Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread with Walnuts

Warm moist pumpkin bread with cinnamon sugar swirls and chopped walnuts in every bite. Mm. Perfect with milk or coffee on an early fall morning.

It’s November, which means it’s the perfect time to whip out your favorite fall recipes! And nothing, at least to me, represents fall better than pumpkin.

I went to Smart & Final the other day to buy a 28oz can of pumpkin puree for baking. What I didn’t realize was that 28oz is a lot. Especially for desserts. It can make two pumpkin pies according to the label. Or in my case, 14 pumpkin cheesecake muffins*, three servings of apple pumpkin spice oatmeal, two dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies**, and one loaf of pumpkin cinnamon swirl bread with walnuts. I think my family and friends are going to be tired of pumpkin long before we reach Thanksgiving…

I wanted to make something relatively healthy, something we could eat for breakfast, not just for dessert. So I decided I wanted to make pumpkin bread. But pumpkin bread by itself seemed too plain. What else could I add that would make bread appear more exciting? There’s everyone’s favorite banana walnut bread. Why not make pumpkin walnut bread? That sounds good. And while I’m at it, there’s cinnamon raisin bread with the pretty cinnamon swirls. Why not add cinnamon sugar swirls to it?

Warm moist pumpkin bread with cinnamon sugar and chopped walnuts in every bite. Doesn’t that sound delicious for breakfast? Or dessert? Or maybe even a snack between meals? Seriously, I think I can find an excuse to eat all day long. But the nice thing about bread is that a loaf can last an entire week, even with sharing, so you don’t have to worry about making breakfast the next day before going to work or school.

When baking, one of the most basic things to remember is to combine all the dry ingredients together in one bowl and all the wet ingredients in another bowl. Then, slowly pour the dry ingredients into the wet ones, mixing as you do. This ensures that the ingredients are evenly mixed and less likely to clump up.

First, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, and baking soda together in one medium size bowl. In another bowl, combine the butter and brown sugar. Add pumpkin, almond milk, vanilla extract, and eggs into that same bowl. Slowly pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing them together. Lastly, stir in chopped walnuts.

In a small bowl, mix together ground cinnamon and granulated sugar. This will make the cinnamon sugar swirl.

Line a 9×5 bread loaf pan with foil. Lightly grease with vegetable oil. I poured a little vegetable oil onto a paper towel and ran it along the foil so that I could easily peel the foil from the bread later.

Pour half the pumpkin batter into the baking pan. Then sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar on top. Pour the rest of the pumpkin batter into the pan. Then, finally, sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon sugar on top. Now, swirl a spoon around in the batter a few times, mixing the cinnamon sugar in with the pumpkin batter.

Your pumpkin cinnamon swirl batter should look something like this.

Bake the batter at 350 degrees for about 50-60 minutes. Use a toothpick to test different areas to see if the bread is ready. Wait for the bread to cool down before cutting into it. I was a little too excited and got ahead of myself. You can see that my first slice fell apart because I couldn’t wait to cut into it.

The top of the bread will be slightly crunchy from the baked cinnamon sugar. The center of the loaf will be moist, cinnamon-y, and slightly nutty. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread with Walnuts

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

60 mins

Total time

1 hour 10 mins

 

Author: Andrea Giang

Serves: 1 loaf

Ingredients

For the Pumpkin Bread:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoon pumpkin spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ stick butter at room temperature
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 ½ cups pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• ⅓ cup almond milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

For the Cinnamon Sugar:

• ⅓ granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350⁰F. Line a 9x5 bread pan with aluminum foil. Lightly grease the pan with vegetable oil. Then set aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the granulated sugar and ground cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, mix flour, pumpkin pie spice, and baking soda together. Put butter into a separate medium bowl and break apart with a fork and a spoon. Mix in brown sugar. Whisk until there are no more lumps. Mix in pumpkin puree, eggs, almond milk, and vanilla extract with the brown sugar butter. Slowly pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing as you go until there are no more lumps. Finally, combine the walnuts with the batter.
4. Pour half the pumpkin batter into the loaf pan. Then evenly distribute half the cinnamon sugar on top of the batter. Pour the rest of the pumpkin batter in. Then evenly sprinkle the rest of cinnamon sugar on top. Swirl a spoon around the batter a few times to mix the cinnamon sugar into the batter, creating the cinnamon sugar swirl.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Time will vary depending on your oven. To check for readiness, insert a toothpick into several areas of the bread. If the toothpick comes out clean, the bread is ready. Wait until the bread cools down for 10-15 minutes before cutting into it.

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*Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins were made based on a recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction

**Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies were made based on a recipe from Cooking Classy.