Gluten-free Pumpkin Bread with Streusel Topping
Gluten-free pumpkin bread with a crumbly streusel topping and a maple glaze. This gluten free pumpkin bread truly tastes like fall!
I’ve already shared my favorite gluten-free pumpkin muffins. And I’ve shared my go-to fall dessert: gluten-free pumpkin bars. But I hadn’t yet shared a gluten-free pumpkin bread recipe, so I am today!
Of course I couldn’t bring you a dry and healthy tasting loaf. I went for one that tastes so good that your friends that “hate gluten free stuff” will be grabbing another slice!
The gluten-free pumpkin loaf itself is thick but not heavy, and isn’t overly sweet. This is perfect because the streusel topping adds a great sweetness and texture.
While the ingredients list is a little long, if you do much baking you likely have everything needed already!
Notes on ingredients and substitutions for this gluten-free pumpkin bread recipe:
- Pumpkin: Be sure you grab canned pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling. They’re not the same thing! You’ll be using less than a full can of this, so be careful not to just open the can and dump it all in. Please note that I have found large variations in color of baked pumpkin goods depending on the brand of canned pumpkin that I buy, so that’s totally ok!
- Gluten-free Flour: Use your favorite good quality gluten-free flour blend (i.e. no bean flours, not only rice flour, and is certified gluten-free). I recommend gfJules, King Arthur Measure for Measure Flour, Authentic Foods Multi-Blend Flour and Cup4Cup. While I don’t usually use it, this recipe was also tested with Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 baking Flour and that worked well. I know a lot of you keep that one on hand. Make note of whether your flour blend includes xanthan gum or guar gum or not.
- Oil: Use your preferred oil. I recommend something that doesn’t have a strong taste. For baking, I prefer corn oil, vegetable oil, or canola oil. I’ve also used light tasting olive oil (not the same as extra virgin olive oil which does have a taste).
- Spices: Much of the flavor comes from ground cinnamon – a lot of it! This bread also includes ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and ground cloves. If you don’t prefer one of those spices, you can feel free to omit! You can also replace just the ginger/nutmeg/cloves with 2 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice if you have that on hand.
All of the other ingredients are items you likely have on hand: sugar, brown sugar, salt, baking soda.
Can you make this gf pumpkin bread recipe dairy-free?
Yes, you can make this a gluten-free dairy-free pumpkin bread by just swapping the butter and milk in the streusel and glaze with their non-dairy counterparts.
The batter for the loaf already is dairy-free, so it’s just the streusel and maple glaze that have some dairy to replace. I would recommend a non-dairy butter alternative like Earth Balance or Melt in place of the butter.
How to make this gluten-free pumpkin bread:
First you’ll line your bread pan with parchment paper and spray it with non-stick spray.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin and oil. Next add the eggs and whisk until well combined. Then whisk in the sugar and brown sugar.
In another bowl, combine the gluten-free flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared bread pan.
Mix together the streusel ingredients until they look like wet sand.
Sprinkle or spoon the streusel topping all over the pumpkin bread batter in the loaf pan.
Bake for 60-80 minutes or until the streusel has browned and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or with moist crumbs only, not wet batter. The wide range of time is because there isn’t a strict standard size/shape of full-size loaf pans – some are wide, some are long, some are skinny but tall. So start checking your loaf for doneness at 60 minutes, and then every 5 minutes until it tests done.
Here’s a look at this gluten-free pumpkin loaf after it comes out of the oven. You’ll want to let it cool for 30 minutes once you remove it from the oven. I recommend placing on a wire rack like you see here.
Now this gluten-free pumpkin loaf is amazing just like this with just the streusel topping. You are welcome to slice it up and serve as soon as it finishes cooling completely. (It’ll fall apart if you cut it before it is cool).
You can also take this pumpkin bread up a notch by adding the maple glaze! I think the glaze it what takes this to being the best gluten-free pumpkin bread recipe!
The maple glaze is made by browning butter until slightly browned. Use a hand mixer or a whisk to mix in powdered sugar, salt, and maple syrup. Then drizzle it right over the unsliced loaf.
Once the loaf is cooled completely and the glaze has set up how you’d like, slice this up and serve!
Depending on how thin you make your maple glaze, it might or might not stay wet looking. You can place the loaf in the fridge to help the loaf cool and the icing to set if you like. But you can also just go ahead and slice even if the glaze is still a little wet and sticky, as long as the loaf is cool.
Look at this! Doesn’t a slice of this look sweet and cinnamony and amazing?
Sure you can opt for a healthy pumpkin bread, but you might as well splurge on a slice or two of this one instead! Make it to share with others and you won’t feel guilty about enjoying a slice!
You can eat slices of this bread plain, or you can serve with butter or cream cheese too.
A good cup of coffee or tea goes great with this. And for the kids – a tall glass of cold milk!
If you have slices remaining, I would store them at room temperature, in an air-tight container so it doesn’t dry out.
You are also welcome to place in the refrigerator if you’d prefer – it will harden the glaze – but otherwise will also keep it nice and moist. Either option is fine!
If you love quick breads like these, be sure to check out my gluten-free banana nut bread too! Also, my tried and true gluten-free zucchini bread is so good! This gluten-free cranberry orange bread looks perfect for fall too!
If you make this gluten-free pumpkin bread recipe and enjoy it, please come back and give this recipe a 5 star rating in the recipe card! Feel free to comment with tips or to share any successful substitutions you made.
Gluten-free Pumpkin Bread Recipe:
Gluten-free Pumpkin Bread with Streusel Topping
Streusel topping and a maple glaze make slices of this gluten-free pumpkin bread over the top good!
You can easily adapt this to be dairy-free too!
Ingredients
Loaf:
- 1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree (plain canned pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling)
- 3/4 cup corn or vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 cups gluten-free flour blend*
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
Streusel:
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup gluten-free flour blend
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 Tablespoons cinnamon
- 1/4 cup butter (=4 Tablespoons or 1/2 stick), melted
Glaze:
- 1/4 cup butter (=4 Tablespoons or 1/2 stick)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
- pinch of salt
- 2-3 Tablespoons of milk, as needed to thin glaze
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°.
- Line your loaf pan with parchment paper and spray it with non-stick spray.Â
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin and oil. Next add the eggs and whisk until well combined. Then mix in the sugar and brown sugar. Set aside.
- In another bowl, combine the gluten-free flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, baking powder and cloves. Whisk together.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
- Streusel: In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, gluten-free flour blend, sugar, and cinnamon. Add in the melted butter and mix with a fork until the mixture is crumbly. Evenly sprinkle the streusel on top of the batter in the loaf pan.
- Bake in the 350° preheated oven for 60-80 minutes or until the streusel has browned and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or with moist crumbs only, not wet batter. The wide range of time is because there isn’t a strict standard size/shape of full-size loaf pans – some are wide, some are long, some are skinny but tall. So start checking your loaf for doneness at 60 minutes, and then every 5 minutes until it tests done. When finished baking, remove and place on cooling rack to cool.
- While the bread is baking, make the glaze. Place butter in a small saucepan on medium-low heat until slightly browned, about 2-2.5 minutes. Be careful not to let this burn. Remove from heat and pour into a metal mixing bowl. Add the powdered sugar, pure maple syrup and salt and mix. Add milk about a teaspoon at a time until you achieve the drizzling consistency you want. Drizzle the glaze over the baked loaf.
- Allow to cool completely before slicing bread to enjoy!
Notes
I'm assuming your gluten-free flour blend has xanthan gum or guar gum in it already. If your flour blend does not, I would recommend adding 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan in with the dry ingredients when you whisk those together.
See blog post for recommendations for gluten-free flour blends.
You can make this a gluten-free dairy-free pumpkin bread by just swapping the butter and milk in the streusel and glaze with their non-dairy counterparts. I would recommend a non-dairy butter alternative like Earth Balance or Melt in place of the butter.Â
I hope you and your family enjoy this gf pumpkin bread!
This has become a fall staple in our family home, I substitute the sugar and brown sugar with splenda blend and Splenda brown sugar. I also use a little extra pumpkin for extra moisture. Comes out absolutely perfect every single time. My Fiance and I give these as gifts and take them to company breakfasts and parties and everyone can’t believe that it is sugar free and gluten free. Absolute pure perfection!
Perfectly portioned in 4 mini-muffin silicone pan set on metal sheet pan. Loosely covered with foil last 20 minutes to prevent over- browning. Baked 55 minutes until only moist crumbs on toothpick and internal temp was 202F. Cooled in silicone on metal pan. Used Walmart Great Value All Purpose Gluten Free flour. This is a keeper!! Tender, moist crumb. Could easily cut sugars or increase spices if desired. Didn’t glaze since everyone ate it by the spoonful before the bread was ready. One of the best GF quick breads I’ve had in years!!
I made this exactly how the recipe called for. After an hour, my crumble was pretty brown, but the center of the bread was still moving like jello. I put it back in, but the crumble burnt. How do I prevent this?
By far the best I’ve ever made!! This turned out so well!! I did use half the recommended sugar for the loaf and streusel topping but still amazing!! The browned butter maple glaze is soooo..good. My four year old was asking to lick the spatula and bowl!! I added pecans to the streusel which really made it crunchy and special!! Awesome recipe! Thank you!!
Mmm, the pecans added sounds like a great addition! So glad you liked these! Thank you for the comment!
This really is outrageously delicious. Sharing this tomorrow with my customers. I made small loaves and cakes in a cup. I used Bobs Red mill 1 to 1 and no one would guess these are gluten free. I added a few gf it’s to the streusel and sprinkled with pecans.
Hello – I baked these as mini loaves to give to
neighbors. I baked until the toothpick came out clean, but the inside is dense and overly moist with no discernible crumb. Any idea what I did wrong?
What kind of gf flour did you use? I noticed the contents and brand vary the baked goods with texture.
Is the parchment paper really necessary? Why not just straight into the pan?
It’s definitely helpful for removing loaf from pan and for easy clean-up. If you’d prefer not to use, spray your pan very well – all the way up the sides too. Enjoy!
Is it ok to use apple sauce instead of oil.
Any suggestions for egg substitutions? I’m highly allergic to eggs
this was awful, Pour? This was not a pour consistency. Followed recipe to the tee. eewww
Caye, that’s a bummer this recipe didn’t work out for you. Which part wasn’t pourable? The pumpkin bread batter or the maple syrup topping?
If it was the batter, my guess would be the gluten-free flour used. Did yours by chance have any coconut flour or bean flours in it?
I don’t own a loaf pan, so I decided to turn the bread into muffins. I’ve made my share of muffins, and I could not get over how delicious and moist these were. This recipe made 10 jumbo muffins. I don’t own a regular muffin pan either 🙂
In regards to time, I started them out at 45 min. I began testing them with a toothpick around 30 min…and continued to do so every 5 min after. It would depend on your oven, I suppose. I used a nonstick pan without liners.
Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and they pair well with 2 eggs over easy, and a hot cup of coffee. Whether you make the bread or muffins, you will not be disappointed!!!!
Just made this delicious pumpkin bread yesterday. Came out slightly tough on the outside edges but soft, moist and flavorful inside. Although I’m a fan of crumbly toppings, this lovely bread really doesn’t need it…plenty sweet without. (My husband said the same and that man has a sweet tooth.) Thanks for helping me kick off pumpkin season!
Okay, the streusel top grew on me! For some reason, I enjoyed it much more the next day and on. Made this again on Sunday–it’s challenging not to slice off a hunk every other pass through the kitchen!
Wow! 2 cups of sugar in the bread + streusel + glaze!!! Sugar overload! The calories have to be 400-500 per slice. ?
Hi Kim. I looked up what Starbuck’s pumpkin bread slices are, and they are 410 calories per slice. So this is pretty in line with your guess and about what a typical slice of pumpkin bread with streusel or icing would be. You could definitely cut the calories by omitting the streusel and glaze if you’d prefer!
@Kim, I generally use Golden Monkfruit sweetener in place of white sugar to cut calories a bit. Pricier, but the flavor isn’t compromised. 🙂
@Kim, I skip the topping and, for my first two batches, also cut the sugar in half (50%Maple syrup, 50%light brown sugar) and it’s STILL sweet. Lots of room for modifications!
This is a great recipe, works well with buckwheat flour mixed in.