The Best Pumpkin Bread (with a Harvest Espresso Twist)

The cosiness that we all look forward to in autumn wouldn't be half as good without food. There are so many autumnal treats that I love to cook and bake when autumn arrives. This pumpkin bread is my absolute favourite, and I usually bake a loaf to mark the start of the season.

It is soft, deeply spiced and unapologetically autumnal, with pockets of melted chocolate if you want them. Best of all, there is a variation further down that swaps the citrus for a shot of our Harvest coffee, turning it into something closer to a spiced espresso loaf.

It keeps beautifully on the counter for a few days, freezes for months, and adapts happily into muffins or a Bundt. Here is how I make it.

Happy baking!

Prep: 15 mins | Bake: 60 to 65 mins | Total: around 1 hr 15 mins | Makes: 1 loaf

Ingredients

Measurements are given in grams and millilitres first, with US cups in brackets. Metric is the more reliable way to bake, so I would lean on those.

Dry

• 219 g plain flour (1 ¾ cups), spooned and levelled
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• ¾ tsp salt

Wet

• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 100 g granulated sugar (½ cup)
• 150 g light or dark brown sugar (¾ cup), packed
• 340 g pumpkin purée (1 ½ cups), tinned or fresh
• 120 ml vegetable oil, rapeseed oil, or melted coconut oil (½ cup)
• 60 ml orange juice (¼ cup)

To fold in (optional)

• 120 g semi-sweet chocolate chips (⅔ cup)

Method

1. Position an oven rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat to 180°C (160°C fan, Gas Mark 4, 350°F).
2. Grease a 900 g / 2 lb loaf tin (roughly 23 x 13 cm, or 9 x 5 inch) with non-stick spray and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and salt.
4. In a separate medium bowl, whisk the eggs with both sugars until combined.
5. Whisk in the pumpkin purée, oil and orange juice until smooth.
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold together gently with a spatula. Stop as soon as the flour disappears. A few lumps are perfectly fine, and overmixing makes for a dense loaf.
7. Fold in the chocolate chips, if using.
8. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and level the top.
9. Bake for 60 to 65 mins, loosely tenting with foil halfway through so the top does not over-brown. Start checking at 55 mins. It is done when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with just a few moist crumbs.
10. Cool the loaf completely in the tin on a wire rack before turning out and slicing. It slices far more cleanly once fully cool.

The Harvest Espresso Twist

For a deeper, grown-up loaf, swap the orange juice for coffee. Replace the 60 ml orange juice with 60 ml of brewed Harvest, cooled to room temperature. Brew it strong, closer to an espresso than a mug of filter, so the flavour carries through the spice.

One note: the orange juice adds a little brightness that lifts the whole loaf, and coffee trades that lift for warmth and depth instead. If you go the espresso route, I would use dark brown sugar rather than light, and keep the chocolate chips in. The coffee and dark chocolate together are the whole point.

Storage and make-ahead

• Room temperature: 3 to 4 days in an airtight container.
• Fridge: up to 1 week.
• Freezer: wrap the cooled loaf well and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and bring to room temperature before serving.

Notes and swaps

• Spices: you can use 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice (mixed spice works too) in place of the nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Keep the 2 tsp of cinnamon either way.
• Oil over butter: oil keeps the crumb softer and more moist than melted butter here.
• No orange juice and not fancying coffee: any milk works as a straight swap for the liquid.
• Chocolate chips: milk, dark or white all work, as do chopped pecans or walnuts. Or leave it plain and let the spice do the talking.

Variations

• Pumpkin muffins: makes 15 to 18. Bake at the same temperature for around 20 mins.
• Bundt cake: use a Bundt tin and bake for around 1 hour. Add 1 ½ cups of chocolate chips if you like, and leave out any cream cheese filling.

With thanks to Sally of Sally's Baking Addiction, whose pumpkin chocolate chip bread is the foundation this recipe is built on. The metric conversions, UK ingredient notes and the Harvest espresso variation are my own additions.