I created this beloved pumpkin bread recipe for a special Home for the Holidays: Gluten-Free Style event. Even though I’ve not experienced a gluten-free holiday in the past, as the honorary dairy-free gal in a free-from foodie club, I was invited to join in. And truthfully, the timing couldn’t be better. By coincidence (seriously, this is just a coincidence) we will be having our first gluten-free and dairy-free Christmas this year.
If you aren’t gluten-free or baking for a gluten-free loved one, don’t run for the hills. I’ve got some other dairy-free pumpkin bread recipes, including this wheat-based one with eggs and this one that’s vegan.
As for the recipe below, it’s amazingly free of top allergens. Seriously, I amazed myself with how scrumptious this pumpkin bread is. Without a firm recipe to work with, I literally winged it and threw this recipe together. It worked perfectly on the very first trial. It must have been holiday magic.
Special Diet Notes: Perfect Pumpkin Bread for All
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, gluten-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, vegetarian, and top food allergy-friendly.
- 1⅓ cups brown rice flour (can use white rice flour if preferred)
- ½ cup potato starch
- ¼ cup tapioca starch
- ¼ cup buckwheat flour
- 2 teaspoons xanthan gum (can sub guar gum for corn-free)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup packed brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
- ½ cup oil (grapeseed, coconut, canola, etc.; your choice)
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Lightly grease and flour (I used a little brown rice flour) 4 mini-loaf tins, and preheat your oven to 325ºF.
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flours, starches, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the sugar, pumpkin, oil, maple syrup, water, and vanilla.
- Stir in the flour mixture until all is just combined. It actually becomes smooth quickly.
- Divide the batter between your prepared tins, smoothing out the tops with the back of a spoon or spatula, since it will be a little thick.
- Bake the bread for 45 to 55 minutes, or until firm to the touch. The bread should pull slightly away from the pan when done, and will be lightly browned, but a toothpick inserted may yield a few very small crumbs, so I didn’t rely on the toothpick test.
- Let the loaves cool for 10 minutes, before popping them out to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Resist the urge to cut into these loaves while still hot. Like any bread, they will be a bit crumbly when hot, but firm up perfectly as they cool.
This bread will keep nicely for two to three days at room temperature, wrapped snuggly in plastic wrap. To store it for longer, I recommend slicing and flash freezing the individual slices, then wrapping them in plastic wrap and placing them back in the freezer. They can be reheated or toasted to serve.
Variations: If desired, before baking, sprinkle the tops of the loaves with a little cinnamon and sugar or with coconut sugar, for a little extra crunch and sweet.
This recipe should work well as muffins (will make about one dozen) and as a large loaf (use a 9×5 pan). Since I haven’t tested these, use your best judgment on the baking time. I would start with 22 minutes on muffins, and watch them from there. For a large loaf, it will probably take at least 60 to 70 minutes of baking time.
Diet type: Vegan, Vegetarian, Dairy free, Egg free, Gluten free, Nut free, Peanut free, Soy free, Wheat free
43 Comments
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I made this as muffins today, and it turned out great. I got 18 muffins from the recipe. I subbed quinoa flour for buckwheat flour, arrowroot powder for potato starch and halved both the sugar and maple syrup. Still had a great texture and my whole family loved it:)
Thank you for sharing your successful modifications Amy!
Hi, Alisa,.
Thank you for this lovely pumpkin bread recipe. I made this recipe Christmas morning for the family. We cannot believe how great the texture came out. I made some substitutions, as we did not have tapioca starch or potato starch.
I used cornstarch and Quinoa flour to substitute for the starches and also used Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Baking powder for the main flour. The bread was really nice.
If I want to modify the recipe further to get a sweeter, moister pumpkin bread….should I simply add more pumpkin and sugar?
Hi Brooke – glad you enjoyed! Yes, in theory more pumpkin and sugar could do the trick, but keep in mind that as you add more moisture to a gluten-free bread, it becomes gummier. Since you are using different flours, too, that tend to be a little heavier, more moisture could pose a problem. I would start with increasing the sugar first (which adds both sweetness and some moisture, but not as much as pumpkin) and see if you still like the texture.
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Thank you Alisa!
HI Alissa,
just a follow up..I made the bread using my GF Flour Blend and after 70+ minutes in the oven it never cooked in the middle. I did not add any xtra xanthan gum because I had forgotten. I DID eat it however and thought it tasted very nice. I will have to try again and follow the recipe exactly. Just a general question…Ive had this happen to me before with vegan baking where the middle did not cook through. What do you think is causing this? Im new to baking so any insight was be wonderufl! thanks so much!
Trisha, when a bread doesn’t set up, it’s because it lacks enough binding power. Without enough binder (eggs, xanthan gum, guar gum, gluten, psyllium husk, pectin (from fruit), flaxseed, chia seeds, starches, etc all aid in binding) the bread won’t be able to gain structure and will stay gooey.
In this recipe, the xanthan gum provides SIGNIFICANT structure. If you add it, I promise, it will cook through with a perfect texture (just made more last night!). Like gluten-free baking, binding ingredients need to be added in vegan baking, since you aren’t using eggs. In some cases, gluten in wheat flour is enough, but in many cases you need to add an ingredient that will help it set up. If baking both gluten-free and vegan (like this recipe) an even higher level of binding ingredients needs to be added.
Hi, i have been GF for a week now…lol. i have Arrowhead Mills GF all purpose flour that i would like to use for this recipe. It already contains xanthan gum so would i need to add any additional? thank you!
Hi Trisha, I couldn’t tell you since I have no idea how much xanthan gum they use in the mix. You could try it without and see how it goes!
Oh, and keep in mind that this is an egg-free recipe, so there is a good chance that a little extra xanthan will be needed.
Lakiia, how much of the all-purpose flour did you use? Or Alisa, do you have an estimate of how much you would suggest using to replace the other flours? Thanks!
I haven’t tested it Christine. I would start with an equivalent amount – 2-1/3 cups – and see how the batter looks. I may experiment with this soon. Also, omit the xanthan gum.
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I made this bread yesterday using Trader Joes all purpose gluten free flour (I had JUST thrown out ALL of my sweet brown rice, brown rice, garbanzo and buckwheat flours the day before because of grain moths). This recipe was absolutely amazing! I’ve been gluten free for 3 years and vegan for about 13. Remaking regular and vegan recipes into gluten free delights is at tunes tricky but exciting. This turned out so well it’s already gone! I’ll be making another batch tomorrow. My only tweak, I’ll eliminate 1tsp xanthum gum and will add raisins (or cranberries) and chopped toasted pecans (or maybe just chocolate chips if i’m really feeling frisky…)!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe Lakiia! And thank you for sharing your modifications – excellent to know that TJ’s AP flour worked well.
Hello, this sounds great! But do you think it’d work without the syrup…or something else in its place. I have regular syrup even, just not maple.
It would “work” I just can’t report on the flavor outcome! Any liquid sweetener can be used (honey, agave, brown rice syrup, etc.), but maple is the only one I’ve tested in terms of flavor.
I made this the day before yesterday, and I’m already going to have to make more tomorrow – it’s sooo good! I used honey in place of maple syrup, and I’ve been munching it constantly: warmed and covered with pieces of dark chocolate, smeared with peanut butter, drizzled with more honey, and of course just by itself. Seriously, this is a truly great recipe!
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I made this for my husband and me today. I used coconut oil, maple sugar (didn’t have coconut sugar) and millet flour in place of buckwheat. It turned out delicious and so moist. Loved it.
I made this today. It turned out perfect! I used the brown sugar and melted coconut oil. This is a mild recipe. So I may add a little more spice for my own personal preference. Thank you for a fool proof recipe!
I bake gluten-free about once a year for a friend so don’t have a lot of “specialty” flours around except all-purpose gluten free. Do you think I could replace the rice/potato/tapioca/buckwheat with 2 1/3 cups a-p. gluten free flour and have this still work? The flour I have is King Arthur, which contains: specialty flour blend (rice flour, tapioca starch), potato starch & whole grain brown rice flour. I also have some made by Bob’s Red Mill which is garbanzo bean flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, white sorghum flour & fava bean flour.
Thanks!
Carrie, It would probably work, but I don’t want to make any promises! I personally would use buckwheat flour and then ap for the rest, but ap for all should probably work. It’s just hard to say for sure without trialing it. Sometimes mixes with too much starch can be a bit gummy in a bread using xanthan gum.
I am going to try this tomorrow! Yum, no dairy, no eggs AND GF yum, yum,yum!!!!
I don’t the buckwheat flour, I will use sorghum I guess…..what do you think?
Thank you
Hmm, I’m not totally sure as they really are different flours. Buckwheat is more dense and less gritty. Sorghum is more like brown rice flour in texture. You could give it a try though!
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