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This moist Sourdough Pumpkin Quick Bread is so incredibly soft and delicious. It’s topped with a buttery cinnamon streusel that adds a sweet crunch and pairs so well with the warm flavors of the pumpkin and spices. This pumpkin bread is a must-try this fall.
I loved this recipe! I like recipes with streusel on top and this one is now a favorite. I have a couple of recipes for pumpkin bread and none is as moist as this one. The texture is perfect and it was a success at home. I don’t want to go back to the other recipes. -Cecelia
Pumpkin spice recipes are the highlight of my fall baking season! If you’re in the mood for muffins, try my Sourdough Pumpkin Muffins, or Sourdough Pumpkin Mini Muffins. And if you can’t get enough pumpkin, don’t miss my Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Focaccia and Sourdough Pumpkin Pancakes.
Table of Contents
Reasons you will love this recipe
- Full of fall flavor– This homemade Sourdough Pumpkin Bread is the ultimate fall bake, full of warm spices and pumpkin flavor.
- Easy quick bread- Made in one bowl and baked in a loaf pan for easy prep and quick cleanup. If you love quick breads be sure to try my sourdough banana bread and sourdough apple fritter bread.
- Great way to use discard- The sourdough discard gives this pumpkin bread a soft, moist crumb.
- Great for all occasions – Perfect for an after-school snack, weekend baking project, or to share at fall gatherings and Halloween parties.
Ingredients & Substitutions for Sourdough Pumpkin Bread
- Pumpkin purée– Make sure to use plain pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling in this recipe. You can use homemade pumpkin puree in place of canned but be sure to strain it first to prevent excess moisture in the bread.
- Sugars – I like to use a mix of white and brown sugar for the texture as well as the subtle caramel flavor the brown sugar brings.
- Sourdough Discard– You can use discard or active sourdough starter in this recipe, it doesn’t really matter! Using room temperature starter will be easier to mix in.
- Butter- You can use salted or unsalted butter, but to control the amount of salt, it is best to use unsalted. You will use butter in the pumpkin bread and also the streusel topping. Use softened, not melted butter, in the batter to cream together with the sugars.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice– This spice blend features cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. You can make your own pumpkin pie spice if you don’t have a premade one on hand.
- Milk– For a dairy-free option, you can replace the milk with full-fat coconut milk.
Instructions to make Sourdough Pumpkin Bread recipe
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Using a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl with hand beaters, cream together the sugar, brown sugar, and butter until light and fluffy.
Step 2: Add in the large egg, vanilla extract, sourdough discard, and pumpkin puree and beat until combined. Then mix in the milk.
Step 3: Add in the dry ingredients, including all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon. Mix until just combined. It is ok if the batter is not perfectly smooth. Over-mixing will make the bread dense.
Step 4: Prepare the streusel topping by dicing the cold butter and placing it in a separate small bowl. Add the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon to the bowl and, using a pastry cutter or your fingers, incorporate the ingredients until they resemble coarse crumbs.
Step 5: Grease a 9 x 5-inch metal loaf pan, or line it with parchment paper. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
Step 6: Sprinkle the batter with the streusel topping.
Step 7: Bake at 350°F for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the temperature reaches 200°F. If the top is getting too dark tent it with aluminum foil. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
Recipe Tips
- Do not over-mix the batter. This will cause the gluten to start to develop which will make the bread dense and tough. It’s okay if there are still a few clumps in the batter after adding in the flour. Just mix until it has fully combined, and then stop.
- Use a metal loaf pan for this recipe. Glass pans take longer to heat up, which means the quick bread will need more time to bake — and that can cause the streusel topping to burn. If you’re using a glass pan, tent the top with foil during the last 15–20 minutes of baking to prevent over-browning.
- Use a thermometer to check the internal temperature of the bread to ensure it is baked through. The bread should reach 200°F.
- Use room temperature ingredients to ensure the wet ingredients combine easily.
How to store the Sourdough Pumpkin Bread
To store the Sourdough Pumpkin Bread wrap it in saran wrap or aluminum foil once completely cooled and leave it at room temperature. It will last several days on the counter.
If you would like to freeze the pumpkin bread, double wrap the loaf with Saran Wrap or place in a freezer bag once completely cooled. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you are ready to eat one pull it from the freezer and let it sit on the counter for a few hours until defrosted. This can be a fun way to enjoy fall recipes later in the year!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! The addition of milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips to your loaf would be delicious! You could also try adding cinnamon chips, heath bits, pecans or walnuts. Add about 1 cup of chocolate chips to the batter and leave off the cinnamon streusel.
Yes, either active starter or discard will work great in this recipe.
Yes, if you would like to long ferment the batter, simply cover the bowl of batter and place it in the fridge for 12-24 hours. Then when you are ready to bake add it to the loaf pan and bake as instructed.
More sourdough Quick breads & muffins
Sourdough Discard Recipes
Sourdough Pumpkin Muffins
Sourdough Discard Recipes
Sourdough Chocolate Banana Bread
Sourdough Discard Recipes
Cinnamon Streusel Sourdough Banana Bread
Fall Sourdough Recipes
Sourdough Apple Fritter Bread
Tried this Sourdough Pumpkin Quick Bread or another recipe from the site? I’d love to hear about it! Drop a star rating and share your thoughts in the comments—can’t wait to see what you’re baking!
Sourdough Pumpkin Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Pumpkin Bread
- 57 grams butter, 4 Tablespoons, room temperature
- 100 grams granulated sugar, ½ cup
- 110 grams brown sugar, ½ cup
- 1 large egg, 50 grams, room temperature
- 5 grams vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon
- 305 grams pumpkin purée, 1¼ cups, room temperature
- 120 grams sourdough discard, ½ cup, room temperature
- 60 grams milk, ¼ cup, room temperature
- 5 grams baking soda, 1 teaspoon
- 3 grams salt, ½ teaspoon
- 2 grams cinnamon, 1 teaspoon
- 2 grams pumpkin pie spice, 1 teaspoon
- 210 grams all-purpose flour, 1 ½ cup
For the Cinnamon Streusel
- 28 grams butter, cold, 2 Tablespoons
- 35 grams all-purpose flour, ¼ cup
- 55 grams brown sugar, ¼ cup
- 2 grams cinnamon, 1 teaspoon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉ degrees Fahrenheit.
- Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy.57 grams butter, 100 grams granulated sugar, 110 grams brown sugar
- Add in the large egg, vanilla extract, sourdough discard, and pumpkin puree and beat until combined. Then mix in the milk.1 large egg, 5 grams vanilla extract, 305 grams pumpkin purée, 120 grams sourdough discard, 60 grams milk
- Combine baking soda, salt, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and flour together. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.5 grams baking soda, 3 grams salt, 2 grams cinnamon, 2 grams pumpkin pie spice, 210 grams all-purpose flour
- Prepare the streusel topping by dicing the cold butter and placing it in a small bowl. Add the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon to the bowl and using a pastry cutter or your fingers incorporate the ingredients until it resembles coarse crumbs.28 grams butter, 35 grams all-purpose flour, 55 grams brown sugar, 2 grams cinnamon
- Pour the batter into a greased 9×5-inch metal loaf pan and top with the streusel topping.
- Bake at 350°F for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the temperature reaches 200°F. If the top is getting too dark tent it with aluminum foil. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
Notes
- Make sure to use pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling.
- Do not overmix the batter or the bread can become tough.
- For a chocolate chip version add about 1 cup of chocolate chips to the batter and leave off the cinnamon streusel.
- Use a metal loaf pan for this recipe. Glass pans take longer to heat up, which means the quick bread will need more time to bake — and that can cause the streusel topping to burn. If you’re using a glass pan, tent the top with foil during the last 15–20 minutes of baking to prevent over-browning.
- Use room temperature ingredients to ensure the wet ingredients combine easily.
- 75 grams butter to 57 grams
- 2 eggs to 1 egg
- 368 grams pumpkin puree to 305 grams
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Everybody loved this recipe wherever we go. Definitely a favorite to bring to any holiday party.
Thanks, Eileen!
Perfect recipe for fall—moist, flavorful, and absolutely delicious! My house smells incredible. Thank you for sharing!
Made this, it was decent but don’t think I’d make again. Reduced sugar by 25% (not in the streusel though) and added walnuts. Also made it in a 8×8 pan so they are more like squares than a loaf (cooked for 10 mins less). Also made x1.5 the streusel since there was more surface to cover. The taste was good but nothing to brag about.
Thanks for the feedback Chloe. Sorry to hear you didn’t love it.
I absolutely loved this recipe! It was super simple and I was also able to add my own spin on it. My grand lovey suggested chocolate chips and walnuts. Great addition. I will be making this again and again.
Thanks so much Ann!
Made this recipe last weekend and used a 9×13 pan. It lasted about 2 hours! So good! New favorite recipe for pumpkin bread! Even the neighbors raved about it! Highly recommend doing the 9×13 pan for breads! Comes out great!
Was it more of a bar in a 9×13? So glad you enjoyed it!
Almost caught my oven on fire …
Used a 9×5 loaf pan but it overflowed so much it was sitting on the heating element and glowing bright orange when I got to it.
Managed to not have it on fire. Put a sheet pan under it to catch anymore overflow and had another cup of dough flow out. Prob lost about 2c total.
Would definitely use a larger pan or split between two loaf pans. I have a very active starter and my discard could be more active than others. But this was an excessive amount of overflow.
I eventually had to give up on the bake because of it. The part I got to each that was baked onto the side was delicious.
Hi Jillian I’m sorry you had that issue. I’ve made this several times, I’ve even made it twice this week, and have never had it overflow in my 9×5 inch pan so I’m trying to figure out what could have happened. Are you using grams or cups when measuring? Sometimes when you use cups you end up using more than the gram amount so maybe it had extra batter but that still seems like a lot.
When I push 2x or 3X. It doesn’t double or triple the recipe. It only does it in the gm not the tsp or cups etc. delicious!!!!
Hi Shelia, unfortunately the recipe card software only allows me to enter one set of measurements that works with the automatic 2–3x feature, which is why only the grams update when you scale the recipe. I add the cups and teaspoons in manually for those who prefer not to use gram measurements or don’t have a scale. I wish there was a way to fix that but unfortunately, I can’t. I appreciate your understanding.
This recipe is delicious. I ended up baking the bread about 5-7 minutes longer than the recipe suggested. The center came out beautiful and moist, but the bottom part was dense and gummy, almost as if it was underbaked? I’m worried if I bake it longer next time that it will come out dry, since the rest of the loaf was perfectly moist. Any other tips to fix this next time?
Hi Allison, sorry about that. Ovens can bake differently so it can take some adjustments. If you need to bake longer you can tent the top with foil the last 15-20 minutes to prevent the top from drying out. Also, I’m not sure what type of pan you are using but glass typically bakes longer which is why I prefer baking in metal. Hope this helps.
I loved this recipe! I like recipes with streusel on top and this one is now a favorite. I have a couple of recipes for pumpkin bread and none is as moist as this one. The texture is perfect and it was a success at home. I don’t want to go back to the other recipes. This is the one I’ll be making from now on. Thank you for sharing!
Yay happy to hear you like the recipe. Thanks for leaving a review 🙂
Made this bread and it tastes amazing. It hits all the marks for a Fall recipe