Oat Flour Pumpkin Bread

If you need to satisfy all of your Fall baking needs, look no further than this healthier oat flour pumpkin bread with streusel topping and maple glaze. This gluten free recipe is easy to make and is the perfect snack, breakfast, or dessert!

I nearly lost my mind testing this oat flour pumpkin bread recipe. I think it took about 7 tries to get it exactly perfectly right, but oh my gosh was it worth it. It’s perfectly fluffy, moist, gluten free and passes for breakfast, snack, AND dessert. Sounds like a winner to me. Plus, it can easily be made vegan!

You guys have been loving my chocolate chip banana bread and banana muffins lately so I wanted to make a bread for Fall and thought pumpkin bread was the perfect recipe. Maybe I’ll do apple bread next year?! If you love this recipe and want more Fall flavors, try my sweet potato casserole, gluten free pumpkin muffins or vegan pumpkin pie next!

Tips before we get started…

• Be sure to use certified gluten free oat flour if you are cooking for someone with Celiac or with a severe gluten intolerance to ensure there is no cross contamination.
• Let the bread cool properly before slicing! This will really ensure the texture holds up well and the bread doesn’t crumble or sink in the middle. It’s worth the wait!

How to make oat flour pumpkin bread

To make the streusel topping, combine the GF flour, coconut sugar, and pumpkin pie spice. Slowly pour in the melted oil and combine with your fingers or a fork until crumbles form. Set aside.

To make the loaf: Whisk together the coconut sugar, maple syrup, melted coconut oil, pumpkin puree, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar, and eggs.

You need 1 1/4 cups of pumpkin puree, which is slightly less than 1 15 ounce can. I usually just feed the rest to my dog (he loves it lol), but you can save it for a smoothie, oatmeal or try my pumpkin cookies instead! Next, use a wooden spoon to stir in the oat flour, almond flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin spice.

Add the batter to a loaf pan lined with parchment paper. Mine was 8 1/2 x 4 1/2, but a 9×5 will also work. Smooth out the top.

Evenly spread the streusel topping on top of the bread allowing it to crumble between your fingers. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. For the maple glaze, simply whisk together all ingredients until well combined. 

Let the bread cool for at least 2 hours before glazing and slicing, otherwise it will be crumbly! Once cool, drizzle the glaze on top, slice, and enjoy! Try my sweet potato cookies or gluten free apple bread next.

Why did my bread deflate and crumble?

This could be for a few reasons, one of which is due to undercooking, especially since this bread is gluten free. I suggest a baking time of 50 minutes which will cook the bread all the way through the center and make sure it is nice and fluffy.

The second problem could be that you cut the bread before letting it cool completely. Doing so alters the structure of the proteins in the flour, so please be sure to let cool completely before slicing to keep the bread as fluffy as possible.

I do not recommend playing around with the proportions of the pumpkin, maple syrup, coconut oil, etc. as these are the key ingredients that make this bread moist. I’ve tried this bread many different ways (I’m *almost* sick of pumpkin at this point lol) and these proportions yield the best texture.

Storage tips

Once prepared, this recipe will keep for about 3 days on the counter or 5-7 days in the fridge. Keep it in an air tight container to prevent it from drying out. Because of the oil and almond butter in the recipe, it will stay pretty moist on it’s own.

To keep this healthy pumpkin bread as moist as possible, keep it in an air tight container (once sliced) and store it in the fridge. You can pop a slice in the microwave for 10-15 seconds and it will be like it’s fresh from the oven!

Ingredient tips and swaps

Sugar. To make this bread completely refined sugar free, you can sub the maple glaze for my maple cream cheese glaze. Since we’re already using coconut sugar and maple syrup in the loaf itself, no changes will be needed there.

Pumpkin. For this recipe, you want to use pure pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling! The only ingredient should be pumpkin. Not all pumpkin purees are the same, however. Some are going to be thicker than others, so if the batter is really thick, it’s ok! Just cut down on the bake time slightly.

Chocolate chips. This pumpkin bread is also delicious as a chocolate chip pumpkin bread, so feel free to throw in about 1/2 cup of your favorite chocolate chips!

Eggs. You can swap the eggs for a vegan alternative, but the texture will be a bit different. You cab sub the two eggs for two flax eggs by combining 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed with 5 tablespoons of water. Set aside to thicken and use this in place of the eggs. The flavor will be the same, but the bread will not get the same rise as it will with the real eggs.

Flavor tip: Not all pumpkin pie spices are created equal. The simply organic pumpkin spice is the best and most flavorful in my opinion!

Looking for more Fall recipes? Try these!

• Vegan Pumpkin Cookies
• Vegan Pumpkin Pasta
• Sweet Potato Muffins
• Gluten Free Apple Cake
• Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal
• Gluten Free Apple Cider Donuts

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