Easy One Bowl Pumpkin Bread with Maple Icing Recipe

Fun side story: I had to bake 3 loaves to photograph this Easy One Bowl Pumpkin Bread with Maple Icing Recipe.

Not because I had to test and iterate on the recipe. No. Because each loaf I baked didn’t last 2 days in our house. Both my husband and kids ate slices faster than I could film and photograph them. Take this as proof positive, you need this bread in your life.

Let’s kick off pumpkin season and the start of Autumn with this delicious homemade pumpkin bread. Baked from simple ingredients, this is the best pumpkin bread recipe you’ll make this time of year. Scroll down for the recipe card with the full list of ingredients. Keep reading for all the details on this easy pumpkin bread recipe. 

Simple Ingredients for the Easy One Bowl Pumpkin Bread

There are two things I love when it comes to cooking and baking: 

1. Using one bowl or one pan to prep everything.
2. Keeping our ingredient list as simple as possible. 

Simple ingredients. Big pumpkin flavor. And that’s what we have here. To make one of our favorite pumpkin desserts, we will need the following: 

• ​Pumpkin puree: You can use canned pumpkin or homemade pumpkin puree. See my quick note below on what to do with fresh pumpkin if you are wanting to use that to make your own pumpkin puree. 
• Eggs: Combined with the olive oil helps create the tender, moist pumpkin loaf cake. 
• Olive Oil: I personally love the flavor of a mild olive oil blend here in lieu of butter. We still get a moist pumpkin bread with the added bonus of a healthy fat. 
• Vanilla Extract: We add a depth of gourmet sweetness with vanilla extract. It compliments this quick bread in a beautiful way. 
• Pumpkin Pie Spice:  While we can use a mix of spices that get us the quintessential pumpkin spice flavor, I love using Simply Organic’s Pumpkin Pie Spice here. Two teaspoons is just enough to give us the best pumpkin spice bread. 
• All-purpose flour and whole wheat flour: 
• Brown Sugar: Our sweetener for our favorite pumpkin bread. I love the caramel sweet flavor mixed with the fall spices for all things pumpkin.  
• Baking Soda: This is our leavening agent. One teaspoon will give us the rise in our quick bread. 
• Kosher Salt: Balances the sweet flavor of this moist pumpkin bread.  

On Making Your Own Pumpkin Puree

If making your own pumpkin puree, you can roast small pie pumpkins easily. Take your pie pumpkin and use a sharp knife to cut the squash in half along the vertical. Scoop out the seeds, drizzle the inner flesh with a few tablespoons of olive oil and a couple pinches of kosher salt. Lay the halves flesh side down on a parchment lined rimmed baking sheet. Roast the pumpkin in a 400 degree oven for about 30 to 40 minutes until the flesh of the pumpkin is fork tender. Remove from oven and allow to cool before scoop out the flesh. Place the roasted pie pumpkin flesh in a food processor fitted with the chopping blend and process the pumpkin until pureed. Portion out 15 ounces of the roast pumpkin puree to use for this recipe. Store any remaining puree in an airtight container. It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months. 

How to Bake this Easy One Bowl Pumpkin Bread

Preparing this perfect fall treat requires no more than 15 minutes of prep and an hour of bake time. Here’s how we make it: 

• First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place a rack in the center of the oven.
• Next, grease a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan (one-pound capacity) with a nonstick cooking spray or rub in unsalted butter. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients including the pumpkin puree, olive oil, yogurt, vanilla extract, eggs. Add in the pumpkin pie spice and whisk together to combine.
• Next, add your dry ingredients including the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and sea salt. Gently fold in the dry ingredients until the batter forms. Avoid over mixing as it will create a more dense loaf and no moist crumbs.
• Pour the mixed batter into the prepared loaf pan. Place on a rimmed baking sheet then place in oven. Bake until golden brown, about 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick or butter knife comes out clean from the center of the loaf.
• Cool pumpkin bread in the pan for about 10 minutes. Turn out onto a cooling rack lined with parchment paper to cool completely before slicing and serving. The parchment paper helps reduce the number of lines imprinted on the cooling pumpkin bread. 

To Make the Maple Cream Cheese Icing Spread

In the recipe card below, I leave this as optional. I know a few of you reading this love the concept of the maple cream cheese frosting as an accompaniment to many pumpkin recipes like this one. What I love about keeping it as an option is that it really can feel like a spread that we layer onto a warm slice using an offset spatula before serving it alongside our morning coffee or favorite pumpkin spice latte. 

For the icing, whisk all the following ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth: cream cheese, maple syrup, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and a pinch of kosher salt. 

More One-Bowl Breads to Love for Easy Breakfasts

These one-bowl quick breads make for wonderfully easy breakfasts during the weekday. When it’s not pumpkin season, I love making my One-Bowl Banana Date Bread to use up all the ripe bananas the kids don’t eat in the house.