Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Bread
Updated Oct 24, 2025
This copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Bread tastes just like Starbucks and is made with pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice, and a couple of pantry items.
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Try my easy copycat Starbucks pumpkin bread!
Whenever I’m craving a slice of pumpkin bread from the Starbucks bakery case, I just make this copycat Starbucks pumpkin bread at home instead. It’s moist, spiced, and fills the kitchen with that warm fall smell that makes you want to stay in pajamas all day.
What I love most is that this copycat Starbucks pumpkin bread doesn’t need any crazy ingredients, just pantry staples and a bit of pumpkin purée. It’s easy to make, and makes a great snack with coffee.
Happy Cooking!
– Yumna
Starbucks Pumpkin Bread Ingredients
- Pumpkin: I use pumpkin puree for this recipe, not pumpkin pie filling, which has added sugars and spices.
- Pumpkin pie spice: You can make your own pumpkin pie spice or use store-bought.
- Pepitas: For a true copycat Starbucks pumpkin bread, I use pepitas, which are green pumpkin seeds that don’t require shelling. You should be able to find them at most grocery stores.
- Dry ingredients: All-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Wet ingredients: Unsalted butter, cane sugar (or granulated sugar), light brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract.
How to Make Starbucks Pumpkin Bread
Starbucks Pumpkin Bread Recipe
This copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Bread tastes just like Starbucks and is made with pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice, and a couple of pantry items.
Video
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup pumpkin seeds optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, mix the butter, cane sugar, and light brown sugar until light and fluffy, 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Add the canned pumpkin and vanilla extract and mix to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix until no streaks of flour remain. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds, if using.
- Bake 50-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the bread cool completely in the pan set on a wire rack before slicing.
Notes
- My Top Tip: Grease the loaf pan with oil or cooking spray. If you use butter, it can burn and cause the bread to stick. You can also line it with parchment paper so the pumpkin spice bread is easy to remove.
- Storage: Store the pumpkin spice bread in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Freezing: Wrap individual slices of the pumpkin spice bread in plastic wrap, then again in aluminum foil. It will last in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and bring to room temperature before serving.
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice, Calories: 244kcal, Carbohydrates: 35g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 6g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 3g, Trans Fat: 0.3g, Cholesterol: 75mg, Sodium: 213mg, Potassium: 102mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 22g, Vitamin A: 3495IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 26mg, Iron: 2mg
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
Did You Make This Recipe?
Recipe Variations
- Add chocolate chips. Fold a handful of chocolate chips into the batter for extra sweetness. My kids love this variation!
- Or, add nuts. Stir a handful of chopped walnuts into the batter for more texture.
- Make pumpkin cream cheese bread. Add a layer of cream cheese in the middle of the batter or on top before baking.
Recipe Tips
- Grease the loaf pan with oil or cooking spray. If you use butter, it can burn and cause the bread to stick. You can also line it with parchment paper so the pumpkin spice bread is easy to remove.
- Use room temperature butter. You want it to be soft, not melted, so it easily creams together with the sugar. If it’s too soft, put it back in the fridge for a few minutes or start over with a fresh stick.
- Don’t overmix the batter. For moist pumpkin bread, when you add in the dry ingredients, mix them with the wet ingredients until just combined. If you overwork the flour, the gluten will overdevelop, and the finished loaf will be dense.
- Let the pumpkin bread cool fully before removing it from the loaf pan. Place the loaf pan on a cooling rack so the air circulates all around it.
Comments
A question, what size loaf pan was used for this recipe? Thank you for your help! Looking forward to trying this recipe. It looks wonderful!
Hi! I use a 1 pound loaf pan. This is my favorite!
Would a regular baking dish work? Like a glass Pyrex square or rectangular one? Just didn’t want to have to go buy a loaf pan if I could use what I already have on hand. Thanks!
Hmm, it can probably work but I haven’t tried it myself so I’m not sure how you might need to adjust the bake time. Please let me know how it turns out if you end up trying it!
Are the pepitas unsalted or salted dry roasted or raw? Thank you
I use raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds.
How much is one can of pumpkin? Is it one cup?
The recipe uses 1 cup of canned pumpkin.
Hi, can I use fresh pumpkin? If so, what ratio would it be? Thanks
Absolutely! You can make your own pumpkin puree (here is my recipe for How to Make Pumpkin Puree) and use 1 cup (same as the recipe says). Hope that helps!
Hi!! This looks great!! But my oven is broken, doesn’t always work on 350. What do you suggest?
Hi Nicole, I’m not sure how to make this recipe without a working oven. So sorry!
Will almond flour work same as all purpose flour? What will be ratio for almond flour?
Almond flour will change the texture and make it more dry. If you use almond flour, I recommend using a combination of almond flour and all-purpose flour (maybe 50/50?) to maintain the bread-like consistency. Hope that helps!
This pumpkin bread is sooo good!! It came out so moist. In my opinion it tastes better than Starbucks 🤩
Wow, thank you so much!! So happy you love it, Cristina!
It baked up and looks really nice, but it was fairly dry.
Hi Jenni, I’m sorry to hear that. Is it possible you overmixed the batter? The bread can end up too heavy and dense if you overmix.
HOLY MOLY! This recipe is incredible & uber delicious!!! AND- much cheaper than buying from SBux- THANK YOU!
Yay!! So happy you loved it, Dena!
I have cooked this twice. It has a very strong egg flavor. Also, it’s impossible whisk butter and sugar together. Use the regular mixing attachment.
Hi there, so sorry this didn’t work out well for you. What size egg are you using? Also, the recipe calls to use a stand mixer or hand mixer to cream the butter and sugar together.
This recipe is great. Really moist and delicious. I have seen a lot of other Starbucks pumpkin bread recipes that use oil. I prefer this one that uses butter in place of the oil. I think making your pumpkin puree from scratch is best too and prefer the kabocha pumpkins to do this (personal taste). I try to find small ones because they have the best sweet flavor.
Thank you so much!!
Did it and loved it ! Everything is …so good ! The spice, the texture… I added chopped pecans on tops of it. Thank you Yumna !
You’re so welcome! So happy to hear that you liked it!
This is my new “go to” pumpkin bread recipe. I made a double batch and used half coconut sugar and half regular cane sugar. The spices in this bread and spot on, and the texture is as well. I added chocolate chips to one loaf and chopped pecans to the other.
It was a huge hit with the family.
Thanks for the recipe!
Oo I love that idea!! Thank you for making the recipe!
What temp and how long if using a glass loaf pan or disposal aluminum loaf pan?
Thank you!
For the disposable pan, I would follow the cooking directions as written. For glass, I would bake it at the same temperature but you could start checking for doneness around 45 minutes.
Hello! What will happen if you use pumpkin pie filling instead of pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin? Because that’s all that I have, and I don’t want to waste it if it wont work.
Pumpkin Pie filling contains sweeteners and additives that may impact the final texture of this bread. The recipe was developed and tested with pumpkin puree, which is simply pumpkin so that is what I recommend using.
Brought this to a Halloween party and it was the first item to be finished. Will definitely make it again.
So glad to hear this! Really happy you enjoyed it!
Can you substitute butter for oil? thanks
I want to make this recipe however, I’m wondering, will white sugar make a difference? Thanks for anyones help.
That should be just fine to add all white sugar. I like to use a mix as the brown sugar adds a nice depth of flavor, but using all white sugar should not really impact the texture too much.
Made this tasty cake for Thanksgiving. Everyone loved it especially the 2 year olds. It’s going to be my go to recipe next year.
So happy to hear that this made it on your Thanksgiving table and that even the kids loved it! Thank you for letting me know.
Delicious! I used freshly baked pumpkin, mashed with fork and added a bit of almond milk. I believe this gave the bread a nice texture. Great recipe, thank you!
You’re so welcome!
Hey! How much maple syrup can I use if I don’t want to use any sugar
The sugar will really help to bind it better than the maple syrup. Unfortunately I haven’t tested it without sugar so it’s hard to tell if it’s a 1:1 swap or if it will hold well together.
I’m bookmarking this website. Finally … a site where I don’t have to scroll down 75 pages to get to the actual recipe! Well done! I will be back! Thank you very much.
Looking forward to hearing what you think of my recipes, George!
Hi! Can we use coconut sugar instead of the cane and light brown sugar?
Yes, coconut sugar should work well!
so I made it with the coconut sugar and it turned out absolutely incredible!! Literally amazing, it was so moist and fluffy, everybody loved it and it was gone in less than 24 hours!!! Thank you! I will be making this again for sure.
Woohoo! So happy to heat that!
Would it be possible to add chocolate chips and walnuts to this recipe? Or is that not recommended?
You can add them in!
It’s great 👍
Thank you, Todd!
I like a simple and quick recipe, but need to ask a small favour. As an international reader, I’d be very happy with measurements by weight, rather than by volume. Thanks in advance!
Thank you for the feedback! I am constantly trying to better my website, so I’ll take that into consideration.
I agree, I’m American but prefer international weights as they are much more accurate and easier to follow! Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
This is a basic recipe for a quick bread, with pumpkin puree. It’s not a copycat for the Starbucks loaf. For that, you need vegetable oil instead of butter, a lot more spice (including freshly grated nutmeg), a lot more sugar, and dough conditioners/emulsifiers which are necessary to maintain that moist texture. All of this can be reverse-engineered by looking at the publicly available nutritional facts and ingredients.
I say it’s a copycat because of the flavor rather than the ingredients 🙂
Delicious and easy to make…My kids love it ..It takes just like starbucks.
I love that! Yay!!
Nice recipe
Thank you!
This pumpkin bread is so delicious! It comes together very quick, it’s not too sweet or too spicy, and the pumpkin seeds on top add the perfect amount of crunch. Thanks Yumna for developing the perfect copy-cat recipe!
Thank you! I love that so much! You’re so welcome!
This is 100% just like Starbucks’ pumpkin bread. SO good 🙂
I followed the recipe exactly but didn’t have pumpkin seeds on hand. Delicious!!
That’s great to hear! Yay!!
Hi, I am wondering if I could use fresh pumpkin Since it sort of hard to get can pumpkin wherr I live..If so do I just boil of steam the pumkin and mashed them into puree..
If you use fresh pumpkin, make sure to squeeze out as much water from it as possible!