This Bisquick pumpkin bread truly tastes like the quintessential pumpkin bread of your dreams! With a beautiful, dependable rise, tender crumb, and perfect balance of cozy pumpkin spice flavors, this easy quick bread recipe is an excellent addition to your fall baking repertoire. No mixer required.
Paging through an old binder of family recipes, a decrepit newspaper clipping flew out and caught my attention: a very bare-bones banana bread made with Bisquick. It being the start of spooky season, my mind immediately went to its quick bread cousin: pumpkin bread.
With a good number of tweaks (pumpkin breads need more sugar than banana breads, adding vanilla extract/pumpkin spices/mix-ins, subbing in some brown sugar, etc.), I think I've landed on the best pumpkin bread I've ever made? And that's saying something as I'm all about my naturally-sweetened pumpkin bread with maple syrup.
If you're a fan of the convenience of Bisquick like I am and appreciate a pumpkin loaf with an impressive rise, moist texture, and perfect pumpkin spice flavor, give this Bisquick pumpkin bread recipe a whirl this fall!
P.S. You may also want to check out Bisquick chicken and dumplings, Bisquick chocolate chip cookies, and this easy zucchini pie.
Recipe Ingredients
Making pumpkin bread with Bisquick means we don't need any separately-added leavening agent (like baking powder/soda) or salt.
- Bisquick: This all-purpose baking mix takes the place of flour, baking powder and/or baking soda, and salt.
- Spices: These include all the cozy flavors in pumpkin pie spice, including cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and a pinch of cloves.
- Pumpkin Puree: Found in the baking aisle, this is canned pumpkin puree without any sweeteners or spices. Just pure pumpkin.
- Sugars: There's an equal blend of granulated and brown sugars in this bread as the bit of molasses in the brown sugar adds a nice depth to pumpkin bread. Either light or dark brown sugar is fine.
- Oil: Bisquick adds a small amount of fat (roughly the amount of one tablespoon of oil here), so one-third cup of oil is added as well to join with the pumpkin to provide lots of moisture. Choose a cooking oil with a neutral flavor, like canola, vegetable, or extra-light olive oil.
- Eggs: For a smooth, soft, and cohesive quick bread texture.
- Vanilla Extract: A classic, though replacing a small amount of it with maple extract (if you have one you like - they can be finicky) would be an extra seasonal twist on pumpkin bread.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Step 1: Separately combine the wet and dry ingredients.
- Step 2: Stir the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients until just combined.
- Step 3: Fold in any mix-ins you're using (optional).
- Step 4: Pour into a 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- Measuring Bisquick: Measure Bisquick like you would flour, by spooning it into your dry measuring cup. Don't pack it down, rather keep going until it's heaping over the top rim of the cup. Then use a straight edge (like a knife or the straight handle of your spoon) to level off the top, allowing the excess Bisquick to fall back into the bag.
- Ensure a good rise: Quick breads cling to the tall sides of a loaf pan to get their height, but there are a few things you can do to make sure nothing gets in the way:
- Grease only the bottom and one inch up the sides of the loaf pan to help the batter climb.
- Don't open the oven door until near the end of the bake time, as the cool air that enters can impede rising.
- Optional Mix-ins: This Bisquick pumpkin bread is really very good without anything added to it, but there's room to jazz it up if you like:
- Chocolate chips or chunks - dark chocolate is a personal favorite pairing of mine with pumpkin.
- Nuts - like toasted pecans or walnuts.
- Dried fruit - like raisins or dried cranberries. I like to reconstitute them by pouring hot water over top and letting them soak for 10 minutes before draining and patting dry.
Frequently Asked Questions
I've only ever used the Bisquick brand for this recipe so I couldn't say for sure how other baking mixes would fare. They all have varying levels of fat, sodium, sugar, etc. If you want to try it out, I'd say to stick to a baking mix and not a pancake/waffle mix. While the all-purpose baking mixes are often used for pancakes, I've found that pancake/waffle mixes often contain significantly more sugar.
This recipe is written for a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and yields a nicely-sized loaf of pumpkin bread that is domed over the top rim once baked. I would hesitate to use a much smaller loaf pan (like an 8-by 4-inch) as you may risk a spillover in your oven, but an 8.5-by-4.5-inch loaf pan would likely be fine, with an increased bake time to account for the extra height. You can place a rimmed sheet pan underneath the loaf pan if you're concerned about spillover while baking.
This Bisquick pumpkin bread, like many quick breads, gets a little more moist as the days go by - not drier. Once cooled, place the loaf in an air-tight container or bag (with excess air pressed out). You may want to put a paper towel along the bottom and top of the loaf to absorb excess surface moisture, replacing it as needed. Store at room temperature for up to three days, or freeze for several months.
Related Recipes
If you’ve enjoyed this recipe, I’d love for you to leave a star rating in the recipe card and/or a comment review below!
Bisquick Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups Bisquick baking mix spooned-and-leveled into cup
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
- Pinch of ground cloves
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- ⅓ cup neutral-tasting cooking oil like vegetable or canola
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup mix-ins: nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruit, etc. (optional)
Instructions
- Arrange an oven rack to be slightly below the mid-point, so that when the loaf pan is baking, it's situated to be in the center of the oven. Preheat oven to 350°F and spray just the bottom and first one-inch up from the bottom of a 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan on all sides with cooking spray. Set aside for now.
- Whisk together Bisquick, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves in a large mixing bowl until evenly combined.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract until the mixture is smooth and well-combined.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir together until just combined and no dry streaks remain. Lumps are okay. Use broad, sweeping strokes to bring up the dry ingredients from the bottom of the bowl to do this efficiently. Fold in any mix-ins, if using.
- Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a tester (like a toothpick) inserted into the center tallest part of the bread comes out clean. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a spatula around the edges to loosen it up. Transfer bread to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing or storing.
Notes
- Measuring Bisquick - Spoon it into a dry measuring cup until it's heaping over the top surface, then use a straight edge to level it off. Don't pack it in.
- Storage - Once cooled completely, store pumpkin bread in an air-tight container or bag (press out all excess air) at room temperature for up to 3 days. The bread will become a bit more moist as it sits, so you can line the bottom and top of the loaf with a paper towel to absorb this excess moisture. Replace paper towel as needed.
- Freezing - Freeze either a whole loaf or individually plastic-wrapped slices in an air-tight container or bag for several months.
- Nutrition - This is an estimate calculated without mix-ins.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as an estimate. As it can vary due to many factors (brands used, quantities, etc.), we cannot guarantee its accuracy.
Food Safety and Nutrition DisclaimerWould you like to save this?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Plus receive periodic recipe newsletter emails.
Patricia says
I used a a baking pumpkin. Came out great! Thank you for sharing
Alyssa says
I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Patricia! Thank you for your review. 🙂