This Pumpkin Blueberry Bread is the perfect combination of fresh sweet blueberries and the warmth of pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. It’s extra moist, buttery, and made decadent with a simple sugar glaze. Try not to eat every slice warm out of the pan!
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📋 About the Recipe
- Minimal ingredients. Baking fresh quick breads at home is always easier and less work than you think. Your family will be surprised you had all the ingredients you needed to make this delicious pumpkin blueberry bread already in the kitchen.
- Easy to make variations. If you end up loving the warmth of the spices and tenderness of this pumpkin bread, you’ll love my other very similar pumpkin baked goods: Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting, Pumpkin Banana Muffins, and Pumpkin Zucchini Muffins. You could even make a couple recipes to serve at your holiday brunch or the school Halloween party.
- Freezer friendly. If you’re trying to clear the leftover pumpkin puree out of the kitchen at the end of the season, make several loaves and stash them in the freezer to be enjoyed year round.
🛒 Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- Flour - As with most of my quick breads and muffins, I recommend using all purpose flour. It’s easy to find, is often the most affordable option, and it truly does make the softest breads with a tender crumb.
- Spices - For a perfectly spiced pumpkin bread, I use a simple blend of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. If you’re out of nutmeg and cloves, try using ¾ teaspoon of store-bought pumpkin pie spice instead.
- Butter - Unsalted butter makes the best consistent tasting dessert breads. If necessary, you can substitute salted butter and omit the added kosher salt. Note that not all salted butters are made the same - some are significantly saltier than others and can change the flavor of your pumpkin bread.
- Pumpkin puree - Store-bought unsweetened pumpkin puree is a staple in my pantry this time of year. It has unlimited uses in savory recipes like Pumpkin, Carrot, and Sweet Potato soup and also bakes well in Pumpkin Banana Muffins and Pumpkin Zucchini muffins. Just be careful to buy 100% pure pumpkin puree. There should be no added sweeteners or spices of any kind.
- Blueberries - If you’ve made my Blackberry Lemon bread, you know how delicious buttery dessert breads can be with fresh fruit baked into them. This pumpkin blueberry bread is one of my favorite ways to use up a ¾ cup of fresh blueberries.
📓 Instructions
- Preheat and prep. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and spray a 8x4-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the all purpose flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and kosher salt. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar. In a stand mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the granulated sugar and unsalted butter until pale and combined, about 3 minutes.
- Add in eggs, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract. First beat in egg until just combined. Add pumpkin and vanilla extract and beat again until smooth.
- Pour dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredient mixture into the wet batter. Beat until just combined and there is no dry flour remaining.
- Coat blueberries in flour. Add blueberries and 1 tablespoon flour to a small bowl. Stir to coat blueberries in flour. This will prevent the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the bread.
- Fold blueberries into the pumpkin bread batter. Using a rubber spatula, fold blueberries into the pumpkin batter to distribute.
- Scoop batter into prepared baking pan. Spread smooth and top with additional fresh blueberries, if desired.
- Bake. Bake the blueberry filled bread for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the blueberry pumpkin bread comes out clean.
- Cool the bread. Allow the bread to cool for 30 minutes in the pan before transferring it on to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Prepare the glaze. In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk. Pour glaze on top of the bread. Let sit a few minutes for glaze to firm up before slicing and serving.
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
- Blueberry substitution: If you are out of blueberries, try fresh, whole cranberries. They are a bit more tart than blueberries, but compliment the flavors in the sweet pumpkin bread nicely. You could even use mini chocolate chips for the ultimate pumpkin dessert bread. If you use frozen blueberries, do NOT defrost them before adding to the batter.
- How to make this bread without a stand mixer: Cream together the butter and sugar using electric beaters. As a last resort, you can also do this by hand using a standard whisk.
- Top with my cream cheese frosting instead. If you’d like a richer dessert bread, try my cream cheese frosting I used on my pumpkin bread.
❄️ How to Store
Storage: Since this bread is filled with fresh fruit, I recommend storing it in the refrigerator for optimal preservation. For best results, store the pumpkin blueberry bread in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. This sweet bread is best served the same day or the next day.
Freezing: This pumpkin bread is freezer safe, but there are a couple of things to know before baking. First, if you are planning to freeze, do not glaze the pumpkin bread until you thaw it and are ready to serve. Second, I highly recommend freezing the pumpkin blueberry bread in a whole loaf as opposed to slices to retain the moisture and preserve the loaf’s optimal texture.
To freeze, tightly wrap in plastic wrap and place in a zip top freezer safe bag. Once ready, thaw the bread in the refrigerator overnight.
🔍 FAQs
I personally have not tried it, but it would likely work if your bundt pan is a similar depth to a loaf pan. The cook time may need to be adjusted so insert a toothpick into the center of the bundt before removing it from the oven.
To prevent blueberries from sinking to the bottom of your pumpkin bread, coat the fresh blueberries in a bit of flour before mixing them into the batter.
Just as you would if you were eating them by the handful, you’ll want to rinse them before baking to remove any germs, unwanted residues, or debris.
I recommend rinsing them thoroughly in cool water, then transferring them to a clean tea towel or paper towel and gently pat dry to remove excess moisture.
Be careful not to burst the blueberries or the blue color will turn purple in the pumpkin bread batter.
💭 One More Tip
Sift the powdered sugar before using. Sifting the powdered sugar through a fine mesh sieve will remove any clumps and ensure your glaze is silky smooth before topping the pumpkin bread.
🍴 Related Recipes
Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!
Pumpkin Blueberry Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Pumpkin Blueberry Bread
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour, plus 1 tablespoon extra for coating blueberries
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg*
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves*
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¾ cup 100% pure pumpkin puree
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup fresh blueberries, plus extra for top
For the Glaze
- ¾ cup confectioner's (powedered) sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk of choice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Prepare an 8x4-inch loaf pan by spraying it with nonstick spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 ¼ cups flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Add butter and sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat together until pale and combined, about 3 minutes.
- Beat in egg until just combined. Add pumpkin and vanilla extract. Beat again.
- Pour flour mixture into the wet batter. Beat until just combined and there is no dry flour remaining.
- Add blueberries and 1 tablespoon flour to a small bowl. Stir to coat blueberries in flour. This prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the bread.
- Using a rubber spatula, fold blueberries into the pumpkin batter.
- Scoop batter into prepared pan. Top with additional blueberries (without flour), if desired.
- Place pan in oven and bake for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean with just a few crumbs.
- Allow bread to cool for 30 minutes in the pan before removing it and placing it on a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- As the bread cools, prepare the glaze: Combine powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Pour glaze on top of the bread. Let sit a few minutes for glaze to firm up before slicing and serving.
Notes
- Store pumpkin blueberry bread in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 1 week. Bread is best when served the same day or the next day.
- If freezing, freeze the bread whole (do not cut into slices, for optimal freshness) in an airtight container or wrapped with plastic wrap and placed in a zip top bag. Thaw bread in the refrigerator overnight.
- *¾ teaspoon of store-bought pumpkin pie spice can be used in place of the nutmeg and cloves.
- If using frozen blueberries, do NOT defrost them before adding to the batter. This will cause the berries to turn watery and make the bread too moist. Simply add frozen blueberries right into the batter.
Nutrition
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Cooksey says
So I made this with canned blueberries I had and then added white chocolate chips. I then added one my brown sugar oatmeal streusel topping and then added white chocolate to that as well.
It came out amazing, I put them in decorative cupcake cups to pass them out as gifts at work.
I do have a question though, since I couldn’t find any instructions on time estimate on how long to cook them in cupcakes or muffin pans. Do you have a recommendation on how long?
Alana Lieberman says
I'm so glad you gave this recipe a try! Because it was slightly altered (using canned blueberries and white chocolate chips) I can't estimate for certain on the baking time in a muffin pan. The canned blueberries would add more moisture and would most likely affect the time. However, for the recipe written with fresh blueberries, I'd recommend baking in a muffin pan for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.