This luscious vegan pumpkin bread has all the fall vibes. It imparts warm, sweet flavors, and the chocolate chips perfectly compliment the pumpkin spice flavors. Additionally, the batter is completely oil free! This is a perfect, simple bread to make for your family or friends. It would also be wonderful as a thanksgiving potluck contribution.

What’s in This Pumpkin Bread?

• All-Purpose Flour
• Brown Sugar
• Canned Pumpkin
• Apple Sauce
• Plant Milk
• Pumpkin Pie Spice

The Key to Oil-Free Baking

This recipe happens to be oil-free, making it a low-fat bread. In order to successfully create oil-free baked goods, it’s important to keep a few things in mind. First of all, I would suggest only attempting to make cakes, breads, and muffins oil-free. Goods such as cookies or brownies need that fat for the chewy consistency. If you do not include fat, they will be cakey.

In the case of this pumpkin bread, oil is completely unnecessary since the canned pumpkin and the apple sauce give the bread a perfectly moist texture. However, if you are using vegan egg replacer or flax eggs instead of apple sauce, I would suggest adding 1/4 cup of oil, butter, or an additional 1/4 cup of pumpkin.

Substitutions and Alternatives

• Flour – You can replace this with whole wheat, though it will impact the taste slightly. Alternatively, use oat flour, but keep in mind the density is different. For this reason, if you are using oat flour, you may want to add an extra 1/2 cup – 1 cup. 1:1 gluten-free flour will also work.
• Apple Sauce – You can replace the apple sauce with one flax egg or serving of egg replacer, and 1/4 cup of oil of choice OR milk.
• Chocolate Chips – Just use any fix-ins you like! Try walnuts, blueberries, or shredded or cubed apples!

Making the Batter

This batter is simple to make. First, in one bowl, you’ll combine the pumpkin, brown sugar, apple sauce, and milk. Next, in another bowl, you’ll combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice. I like to use a stand mixer to combine the wet ingredients with the dry, as I find it results in a luscious, moist texture. However, it is not necessary. Additionally, you can manually beat the wet and dry ingredients together, or you can mix them until just combined. Therefore, feel free to experiment and find your preferences.