Smitten Kitchen Has a Clever Trick for Making the Best Pumpkin Bread Ever

If you’re a fan of cooking, chances are you’ve heard of Deb Perelman — or, at the very least, her wildly popular food blog, Smitten Kitchen. Celebrated for its reliable recipes that are always delicious and never too fussy, Smitten Kitchen has become one of the most famous (and beloved!) food blogs. I’ve made several Smitten Kitchen recipes (and have included them in several past showdowns), and can confidently say they are always good. So when picking out recipes to include in our pumpkin bread showdown, including a Smitten Kitchen recipe was a no-brainer. Plus, it’s a favorite among our staff, and even inspired our own pumpkin bread recipe.

Smitten Kitchen’s recipe makes one loaf; is spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves; and comes together in just one bowl. And unlike most other pumpkin bread recipes online, Perelman’s recipe is large, scraggly, and lofty — a bit more rustic than I’m used to. But the thing that really caught my eye was the crust. Before baking, Perelman tops her pumpkin bread with a generous amount of cinnamon sugar to form a crunchy, sugary crust. I had never topped a quick bread with cinnamon sugar before, so I was eager to give it a try.

Get the recipe: Smitten Kitchen’s Pumpkin Bread

Smitten Kitchen’s pumpkin bread is a super-simple recipe that can be whipped up within an hour. You’ll start by buttering a six-cup loaf pan and preheating your oven. In a large bowl whisk together pumpkin purée, oil, eggs, and sugar. Add baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, and whisk until smooth. Add flour, stir until a smooth batter forms, and pour into your prepared baking pan.

In a small bowl combine cinnamon and sugar, then sprinkle it over the top of the batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, then let it cool. Smitten Kitchen notes that you can let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert it onto a cooling rack — or you can let it cool completely in the baking pan without removing it. (The latter option allows the cinnamon sugar to stick to the top better.)

This pumpkin bread was hands-down the best recipe I tested. It was super moist with a pound cake-like texture that was seriously delicious. The spice flavor was strong without being overwhelming, and the bread wasn’t overly sweet. It was the most delicious loaf of pumpkin bread I’ve ever had.

On top of simply tasting amazing, the thing that made this recipe so special was the cinnamon sugar topping. It gave the bread an additional layer of flavor and wonderful crunchy texture that took it to the next level. The sugar was my favorite part of the recipe, and it made me wonder why I never sprinkled it over quick breads in the past. The crunchy, sugary pieces mixed with the tender bread was the perfect combination of contrasting textures. I will definitely be making this recipe again — or, at the very least, be stealing the cinnamon sugar topping for other quick breads I make this fall season.

1. Make sure you’re using canned pumpkin purée, not pumpkin pie mix. The latter has sugar and spices added to it, so double check the label when shopping.
   
2. Don’t over-mix the batter. As soon as the batter comes together, stop mixing. This is one of those baked goods where the less mixing you do, the better it turns out.
   
3. Go heavy on the cinnamon sugar topping. This recipe yields quite a bit of the cinnamon sugar mixture to sprinkle on top — and at first it might seem like too much — but it’s actually the perfect amount. It melts and combines with the batter to create a crunchy topping as it bakes.
   
4. Let the pumpkin bread cool completely in the loaf pan before removing it. As per Smitten Kitchen’s advice, cooling the pumpkin bread in the pan will help more of the cinnamon sugar topping adhere to the loaf.
   
   Rating: 10/10

Have you ever made Smitten Kitchen’s pumpkin bread recipe? Tell us what you thought!