as specified. Usually takes somewhere around 20 min, but I usually check them with a toothpick for the first time at 16 min to keep from overdoing it. Since I’ve never made it as a loaf, I don’t know if my muffins work out PERFECTLY compared to the original, but they’re pretty darn tasty to me.
Amazing, simple recipe! I made this without having to go grocery shopping. Love that it uses oil instead of butter… saves me from having to have it on hand AND softening it! Delicious. Will be making again. Mine took 10 extra mins in the oven (70 total).
This loaf tastes nice but it didn’t bake up well. I baked it at 350 for an hour and 8 minutes and I tented it with tin foil for the last 8 mins to avoid excessive browning. The bottom and sides are a big tough from baking and the top middle area is still gummy. The spice mixture is nice but I think ultimately this recipe has too much pumpkin in it, I’m Canadian so I googled the conversion and used 1 3/4 cup of pumpkin puree.
I followed the recipe exactly for a quick Thanksgiving breakfast, and it came out perfect!! Not to sweet, and not really pumpkin pie flavored. It’s got a nice pumpkin flavor that went really well with the molasses. Super moist too, I will be making this again!
I hate to give this a low score because it was quite yummy, but I just had to make too many tweaks (using advice from the comments) for this to be a successful recipe. It tastes nice, but I recommend finding a different recipe for pumpkin molasses bread.
Pssst… this comes up as yeast bread. I think it just got sorted into the wrong category. (Looks fantastic, though!)
Thanks Alex! I’ve fixed that :)
I also had to use a small pan and a larger pan to bake all the batter, and thus had to play around with baking times (smaller took 55 minutes, the larger took about 75, checking every 5 minutes). But that said, they are scrumptious! This is exactly what I wanted out of a pumpkin bread – richly spiced flavor; moist, soft texture; and just the right amount of sweet-but-not-too-sweet. If you like molasses cookies, and you like pumpkin bread, this is an excellent hybrid of flavors.
It’s actually a perfect recipie as is ! I only had two smaller loaf pans and it was perfect amount of sweet :)
I made this last night and am really wishing I read the comments! I made a large and small loaf. The small one was perfect at about 45 minutes, while the large one took about 80 and my sides and top were a little burned.
I brought my mini to work today and it was gone in about 5 minutes. haha. Also my mother tried slicing the big one before it was all the way cool and it fell apart a little bit. However I think making them in mini loaf pans is the way to go. The flavor tastes like pumpkin pie cake. Overall a total win (yet again) from budget bytes. Thanks!
Make an adjustment by reading the comment. Lucky I didn’t burnt my toast. It turns out to be a little out of what I’m expecting. Probably will try to add in more pumpkin for taste.
I know this recipe was posted a really long time ago, but I just made it today. I hate to say it, but it’s really bland. It definitely needs more sugar if you want this to be a dessert bread. When I took it out of the oven I was expecting that wonderful sweet and spicy and cake smell and I didn’t really get it. I even did half white sugar and half brown sugar for a little extra molasses flavor. I would also increase the pumpkin pie spice a bit, but that’s my personal preference. I’m going to make a glaze for it and see if that helps. If not, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my 2 loaves. Maybe I could cut them into cubes and make croutons for soup. Sorry!
I recently tasted a slice of molasses loaf along with a pumpkin loaf in previous days. I’m certain, the combination should be nothing less than delicious. Nonetheless, I’m also certain that the cost of making this loaf is more than $4.22 cents. Let’s keep it real no one buys just 3 eggs, 1 and half teaspoon of salt nor 3 cups of flour the utensils alone cost more than the above estimated amount.
I reside in America which is a country based upon capitalism alone on the backs of the disenfranchised.
Wow. Maybe read up on how she calculates the cost of recipes before commenting? She didn’t use a dozen eggs here, so why would she calculate the cost of a dozen eggs in to this recipes? Some people’s kids…🙄😂
And who buys a dozen eggs just to throw out the other nine? Salt and eggs are basic pantry staples. Measuring cups and spoons are basic supplies. You might as well factor in the cost of the oven. Total sticker price for one loaf of bread? $530
Although I would maybe blame capitalism for the fact that convenience food has enabled entire generations to forget how to feed themselves. Getting the initial supplies together can be hard, but food pantries might help with dry goods and thrift stores or estate sales often have kitchen ware.
Isis ad read the omments before I made this. I even baked it 15 mins longer but ended up with the middle still not baked and the top edges almost burnt. Will try the recipe another time using the suggestions from the others who tried this.
Heads up, yall gotta cook this for about 1h15m total, and after 45 minutes cover the loaf pan with foil for the last 30 minutes. IM JUST SAYING.
Is there a way to this into cookies ?
Like maybe 2 eggs?, 1/2 the oil?
Made the pan loaf today, and it is wonderful. Now for cookies for easy travel.
Hmm, I think it would need quite a bit of change to be cookie-like and it’s too difficult to say without testing it out. Baking can be really finicky! :P
I made this for the first time today – followed the recipe as written only exception was I divide batter amongst 3 mini loaf pans. Baked at 350 for approx 40 minutes. Really nice loaf, well seasoned & extremely moist. This would be a great item to bake & take as a hostess gift during the holiday season.
I made this today, and made a couple of changes based on what people had experience with the bread getting burnt before finishing cooking, and with the batter being too liquid. First, I cut out the milk entirely. I reduced the molasses to 1/3 of a cup, and replaced the sugar with brown sugar – the reduction in molasses keeps the batter from being too thin, but the brown sugar helps keep the molasses flavor in the bread. I also reduced the cooking temperature to 350, and it took just over an hour to cook.
I hope this helps anyone having issues! And thanks to Beth for all your great recipes, we use them all the time!
I’m confused. You reduced the molasses from 1/4 cup to 1/3? Is this a typo? 1/3 a cup is more than 1/4, not less.
made this today as muffins and it was amazing! cooked for 20 min and could not be happier!
I just made these as muffins and they’re SO GOOD. It tastes like eating pumpkin pie, but in muffin form :).
My particulars: I didn’t have pumpkin pie spice, so I just used cinnamon, and it worked well. I baked them for around 18-20 minutes, having split the batter into 18 muffins.
Made regular sized muffins and mine were done around 25mins. Mini muffins around 15mins. I also subbed coconut oil for the canola oil. Came out great!
Baked this for the first time this year to bring to a pumpkin tea. My friends loved it. The molasses is the most expensive ingredient, but the jar is enough for 3 loaves a season. Two more loaves to come…woohoo! Beth’s tip to cover with foil works like a charm for the overdone top. I cover mine at 45 minutes and my total bake time is 80 minutes. My loaves look just like Beth’s photo. This is an awesome autumn recipe!
This recipe endured several mishaps and produced a tasty loaf, so I think it must be pretty good. I used half white whole wheat flour, and accidentally cooked it in a yeast bread pan (8.5 x 4.5) instead of a quick bread pan (9 x 5); this resulted in about two tablespoons of batter oozing over the edge of the pan onto the cookie sheet I had put on the rack below to catch such oozings. The other consequence of this was that my loaf’s dome was not as photogenic as it might have been. It took an hour and ten minutes to bake, and my foil tent was blown off, so the top was rather brown before the insides were done. All was not lost, though; while homely, the loaf was decidedly delicious. I will make it again in a 9 x 5 pan, no doubt the size it was intended to be baked in.
I’ve made this pumpkin bread three times now, and make no mistake- it tastes AMAZING! The only problem I’ve consistently had is that every time I try to make it, the top and edges of the loaf get toasty and black by the end of the hour, and there’s still visible, jiggly wet batter in the crack. From the look of the comments, other users have had a similar problem.
I’m not ready to give up on the loaf presentation, so I’m wondering- would turning the temperature down from 375 degrees to 350 (which seems standard for most quick bread recipes) help with the outer-burning-inner-rawness? It might take longer to cook totally, but as it is, I already need to keep it in for an extra half hour to cook that raw batter near the top of the loaf. I’d be willing to take more time if it would mean a more even cook. :)
In any event- thanks for this recipe! In spite of my hinky baking times, it’s a perennial favorite. Of course, your whole blog is a favorite all-around- it’s rare for my husband and me to cook a meal from anywhere else lately! :D
Yes, you can definitely try lowering the temp to see if it helps. I have another idea that I think will work really well. Once the top of the bread is mostly set/no longer sticky, cover it with foil. That will keep it from browning as the rest bakes (you can do this with regular bread, too). I hope that works for you!
Made these as muffins. It made nearly 24 mini muffins and 15 regular size. The only change I made was to add a struesel-type topping. Love this! Perfect level of sweetness, spice level, pumpkiny-ness and texture for us. Thank you!
Could you substitute squash for the pumpkin? I have some frozen and I remember my Mom used to do that when I was little for pumpkin pie.
Absolutely! I almost mentioned that when writing up the post. You can sometimes find squash puree in the freezer section or just make your own with any winter type squash (butternut, acorn, etc.)
Mines in the oven, can’t wait. I made sure I read everyone’s comments. Made the pumpkin pie spice, added applesauce instead of oil, used half whole wheat and half white flour, and added an extra 1/4 tsp of baking powder. Didn’t over stir, folded it all in. Crossing fingers.
I made this and split it into 2 loaf pans. That might help anyone who is having baking issues. Although make sure you still bake for 45-55 min. Maybe even a few minutes extra. I wasn’t keeping a close time on mine and took them out too soon. I will definitely make again as this is some of the best pumpkin bread i have ever had. I added a cup of chopped pecans to one of my loaves and it was divine.
J. Young,
Thanks for posting this fix. I just made this recipe tonight for a dinner party. I split mine into two loaf pans, lowered the temperature a smidge, and cooked it for 55-60 minutes and it came out perfectly.
Beth,
Thank you for posting this fabulous recipe. The bread was a big hit at my dinner party.
Mine was a big fail too – I made this in a loaf pan. After an hour, the sides and top were almost black, but once cooled and cut into the middle was still batter. Literally oozing out.
Had to cut two slices off each end and throw the rest away.
Wish I had read the comments before trying this – would’ve made muffins instead. What a waste of ingredients and time.
Oh no! I have to admit, I have no ideas what could have gone wrong either… was the oven fully preheated? Even that should have only added 15 min to the cooking time. If you do try again, I would suggest baking them as muffins or in an 8×8 baking dish because it will be shallower and cook much faster.
I have no idea what or where I went wrong! I have had mine in the oven for 1 hour and 30 min. and it is still gooey inside! I will keep it baking (unless it catches fire!) and then try again! Maybe I used the wrong kind of molasses? Wrong pan? Confused……
Made this last night. It didn’t turn out as I had hoped. Next time I may use a different kind of molasses, more sugar and more salt, longer cooking timer and/or larger loaf pan.
Becky – It would throw the ratios off a bit, but I think it’s worth experimenting with! Maybe try nixing the milk too to cut down on the wetness. It’s a pretty wet batter as is, I might have even been able to leave the milk out too.
Can I cut down the amount of sugar to maybe 1 cup? Would that throw off the ratio of dry to wet ingredient?
I made this and it tasted amazing!
I made it in a loaf pan like you did, but the center was raw even after the top was crispy :( The center had to be cut out and thrown away.
Next time I’ll do muffins.
Thank you so much for this recipe! I made it with my brother tonight for our Thanksgiving dessert, and even though we messed up at 2 points, these came out great as muffins!
I made this last night and it made my entire place smell delicious and then had some for desert even though I made it for Thanksgiving. I don’t think it is sweet enough for my tastes as a desert but it is damn good. Making a batch of muffins now
muffins are turning out great :] was afraid of the mix being black from my full-flavored molasses…but they are baking more brown so I’m relieved!
Ahhh, you might want to make a note about not using blackstrap molasses… it was all I could find and I figured it out the hard way.
In the country I live in molasses is very hard to find. I searched all over and could only find blackstrap molasses at a specialty imports store. I found a suggestion online that said that if you have to substitute black-strap molasses for regular, you should use half corn syrup and half molasses. I was nervous about it so I used 3/4 corn-syrup and 1/4 black-strap molasses, and it came out great without the “tar” flavor you would expect from this kind of molasses. It is obviously not ideal, but if you only have blackstrap molasses, you can give it a try.
I just made a batch as muffins and they took 18 minutes to bake. I used half whole-wheat flour and half all-purpose, adding an extra 1/4 tsp. of baking powder to keep them fluffy. I haven’t tried one yet since they’re still cooling, but they smell DELICIOUS! I got 2 dozen full-sized muffins out of this recipe, so I’ll have breakfasts for quite a while!
I made banana muffins yesterday that gave an option for making a loaf instead. The recipe instructed to bake the loaf at 375 for 55-60 minutes (a la this recipe) and muffins at the same temp for 15-20. Mine took about 18. I don’t know if that’s equivalent or not, but I thought I’d share my two cents.
I always substitute all-natural sugar free applesauce instead of vegetable oil. It doesn’t add any overpowering apple flavor at all, and it is much better for you than vegetable oil.
check out my blog! http://www.newadvegtures.blogspot.com
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Beth I have a banana bread recipe that calls for molasses. It actually replaces the sugar in the recipe but calls for a larger quanity of molasses which sort of takes over the whole loaf. It is delicious though. I will def be trying yours this weekend!
Anonymous – You can use melted butter in place of the oil, although it will produce a different flavor and texture because butter contains only about 75% fat (the rest is milk solids and water), whereas oil is 100% fat.
how to swap out the oil for butter?
Vicky – Yep, it will just be more like plain pumpkin bread, but still delicious. You can substitute the regular sugar for brown sugar to help a little. Brown sugar is just regular sugar with molasses mixed in, although there isn’t enough in there to give it the strong flavor like straight molasses.
Shelby – Skim will be fine here… there is such a small amount of milk for the whole loaf that it shouldn’t matter :)
I love a good molasses bread like this!
Do you think I could get away with no molasses? I don’t have it on hand, but I have all the other ingredients ready to make these in muffin form.
If you wrap this loaf in saran, within 24 hours, the top crust will be nice and moist as well and the loaf will slice easily.
Hi Beth! Can’t wait to try this. Do you recommend a certain type of milk? We only drink skim, so I’ll need to grab another type at the store if you think it’d be better! Thanks :)
I made the muffin version tonight. So good!
What a beautiful loaf. I love fall season baking!
Thank you, Beth! Looking forward to trying out this recipe :)
Anonymous – Yep, there sure is :) If you click the link for pumpkin pie spice in the ingredients table (or here) you can go to my pumpkin pie spice recipe. It also has a basic ratio so that you can make it in any amount that you’d like. I hope that helps!
Are there spices I could use as substitute to the pumpkin spice? I know pumpkin spice usually includes ginger, cinnamon, etc., but I don’t know what a good amount of those spices would be in the loaf. Thank you!
Now I know why breads always turn out gummy – so glad you explained WHY you only “stir until combined”. Can’t wait to try this! I love pumpkin and love molasses.
This looks wonderful and a perfect make-ahead! I’m going to bookmark this!