Pumpkin Yeast Bread with Raisins
This pumpkin yeast bread is a sweet bread filled with pumpkin puree, raisins, and warming spices. It’s delicious fresh or toasted and makes a delicious breakfast (and amazing French toast!)
I love adding pumpkin to bread dough – I do it for these pumpkin dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, and sticky buns. It gives the bread a stunning gold hue. That, coupled with the seasonal flavors of pumpkin pie spice, makes it perfect for fall.
This pumpkin swirl bread uses a lightly enriched dough with great texture and flavor and can be made by hand (though it’ll take elbow grease!) but it’s easiest in a stand mixer with a dough hook. It’s rolled up with a pretty cinnamon sugar swirl.
Ingredients
Here’s what you need for this delicious pumpkin yeast bread. You can find the full recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- A strong all-purpose flour with a protein level of at least 11%. You can use bread flour too.
- Yeast. Active dry yeast or instant dry yeast.
- Granulated white sugar – There is sugar in the bread dough and the cinnamon swirl. You can also use light brown sugar.
- Pure pumpkin puree – You can use canned or make homemade pumpkin puree. Don’t use pumpkin pie filling.
- Spices – ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
- Large eggs
- Salt.
- Whole milk.
- Butter – Salted or unsalted butter, just enough to bring some richness
- Raisins: Sweet little bursts in the pumpkin bread.
Equipment
- Kitchen Scale
- Stand Mixer
- Two 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf pans (You could also use 9×5 inch pans for a slightly less high loaf.)
Method
Here are step-by-step photos of the process.
- Warm the milk, and add to a stand mixer bowl along with yeast and sugar
- Add flour, salt, pumpkin puree, spices and eggs.
- Mix to form a thick dough. Add in the softened butter, a few cubes at a time.
- Keep mixing on medium speed for around 10 minutes until the sticky dough is smooth and strong.
- Mix in the raisins. Transfer the dough to a greased large bowl and let it rise.
- For extra flavor, the dough can undergo a slow cold rise instead. Cover it tightly with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for up to 16 hours.
Shaping
- Remove the dough from the bowl and cut in two.
- Roll each piece into a rectangle and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.
- RolI the dough up tightly, jelly-roll style into 8-inch logs. Pinch the edges to seal them and place the log into bread pans.
- Let them rise until doubled, then brush with milk.
- Bake until deep golden brown.
Storage
Store the cooled bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. The loaves can be wrapped tightly in a freezer bag for longer storage and frozen for up to 3 months.
I like to slice them before freezing so I can easily take pieces as I need them.
Variations
- Nuts: Add walnuts or pecans for added crunch.
- Dried Fruit: Substitute raisins with dried cranberries or cherries for a twist.
Related recipes
If you enjoyed this pumpkin yeast bread recipe, you might like these recipes too!
Pumpkin Yeast Bread With Cinnamon Swirl
This pumpkin yeast bread is a sweet bread filled with pumpkin puree, raisins, and warming spices. Makes two loaves
Ingredients
- 240 g whole milk plus more for brushing
- 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast or active dry yeast
- 65 g granulated sugar
- 690 g all-purpose flour or bread flour
- 225 g pumpkin puree
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 85 g unsalted butter oom temperature.
- 150 g raisins
Cinnamon sugar filling
- 65 g granulated sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Warm the milk to around 95-104°F / 35-40°C (not hotter) and pour the warm milk into a bowl of your stand mixer. Sprinkle yeast and half the sugar over the milk.
- If using active dry yeast, let this sit for around 5-10 minutes until it becomes foamy; if using instant yeast, this step can be skipped.
- Add flour, remaining sugar, eggs pumpkin puree, spices, and salt. Fit the stand mixer with a dough hook attachment and mix to form a thick dough.
- Add in the softened butter a few cubes at a time.
- Keep mixing on medium speed for around 10 minutes until the sticky dough is smooth and strong and pulls away cleanly from the sides of the bowl.
- Add the raisins and mix on low speed until they are incorporated.
- Once kneaded, form the soft dough into a ball. Transfer the dough to a greased large bowl and cover it.
- Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, around about 1 hour. The exact time the dough rises will depend on your room temperature.
- For extra flavor, the dough can undergo a slow cold rise instead. Cover it tightly with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for up to 16 hours.
Shaping
- After the first rise, punch down the risen dough and pull it from the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface. If the dough has come from the fridge, it will be stiff.
- Mix sugar, cinnamon, and flour in a small bowl for the filling—grease, and line two 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf pans with parchment paper. You could also use 9×5-inch pans for less high loaves.
- Cut the dough into two equal pieces and shape them into balls. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the pieces of dough into an 8×15-inch rectangle.
- Sprinkle over half the cinnamon sugar mixture. RolI the dough up tightly, jelly-roll style, into an 8-inch log. Pinch the edges to seal them and place the log onto a prepared pan. Repeat with the second piece.
- Cover the loaf pans loosely and let the bread rise until doubled in size. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Once risen, brush the tops of the loaves with milk and bake in the oven for approximately 35 minutes until deep golden brown (with an internal temperature of around 195°F.)
- Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Let the loaves cool in their pan for 5 minutes before removing and cooling to room temperature.
Notes
Both metric and US customary measurements are provided. Use the toggle on the recipe card to switch between the two.
See here how to make your own pumpkin puree.
Nutrition
Serving: 1sliceCalories: 260kcalCarbohydrates: 46gProtein: 6gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 36mgSodium: 184mgFiber: 2gSugar: 11g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
This recipe looks and sounds amazing! Love the addition of raisins. Makes me think of my mom, she loves pumpkin bread.
This bread is absolutely delicious. I made it exactly as written, I did a cold first rise for about 10 hours. I had a really really hard time finding a good recipe that wasn’t too sweet. This bread is perfect for breakfast, toasted with butter or french toast were our favs. I sliced and froze the second loaf, it defrosted beautifully. This recipe is killer, thank you so much.
So happy you loved it Mallory!!
Can the recipe be halved to make one loaf?
Yup 🙂
This dough was so silky and easy to work with! It made two beautiful loaves with great rise. I subbed Trader Joe’s pumpkin pie spice for the ones listed, and the flavor was just perfect. It makes excellent toast. Great recipe, thank you!