This Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread is a simple 5-ingredient sweet loaf with an ultra-moist texture, perfect if you love pumpkin spice flavor and peanut butter.
I love making simple and healthy bread with peanut butter, like my Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread, but for fall, I turn all my recipes into pumpkin recipes. You’ll have noticed that with my Pumpkin Blondies and Pumpkin Pie Cookies.
So, it was perfectly natural to turn the classic banana bread into a fall-flavored pumpkin version!
Ingredients and Substitutions
This recipe requires only 4 base ingredients, and you can add pumpkin spice and chocolate chips for a boost of flavor.
- Pumpkin Puree – Use 100% pure pumpkin puree for best results. Homemade or canned both work well.
- Peanut Butter – I use a natural, fresh peanut butter for optimal texture and flavor. Other nut or seed butters can be substituted, such as almond butter or sunflower seed butter.
- Maple Syrup – This brings sweetness and moisture, replacing sugar and milk. Other liquid sweeteners can be used as alternatives, like coconut nectar, agave syrup, or sugar-free maple syrup.
- Self-Rising Flour – You can make it by adding baking powder to all-purpose flour (2 teaspoons per cup). You can also use spelt flour with baking powder. This won’t work with almond flour or coconut flour. I haven’t tried all-purpose gluten-free flour yet.
- Pumpkin Pie Spices – this adds warm, aromatic flavors characteristic of pumpkin treats. Can be adjusted to taste. You can make yours by combining 4 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of ground ginger, 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg, 1 teaspoon of ground allspice, and 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves.
- Dark Chocolate Chips – It’s optional but a great addition for extra indulgence and flavor contrast.
How to Make Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread
This recipe is extremely simple, even for first-time bakers. Follow the recipe card further down and use my pictures of key steps just below.
Pour all the base ingredients but the flour into a mixing bowl.
Fold in the flour and mix the dough until just combined.
Transfer the batter to a loaf pan lined with parchment paper.
Bake the bread for 35 minutes at 350 °F (180 °C).
Expert Tips
While you have all you need in the recipe card, I have a few more tips for you to make the best bread!
- For the moistest bread, avoid overmixing the batter. Stir just until ingredients are combined.
- If using homemade pumpkin puree, strain excess liquid to prevent the bread from becoming too wet.
- For added texture, you can fold in chopped nuts or dried fruits along with or instead of chocolate chips.
- To enhance the peanut butter flavor, swirl additional peanut butter into the top of the batter before baking.
- For a more pronounced spice flavor, let the batter rest for 30 minutes before baking to allow the spices to infuse.
- To prevent the top from over-browning, cover the loaf with aluminum foil during the last 10-15 minutes of baking if needed.
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Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup Pumpkin Puree - (note 1)
- ½ cup Peanut Butter - (note 2)
- ½ cup Maple Syrup - (note 3)
- 1 cup Self-Rising Flour - (note 4)
- 1 tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spices - recommended for flavors
Optional
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 tablespoons Dark Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C). Line a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Slightly oil paper with cooking oil spray. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk the pumpkin puree, maple syrup, peanut butter, spices, and vanilla extract, if used, until smooth.
- Fold in the flour. Use a silicone spatula to stir it in and form a smooth pumpkin bread batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, and sprinkle some chocolate chips on top if you like. Its totally optional.
- Bake the bread on the center rack of the oven for 35 minutes at 350 °F (180 °C) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let the bread cool down in a cooling rack before serving.
- Serve with an extra drizzle peanut butter on top.
Hi. Just FYI – The instructions in the recipe don’t include peanut butter. But I read above and used it in the first step of mixing. This bread turned out sooo delicious!
Woops, thanks for spotting it!
Need to try