Make this eggless pumpkin bread with this easy recipe that's mixed by hand and that's also dairy-free and vegan! This pumpkin bread is great toasted for breakfast and freezes very well. It's made with less sugar so it's a healthier pumpkin bread than most!
How to make a pumpkin bread recipe without eggs
A typical pumpkin loaf cake recipe would have eggs in it, but it turns out that canned pumpkin makes a great egg replacer, as do other fruit purées, like mashed banana in this eggless banana bread. So you can actually easily make eggless pumpkin bread without changing much of anything and without having to resort to egg replacers, like chia eggs or flax eggs, among others. That's great news if you are looking for dairy-free or vegan fall desserts or recipes made with canned pumpkin.
You may notice holes in your cake when you slice into it: these might form because the batter is thick and so gaps in the batter will occur as you fill the loaf pan. If you over-mix the batter, this could also cause larger holes in your cake, so please be sure to mix just enough to form a cohesive, even batter, but not so much that you develop too much gluten. You'll also want to make sure that you take the time to whisk together the dry ingredients so that the baking soda disperses evenly throughout the batter.
Canned pumpkin versus homemade pumpkin purée
Of course, if you feel like using your own homemade pumpkin purée, instead of canned pumpkin, you absolutely can in this recipe. However, I do have one recommendation for you: strain your homemade pumpkin purée through a few layers of cheesecloth in order to remove some of the water because sometimes homemade pumpkin purée may have an excess of water in it, and that can lead to a wet or gummy cake that might take a very long time to dry out properly. Feel free to keep that pumpkin water for other recipes, like for making smoothies, or you can also boil it down to a very thick syrup to remove the water so that you can add back to the pumpkin purée. This way, nothing is wasted! I use the technique of boiling down the liquid with defrosted bananas to avoid letting the banana juice go to waste. If you go this route, make sure to save the seeds so that you can make a batch of toasted pumpkin seeds to snack on later.
Because this pumpkin loaf cake is vegan, the recipe calls for canola oil (or your favourite neutral-tasting oil), which means the batter for this pumpkin bread can be mixed in a bowl with a whisk or a wooden spoon, instead of having to resort to the creaming mixing method. No mixer required here, which means this recipe is very easy to make because all you do is mix the ingredients together. Of course, if you prefer to bake with butter, a common baking substitution would be to replace the canola oil with the same amount of melted butter (which works out to 58 grams of melted butter). That would work just fine too!
This is a healthier pumpkin bread because it's made with less sugar than most loaf cakes of this size, which would have at least 200 grams (1 cup) of sugar. Reducing the sugar by 50 grams (¼ cup) allows us to make this recipe a little healthier, without impacting the texture of the bread or how moist it is. This is another example to show that baking with less sugar is possible, just like with these blueberry bran muffins and these hearty apple blackberry muffins.
This eggless pumpkin bread makes a flavourful loaf that makes great toast in the morning. I also like to slice the whole loaf and then freeze it. Then you can pull out a slice when you want it and toast it in your toaster. If you want to use maple syrup instead of the sugar, try this pumpkin bread with maple syrup.
If you like to explore more recipes for baking with pumpkin, order your copy of the e-book All About Pumpkin so you can celebrate this star ingredient!
📖 Recipe
Eggless Pumpkin Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 375 mL pumpkin purée or strained homemade pumpkin purée
- 60 mL canola oil or melted butter
- 150 grams granulated sugar or brown sugar or a mixture of both
- 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 5 mL baking soda
- 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 5 mL ground cinnamon
- 2.5 mL ground allspice
- 2.5 mL ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C). Grease and flour a 9x5-inch (23x12.5 cm) or 8.5x4.5-inch (21.5x11.5 cm) loaf cake pan, then line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment.
- In a large bowl, combine the canned pumpkin with the sugar. Whisk in the oil.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour with the baking soda, salt, and spices.
- Fold the dry ingredients in the bowl with the wet batter and stir everything together to incorporate it and form a thick batter. Don't overmix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 60–65 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the centre of the bread comes out clean.
- Let cool 10 minutes, then unmold onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
Bob says
Love this recipe, and I wanted to say thank you for posting it! It's just so easy, very sweet despite the reduced sugar, and it does work well with not-too-moist homemade puree, just as you describe. It'll be going into my notebook, and I'll be sure to share your link with anyone who asks.
Sarah K says
I love this recipe especially since my son is allergic to eggs. I used olive oil instead of canola, and added vanilla extract and a few extra dashes of pumpkin pie spice (this adds ginger & cloves) to give it extra fall spice flavor. I wish the recipe would have said 1 can of Libby's pumpkin instead of a cup and a half, I could have avoided dirtying those measuring cups 😄
Janice Lawandi says
Hi! Thanks for your comment about the can size! It's so helpful! I'll add a note about it in the recipe card - I am in Canada, and our cans of pumpkin purée are much larger. For us, it's much less than 1 can of pumpkin. I avoid using cans as a quantity because the size of a can varies from country to country.
Deborah says
I am an experienced baker, and 1 teaspoon of salt is too much! Seriously, that much salt makes the dish anything but healthy. I decided to follow your recipe exactly as written, and it turned out to be way too salty. 1/4 teaspoon is enough salt.
Janice Lawandi says
Hi, Thanks for your comment. Is it possible you used regular table salt instead of Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt? If you did, this would explain why the bread was too salty.
I will add a note to remind readers that the recipe calls for Diamond Crystal specifically in the ingredient list or else to adjust the amount.
Stephanie says
Hi Janice,
I love your recipe, thank you for sharing!
I wanted to make mini loaves for gifting. How should I adjust the cooking time?
Thank you!
Eileen F says
Hi, Janice! I would like to try making your eggless, dairy-free pumpkin bread for Christmas. Which flour alternative (e.g., almond, oat, etc.) would you recommend for those of us who must eat gluten-free? Two family members and I cannot eat all-purpose flour.
Thank you!
Janice says
Hi Eileen,
I'm made banana bread with oat flour and it worked well, but for that I had a recipe with eggs. In this case, an eggless recipe, I think your best bet would be to use a gluten-free flour all-purpose blend that contains something like xanthan gum to contribute structure, since you can't rely on the gluten in regular all-purpose flour. But this will take some testing because they don't all behave the same... I'd try replacing gram for gram to see if that works, then adjust from there, like if you notice an unbaked layer on the bottom, you likely needed more flour in the batter.
I'm sorry I don't have a more concrete answer for you, but I hope this will at least get you moving in the right direction! Good luck and let me know what flours you test and how it goes!
ce says
Perfect!