Small Loaf Bread Machine Pumpkin Bread – 1 lb & 1.5 lb Recipes

Here are easy 1 lb & 1.5 lb bread machine pumpkin bread recipes that create a moist pumpkin bread perfect for fall & winter holidays. These small loaf recipes are designed for small or medium-sized bread machines.

Recipe Sections

1. Ingredients
2. Instructions
3. Helpful Tips

These 1 lb & 1.5 lb recipes are NOT for bread machines that have a 2 lb (or more) capacity. These smaller bread machine pumpkin breads will probably come out looking like a pancake if you try to make them in larger 2 paddle bread machines.

1.5 Bread Machine Pumpkin Bread – Cooling Down After Baking

Recommendation – I would suggest trying to make my 1.5 lb version first because many small compact bread machines seem better designed for making a 1.5 lb pumpkin bread (versus a 1 lb pumpkin bread). Read the tips section below for more information.

If you have a large 2 lb bread machine, you should make my 2 lb Bread Machine Pumpkin Bread.

Ingredients – 1 lb Bread Machine Pumpkin Bread

• 1/2 Cup – Pumpkin Puree – 122 grams – Not canned pumpkin pie mix. See tips section below for more info.
• 1 Egg (large) – 72 grams
• 1/4 Cup – Vegetable Oil – 59 milliliters – You should use a neutral flavored vegetable oil (e.g. corn oil). See the tips section for more info.
• 1 Cup – All Purpose Flour – 120 grams – Do not use bread flour.
• 1/2 Cup – White Granulated Sugar – 100 grams
• 1/2 Teaspoon – Vanilla Extract – 2.5 milliliters
• 1/2 Teaspoon – Baking Soda – 2.5 grams
• 1/2 Teaspoon – Baking Powder – 2 grams
• 1/4 Teaspoon – Salt – 1.5 grams
• 1 Teaspoon – Pumpkin Pie Spice – 2 grams – Or use 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon if you dislike the flavor of pumpkin pies.
• Optional – 1/4 Cup of Chopped Walnuts (or Chopped Pecans) – 29 grams

Ingredients – 1.5 lb Bread Machine Pumpkin Bread

• 3/4 Cup – Pumpkin Puree – 183 grams – Not canned pumpkin pie mix. See tips section below for more info.
• 1 Egg (large) – 72 grams
• 2 Tablespoons – Pumpkin Puree – 30 grams – This pumpkin puree is to make up for the missing 1/2 egg when you convert this recipe between my 1 lb, 1.5 lb and 2 lb versions (as eggs are tough to divide in half). If you do not have this little extra pumpkin puree, you can use 1 egg white (not yolk) as this equals roughly 1/2 egg. See tips section for more info.
• 3/8 Cup – Vegetable Oil – 89 milliliters – You should use a neutral flavored vegetable oil (e.g. corn oil). See the tips section for more info.
• 1 1/2 Cups – All Purpose Flour – 180 grams – Do not use bread flour.
• 3/4 Cup – White Granulated Sugar – 150 grams
• 3/4 Teaspoon – Vanilla Extract – 4 milliliters
• 3/4 Teaspoon – Baking Soda – 4 grams
• 3/4 Teaspoon – Baking Powder – 3 grams
• 3/8 Teaspoon – Salt – 2.3 grams – This fraction is a little weird for teaspoons. However, you can make it easily with a 1/4 teaspoon plus a 1/8 teaspoon (1/4 + 1/8 = 3/8).
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Pumpkin Pie Spice – 3 grams – Or use 3/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon if you dislike the flavor of pumpkin pies.
• Optional – 3/8 Cup of Chopped Walnuts (or Chopped Pecans) – 44 grams

Servings – Roughly 9 slices

Equipment Needed – Measuring cups & spoons, soft silicone spatula, oven mitts, wire cooling rack… and of course, a bread machine.

Bread Maker Pumpkin Bread – Just Finished Baking

Batter for 1 lb Bread Maker Pumpkin Bread

Instructions – 1 lb & 1.5 lb Bread Machine Pumpkin Bread

• Bread Machine Settings – Sweet “Quick Bread”/Cake, Light Color, 1 or 1.5 lb Loaf
• Lightly beat the eggs.
• Unplug the bread machine and remove the bread pan.
• Add the pumpkin puree, eggs & oil into the bread pan and then add the rest of the ingredients. FYI – Consider premixing the ingredients before adding the batter to the bread pan if you want to prevent flour sticking to the sides of the bread pan and/or finding small flour “clumps” in the finished pumpkin bread. See tips below.
• Put the bread pan (with all of the ingredients) back into the bread machine, close the bread machine lid and then plug in the bread machine.
• Enter the bread machine settings (Sweet “Quick Bread/Cake”, Light Color, 1 or 1.5 lb Loaf) and press the start button. FYI – Before making this recipe, please read the tips section below for more information regarding the sweet quick bread/cake setting used to make pumpkin breads. The setting may be called “quick bread”, “quick bread/cake”, “cake”, etc. However, some manufacturers use the “quick bread” setting for rapid sandwich-type breads that use yeast (and not for quick breads such as pumpkin bread that use baking powder/soda). Therefore, this setting can be very confusing… but the tips section below will help you to find the right setting to use on your machine. You need to enter the correct pumpkin bread setting used by your SPECIFIC bread machine model or the pumpkin bread could be under or overbaked.
• Optional – If you want to add chopped walnuts to your pumpkin bread, please add them after the first bread machine mixing cycle and before the second mixing (final mixing). FYI – If your bread machine only has one mixing cycle and it does not beep/signal when to add extra nuts, you should add them about 8 to 10 minutes after the machine has started.
• When the bread machine has finished baking the bread, unplug the bread machine, remove the bread pan and place it on a wooden cutting board.
• Let the pumpkin bread rest inside the bread pan for 10 minutes before you remove it from the bread pan. Use oven mitts when removing the bread pan because it will be very hot!
• After the 10 minute “cooldown”, you should remove the pumpkin bread from the bread pan and place the pumpkin bread on a wire cooling rack to finish cooling. Use oven mitts when removing the bread.
• You should allow the pumpkin bread to completely cool before cutting. This can take up to 1 to 2 hours. Otherwise, the pumpkin bread will break (crumble) more easily when cut.
• Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully and to avoid common bread machine problems with moister “quick bread” recipes such as pumpkin bread.

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1 lb Bread Maker Pumpkin Bread – Too Small for Some Compact Machines

Helpful Tips – 1 lb & 1.5 lb Bread Machine Pumpkin Bread

• The tips below are designed to help bread machine “novices” and those who haven’t touched their bread machine in years.
• Click on this “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include my tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on easy Bread Machine Recipes such as banana bread, sourdough bread, super soft white bread and French bread.

• Since many people have small or medium-sized bread machines, I converted my popular 2 lb Bread Machine Pumpkin Bread Recipe into smaller 1 lb and 1.5 lb versions. My 2 lb version was too big for some compact machines and came out underbaked. These smaller loaves will work better in compact machines.
• Examples of smaller bread machines include the Briskind Compact Bread Maker and Zojirushi Mini Breadmaker.
• These recipes do NOT well with bread machines that have a 2 lb (or more) capacity even if the manufacturer says the 2 lb capacity machine can handle 1 lb quick bread loaves. Your pumpkin bread will come out looking looking like a pancake if it is made in large 2 paddle bread machine.
• Also be aware that making making a moist pumpkin bread with a bread machine is tougher than making drier sandwich breads with a bread machine. Why? Because many bread machines have a problem mixing wetter “quick bread” recipes.

• Warning – The number # 1 error when making these recipes is using a bread machine that is too large. These bread machine recipes are designed for small compact & medium-sized bread machines. They do not work well in 2 lb capacity machines as the pumpkin bread will either come out like a pancake (as the pan is too big) or overbaked (as the machine is designed to bake a larger pumpkin bread). If you have a 2 lb capacity bread machine, you should make my larger “regular” 2 lb Bread Machine Pumpkin Bread.
• In addition, unless you have a very small bread machine, I would recommend trying to make my 1.5 lb version FIRST. In many bread machines, the 1 lb bread maker pumpkin bread comes out very flat and the paddle may stick out a little through the top of the pumpkin bread (see the recipe picture above this tips section). The 1 lb pumpkin bread is too small for most bread machines.
• Visitors – Did you make the 1 lb or 1.5 lb version? And what bread machine did you use? This info is very helpful to other bread machine users (esp. beginners and owners of your bread machine model). Please post your machine details in the comment section below.

• Warning – The number 2 error that people make when creating a bread machine pumpkin bread is using the WRONG setting. The people who have a problem often use the “quick” or “quick bread” setting designed for fast/express sandwich bread recipes that use yeast… and NOT the “quick bread” or “cake” setting designed for moist quick breads (e.g. pumpkin bread & banana bread) that use baking soda/powder. These are two totally different settings with different mixing & baking lengths.
• You need to find the correct baking soda/powder “cake/quick bread” setting used on YOUR specific make & model of bread machine.
• To more easily find the “cake/quick bread” setting names used by many of the most popular bread machines, you should visit my Bread Machine Quick Bread Settings page. I set this up to help people find the correct pumpkin bread & banana bread setting for their particular machine.

• As an example, here are the correct settings for 2 popular compact & medium-sized bread machines:
• The Briskind Compact Bread Maker (model # BM8605) that I use allows you to make a 1 lb pumpkin bread (by using the 1 lb setting & “cake/quick bread” setting) as well as a 1.5 lb pumpkin bread (1.5 lb setting & “cake/quick bread” setting).
• For the KBS 19-in-1 (model # MBF-016), you should use the “cake” setting (setting 15) in order to make my 1.5 lb bread machine pumpkin bread recipe. However, given the pan’s width, the KBS will not work well with my 1 lb version (the 1 lb pumpkin bread would come out as a thin pancake). Also I couldn’t set the weight on my KBS when using the “cake” setting.
• Visitors – What setting did you use to make this recipe? Please post your compact bread machine tips in the comment section below.

• Be aware that the setting name used for pumpkin bread recipes can VARY by bread machine manufacturer. Therefore, you must check your bread machine’s instructions for the exact setting name used to make pumpkin bread by YOUR specific bread machine model.
• IMPORTANT – Be aware that some bread machine manufacturers even label the rapid/express sandwich bread setting as “Quick Bread”. This can cause a lot of confusion!! because they use the “quick bread” name in order to describe a setting that makes a rapid sandwich-type bread with yeast. This setting is not used to make a sweet quick bread recipe (such as pumpkin bread or banana bread) that uses baking powder/soda. In general, a setting used for yeast breads can NOT be used to make quick bread recipes (such as pumpkin bread or banana bread) due to different rising & baking lengths.
• Moreover, in many bread machines, the “sweet bread” setting is used for sweet breads that use YEAST (not pumpkin breads that use baking soda/powder). “Sweet bread” recipes are different from sweet quick bread recipes (e.g. pumpkin bread or banana bread) and utilize different rising & baking times. Therefore, a bread machine pumpkin bread recipe is unlikely to work on the “sweet bread” setting.

• This recipe uses canned pumpkin puree and NOT canned pumpkin pie mix. Pumpkin puree is cooked and mashed pumpkin and/or winter squash. It is not canned pumpkin pie mix (which has added spices, sugar, water, etc.). Pumpkin puree is more flexible than pumpkin pie mix because you can add & customize your own favorite spices (versus having to rely on the existing positive or negative flavor of the canned pumpkin pie mix).
• In addition, if you use canned pumpkin pie mix (instead of pumpkin puree), it will be adding extra sugar (on top of the recipe’s sugar) and this can make the pumpkin bread too sweet.
• Recipe egg differences – My 2 lb recipe uses 2 eggs and my 1 lb recipe uses 1 egg. This means to keep everything proportional, my 1.5 lb should use 1 1/2 eggs. However, it is really tough to make an 1/2 egg! Therefore, my 1.5 lb recipe uses 2 tablespoons of pumpkin puree to replace this 1/2 egg. Hopefully, this makes things simpler for you (because you don’t have to try dividing a wet, sticky egg in half!). If you do not have this little extra pumpkin puree, you can use 1 egg white (after removing the yolk) as this equals roughly 1/2 egg.
• These recipe also use just white granulated sugar (versus the 50/50 mix of white sugar & light brown sugar in my 2 lb recipe) in order to make things a little simpler for you. However, please feel free to experiment with the 50/50 sugar mix if you want to add a little richer flavor to your bread maker pumpkin bread.

• To make pumpkin bread, many people like to use pumpkin spice (which is a blend of ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves). However, if your family dislikes the taste of pumpkin pies (or you don’t have any pumpkin spice available at home), you can use ground cinnamon (instead of pumpkin pie spice).
• Optional – You can easily turn this pumpkin bread into a “crunchy” pumpkin nut bread. For the 1 lb recipe, you would add 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts (or chopped pecans). For the 1.5 lb recipe, you would add 3/8 cup of chopped walnuts (or chopped pecans).
• Personally, I preferred the taste of the pumpkin bread when I added the chopped walnuts. However, since many people have nut allergies, you might not want to add chopped nuts.
• FYI – The 1.5 lb pictures on this page show the pumpkin bread with the chopped walnuts and the 1 lb pictures show a pumpkin bread made without any nuts.
• Optional – Instead of chopped nuts, you can use mini chocolate chips. I prefer to use mini chocolate chips in my bread machine “quick bread” recipes (e.g. pumpkin bread & banana bread). Why? The smaller mini chips float better in the batter and get better distribution throughout the batter. Heavier regular-sized chocolate chips often sink to the bottom of bread maker pumpkin bread.
• Optional – For a more “harvest” based pumpkin bread, you can replace the optional chopped walnuts with dried cranberries. The trouble with using fresh cranberries is that they may float to the top of your pumpkin bread or they can break during the mixing and add unplanned extra liquid. Any extra liquid can cause the pumpkin bread to come out underbaked.
• Visitors – What do you like to add to your bread maker pumpkin bread? Chopped nuts? Chocolate chips? Dried fruit? Difference spices? Please post your pumpkin bread suggestions & variations in the comment section below.

• You should use a NEUTRAL flavored vegetable oil (e.g. corn) in order to make this moist pumpkin bread recipe.
• Stronger flavored oils (e.g. peanut oil or extra virgin olive oil) may NEGATIVELY impact or change the taste of pumpkin bread. You want to use an oil that has very little flavor.
• If you want to use olive oil, I would recommend using a “mild”, “light” or “extra light” olive oil as they would have the least flavor impact on the bread maker pumpkin bread. Unfortunately, extra virgin and virgin olive oil have stronger flavors and are more likely to negatively impact the taste of your pumpkin bread.
• A number of my visitors like to use avocado oil in order to make their “quick breads” such as pumpkin bread & banana bread. Avocado oil has a neutral flavor and is high in monounsaturated fats. However, as you are probably aware, avocado oil is usually significantly more expensive than corn oil.
• These recipes uses vegetable oil (instead of the butter in my 2 lb Bread Machine Pumpkin Bread). Why? Because many bread machines tend to overbake these smaller loaves and they can come out dry tasting when made with butter. “Quick breads” made with vegetable oil often taste moister because vegetable oil remains liquid (whereas butter turns back to a solid at normal room temperature). Moreover, butter partially evaporates during baking (as butter is roughly 16% water). In contrast, vegetable oil (which contains no water) tends not to evaporate during the baking process.

• Use FRESH ingredients (e.g. baking soda and flour) for the best results. For example, if you use stale baking soda and/or baking powder, your bread maker pumpkin bread will not rise properly and will be too dense. Baking soda & powder is best if used within 6 months of opening the container.
• Ingredients such as flour & sugar should be stored in airtight containers in order to avoid contamination from moisture (in the air), dust, pests, etc. Airtight containers will also extend the shelf life of some ingredients (when compared to ingredients stored in open bags).
• Flour (when stored in an open bag/container and not in an airtight container) can absorb a lot of moisture from the air. This extra moisture throws off recipes and can lead to underbaked pumpkin breads and/or a sinking middle in your pumpkin bread.

• This recipe uses all purpose flour and not bread flour. If you use bread flour to make this recipe, you will get a tougher and more rubbery pumpkin bread. Bread flour is best for sandwich bread recipes. All purpose flour is best for softer “quick breads” that use baking soda/powder (such as bread maker pumpkin bread or banana bread) as well as cakes, cookies, etc.
• You should use large eggs (and not extra large or jumbo). FYI – In the USA, they sell different-sized eggs and they are usually labelled either large, extra large or jumbo.
• Flour sticking to the sides of your bread machine pumpkin bread? Unfortunately, bread machines have a harder time mixing moister sweet quick bread recipes (versus drier sandwich bread dough). Therefore, after the first mixing cycle has fully stopped (and before the second & final mixing cycle has begun), I like to scrape the sides of the bread pan with a flexible silicon spatula (not a metal spatula). This loosens any flour that may be sticking to the sides of the bread pan (because a bread machine mixing “paddle” doesn’t quite reach the sides of the bread pan). For safety purposes, I do not scrape the sides of the bread pan when the mixing blade is moving. In addition, people should not stick their hands inside bread machines. Moreover, people should always wear oven mitts when dealing with a bread machine because the bread pan & bread machine interior can get quite hot.
• Nevertheless, ALWAYS follow the instructions included in the manufacturer’s manual for your specific bread machine in order to safely scrape the inside of your bread pan.

• Some people get around this issue by PREMIXING their ingredients. They will first mix all of the ingredients by hand in a mixing bowl and then add it to the bread machine bread pan (versus adding all of the ingredients to the bread pan and letting the bread machine mix everything). While this is an extra step, premixing the ingredients greatly reduces the potential for any unwanted small flour “clumps” and/or flour sticking to the sides of the finished pumpkin bread. After hand mixing the ingredients, you should just follow the rest of the recipe instructions (e.g. enter proper bread machine settings and so on). However, always remember to add the ingredients (or hand mixed batter) to the bread pan when the bread pan is out of the bread machine and the bread machine is unplugged.
• If you premix the ingredients, you should consider removing the paddles from the bread pan (while the machine is unplugged and the pan is not in the machine). This will prevent the ingredients from being mixed potentially too much. Overmixing can lead to “gummier” pumpkin breads. You also get the benefit of a much smaller paddle hole in the bottom of the pumpkin bread (only from the paddle “pole”).

• Be careful when removing the pumpkin bread from the bread loaf pan. Pumpkin breads are much softer than sandwich-type bread loaves. Therefore, they can break or “dent” more easily when you remove them from the bread loaf pan. When removing the pumpkin bread from the bread pan, you should also be careful of the movable bread pan handle (because it can swing into the pumpkin bread and cause damage).
• Optional – If the top center of the bread looks too moist when you take it out of the bread machine (or you want to make sure the pumpkin bread is completely cooked), you can try the classic baking “toothpick test”. Gently push a long wooden skewer (or long wooden chopstick) into the center of the bread and see if any batter sticks to the skewer. Make sure to wear oven gloves because the bread pan and bread machine will still be hot. If batter is sticking to the skewer then it hasn’t completely cooked. Place the bread loaf pan back into the still warm bread machine for another 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes, remove the bread pan and retest the pumpkin bread again with the skewer.
• Since a toothpick can be too short, I like to use a long chopstick or wooden skewer when conducting the classic “toothpick” test. Remember always wear oven mitts when dealing with a hot bread pan and bread machine.

• After removing the bread pan from the bread machine (and the pumpkin bread successfully passing the optional skewer test), you need to leave the pumpkin bread in the bread loaf container for 10 minutes after you take it out of the bread machine. Denser & moister quick breads take a little longer for the interior dough to be fully baked.
• Long-term storage – If you want to keep your pumpkin bread for more than 1 to 2 days (depending on your home’s temperature & humidity), you will need to freeze it. Please read Bread Dad’s How To Freeze Banana Bread for more details. While the page is focused on banana breads, the information also applies to pumpkin breads.
• If you like making 1 lb & 1.5 lb “quick bread” recipes with your bread machine, check out my recipe for 1 lb & 1.5 lb Bread Machine Banana Bread.

• In case you are looking at getting a bread machine to make 1 lb recipes, here are some of the benefits of a small compact bread machine; 1 lb loaves are perfect for single people or people who don’t want a ton of bread, a compact machine takes up less space in the kitchen (so more convenient for an apartment versus buying a giant bread machine), it uses less energy than a large bread machine, it creates smaller sandwich slices (sometimes, in my opinion, the slices from 2 lb loaves are too large – especially for kids), etc.
• The disadvantages of a small compact bread machine; small bread pan capacity (so you can’t make a larger loaf if you have guests coming over), not many online recipes are focused on 1 lb loaves, sometimes 1 lb loaves have more uneven crusts (vs bread made with larger horizontal bread pans), etc.
• If you would like to read my review of the bread machines that I own & use to create my bread machine recipes, please visit my Best Bread Machines page. It covers bread machines such as Briskind, KBS and Zojirushi. The page provides my thoughts on the machines’ strengths and weaknesses.

• If you start substituting ingredients (e.g. using different types of flour not called for in the recipe), you are experimenting and should not expect similar results to the recipe shown above. Experimenting can be fun. However, you should expect some successes but more potential disappointments when you start to experiment with recipes. For example, if you substitute whole wheat flour for the bread flour, you will probably experience a problem (as whole wheat flour doesn’t rise nearly as well as bread flour). Moreover, whole wheat flour has a totally different flavor.
• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (e.g. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (e.g. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (e.g. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a bread machine. The bread pan and the rest of the bread machine can get very hot during the baking process. This means that the bread pan and bread machine is likely to be very hot when you attempt to remove a baked good from the bread machine and/or bread pan.
• For more easy 1 lb bread machine ideas, please visit Bread Dad’s section on 1 lb Bread Machine Recipes.

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Want more Bread Dad recipes? Check out these sections:

1. Bread Machine Recipes – 90+ recipes such as banana bread, sourdough bread, pizza dough, cinnamon raisin bread, etc.
2. Bread Recipes – French bread, buttermilk bread, bagels, Italian bread, etc.
3. Banana Bread Recipes – 60+ recipes such as banana nut bread, eggless banana bread, blueberry banana bread, etc.
4. Quick Bread Recipes – Recipes using baking soda such as pumpkin bread, cranberry bread, gingerbread, etc.
5. Muffin Recipes – Muffins are delicious “mini” versions of banana breads & quick breads!

Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, Bread Machine
2. Wikipedia, Pumpkin
3. Wikipedia, Quick Bread

Related Recipes

1. Bread Machine Banana Bread
2. Bread Machine Banana Nut Bread
3. Bread Machine Cornbread – Sweet
4. Bread Machine Gingerbread
5. Bread Machine Gluten Free Banana Bread
6. Pumpkin Nut Bread – Oven baked

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