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This homemade Butternut Squash Bread is deliciously moist and so simple to make! Made with butternut squash puree, warm spices, and a hint of orange, it boasts all the wonderful flavors of Autumn. This may just become your new favorite fall treat!
I just love when pumpkin season rolls around. Pumpkin cookies, lattes, cakes, breads… It’s fall heaven!
However, this year finding a can of pumpkin puree in the stores was like trying to find a unicorn! So I decided why does pumpkin have to get all the glory and fame? What about all those other wonderful Autumnal squashes?
Enter: butternut squash. If pumpkin bread is delicious, butternut squash bread must be equally amazing! For this recipe I made my own squash puree so that it had as vibrant a flavor as possible, but you can also use canned. The fresh puree gets folded into an easy batter spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and a little bit of orange juice to pull everything together.
The bread turns out soft and tender, with a lovely golden top and a moist interior. It tastes like fall as soon as you take a bite, plus it makes the house smell so good while it’s baking. So if you’re like me and can’t find pumpkin on your shelves, it’s time to give butternut squash bread a try!
Table of contents
Ingredients for this Butternut Squash Bread
- All purpose flour – You can also try using 50% whole wheat flour to make it a bit more nutritious.
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Nutmeg
- Cloves
- Ginger
- Cinnamon
- Vegetable oil
- Sugar – I prefer to use organic cane sugar, but regular granulated sugar works, or coconut sugar (but that will make the bread darker).
- Light brown sugar
- Eggs
- Butternut squash puree – You can make your own using the instructions below or use canned.
- Orange juice – Just a bit of orange juice adds a perfect amount of citrus flavor to compliment the fall spices. You can also use water if you don’t have orange juice.
How to Make Your Own Butternut Squash Puree
It’s a surprisingly simple process to make your own butternut squash puree. Honestly, the hardest part is cutting it. Use a large, sharp knife to carefully cut your squash in half lengthwise. Then remove the seeds and place the squash on a baking sheet that is lined with foil. I like to brush the surface with a little oil and then place face down on your baking sheet.
You want to bake at 400° for 45-65 minutes, or until the squash is tender. Once tender, allow it to cool slightly. Then scoop out the flesh (the skin can be thrown away). I just used a spoon and scraped out the cooked squash. If it’s been cooked through it will remove easily.
That wasn’t so hard now was it? Ok now that you have all this delicious cooked squash it’s time for your food processor!
I just placed all the squash into my food processor and blended it until very smooth. You may find you have some leftover squash puree. You can save it and add it to a butternut squash soup for later in the week. Yes dinner and dessert!
Can I Use Canned Squash?
I have been lucky to find sometimes cans of squash puree and have used it. It’s not quite the same as fresh, but then again what is? So if you find some, then yes by all means use it in this bread.
I did notice my bread made with canned squash vs. fresh puree yielded a slightly darker bread in the end. Still delicious just slightly different!
How to Make Butternut Squash Bread
Preheat and prepare pan. Preheat oven to 350oF. Spray a 9×5” loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter and set aside.
Combine dry ingredients. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and cinnamon.
Whisk wet ingredients. In the same mixing bowl whisk together oil, sugars, eggs, squash, and water until combined.
Combine wet and dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together with a spatula until just combined.
Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 65-70 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow the bread to cool completely in the pan set on a wire cooling rack. Store the bread, and any leftovers, covered at room temperature for 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Recipe Tips
- Measure your flour accurately. You can use the spoon and level method or a kitchen scale to get the most accurate. Learn how to measure your flour in this post.
- Careful to not over mix. By using a spatula to fold in the dry ingredients you avoid overmixing. You want to mix until everything is just incorporated, then stop. This will prevent too much gluten from forming, which means you’ll get a soft, tender bread.
- Test With A Toothpick. It may be tough to tell when a quick bread is done. I like to use a long wooden skewer or metal skewer to ensure that no wet batter is clinging to the toothpick to see when it’s done. Every oven is different so be sure to test the bread before removing it from the oven. Moist crumbs are what we are looking for!
- Wait for the bread to cool. You will be tempted to eat this straight out of the pan (it just smells so good!). But if you wait for it to cool, you won’t regret it! The flavor actually deepens as it cools and the texture becomes soft, tender, and perfectly moist.
Recipe FAQ’s
Quick breads tend to bake well with mix-ins. You could try stirring in 1 cup of chocolate chips and make this butternut squash chocolate chip bread! You could also try white chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, or dried cranberries.
When adding mix-ins they tend to be very heavy and sink to the bottom of your bread. So I like to stir a tablespoon of the dry ingredients into a bowl of my mix-ins first. This coating of flour keeps them from sinking. You can read more here at How To Keep Chocolate Chips From Sinking.
You definitely can swap the OJ for water if need be. But I highly recommend the orange juice it really pairs well with the squash and helps enhance its flavor in a wonderful way.
Store the bread, and any leftovers, covered at room temperature for 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. The key to keeping it fresh and moist is to wrap it tightly in plastic wrap so that very little air gets in.
Quick breads like this one freeze beautifully. Make sure to wrap your bread tightly in plastic wrap and then provide a second layer of protection by placing it in a large zipper bag or wrapping it in foil. Then freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw it at room temperature on the counter.
Definitely! If you don’t own a loaf pan or just prefer muffins, it’s easy to make the switch. This recipe will make about 16 muffins. Bake for about 20 minutes, at the same oven temperature. Check doneness with a toothpick inserted in the middle of one of the muffins.
More Quick Bread Recipes
Butternut Squash Bread
Equipment
- 9×5” loaf pan, mixing bowls, whisk, spatula
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups (220 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ cup (120 mL) (120 mL) canola oil
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated white sugar
- ½ cup (107 g) packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (341 g) butternut squash puree
- ¼ cup (60 mL) orange juice (or water)
Instructions
- Preheat and prepare pan. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×5” loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter and set aside.
- Combine dry ingredients. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and cinnamon.
- Combine wet ingredients. In the same mixing bowl whisk together oil, sugars, eggs, squash, and water until combined.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together with a spatula until just combined.
- Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 60-65 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow the bread to cool completely in the pan set on a wire cooling rack.
- Storage: Store the bread, and any leftovers, covered at room temperature for 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Video
Notes
- Storage: Store the bread, and any leftovers, covered at room temperature for 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. The key to keeping it fresh and moist is to wrap it tightly in plastic wrap so that very little air gets in.
- Freeze: Freeze the cooled bread for up to 3 months, wrapped well. Thaw at room temperature, uncovered when ready to enjoy.
- Orange juice: Water can be used instead if needed.
- Measure your flour accurately. You can use the spoon and level method or a kitchen scale to get the most accurate. Learn how to measure your flour in this post.
- Careful to not over mix. By using a spatula to fold in the dry ingredients you avoid overmixing. You want to mix until everything is just incorporated, then stop. This will prevent too much gluten from forming, which means you’ll get a soft, tender bread.
- Wait for the bread to cool. You will be tempted to eat this straight out of the pan (it just smells so good!). But if you wait for it to cool, you won’t regret it! The flavor actually deepens as it cools and the texture becomes soft, tender, and perfectly moist.
- Make muffins instead: If you don’t own a loaf pan, then turn these into squash muffins! They will make about 16 muffins. Bake for about 20 minutes, at the same oven temperature.
- Mix-In Ideas: Try stirring in 1 cup of chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, or dried cranberries.
Eva says
Delicious bread recipe !! I substituted the sugars with trivia blend and I use 1/2 cup of applesauce and 1/4 cup oil!! Trying to skinny it up!! Watching sugar intake.
It was so moist and delicious!! Thanks for the recipe.
Heather says
Hi Eva, I’m so glad you loved the recipe and were able to make some changes that worked for you!
Tina says
Purchased a butternut squash today and looking forward to making this!
Can I add a quarter cup of milk in instead of orange juice or water?
Heather says
Hi Tina, water would be a good replacement not sure how milk would turn out or affect the results because of the added fat.
Judy says
This butternut squash bread is so moist and delicious! I used a half spiced rum and half water for the liquid because I didn’t have any orange juice. Next time I will use a full quarter cup of rum!
Heather says
spiced rum would be nice also =)
K says
This is the first time I’ve successfully gotten my husband to eat something with squash in it! It’s so good!
I halved the sugar, oil, swapped orange juice with orange zest and added golden raisins to the half that was made into muffins. Both batches turned out perfectly. It took about 40 minutes to bake the muffins, but they were huge!
Heather says
Hi K! That’s wonderful to hear!! Glad you loved the recipe. Yes sometimes I’ve been known to tell people it’s “pumpkin bread” and they were none the wiser! 😉 Love that you were able to make some swaps, and might have to try some golden raisins in it next time too. Sounds delicious 🙂 And will try them as muffins next too!
Hare says
Our garden always produces a lot of butternut squash. I used some to make bread this morning. I added a cup of chopped walnuts and about a half cup of white chocolate chips. Delicious! This recipe is a keeper!
Heather says
Oooo YUM those sound like some fantastic goodies, Hare! Thanks for your comment 😀
Rika says
It’s so moist and delicious. It has the right amount of fall spices. I love it.
Heather says
Thank you for your comment, Rika! That makes me so happy to hear that you enjoyed 🙂
Beth says
One of my favorite loaves. It is so moist and tasty. Next time I am going to double the recipe and freeze a loaf.
Heather says
I love to freeze for later! So glad you enjoyed and I appreciate your sweet comment, Beth 🙂
Liz says
I’ve made pumpkin bread but I’d never tried butternut squash bread! What a perfect recipe for fall!
Heather says
It is such a fun twist that I think you’ll love, Liz!
Emily says
Move over banana bread, I’ll be making this delicious squash bread all Fall and winter! Yum!
Heather says
It is seriously addictive, Emily! Thanks for your sweet comment 🙂
Jayne says
Love finding new fall quick bread recipes. Can’t wait to try this one. Making this weekend for sure.
Heather says
I hope you enjoyed making the bread, Jayne!
Kelli Cook says
I cannot wait to try this recipe soon. I was putting up an extra supply of butternut squash. I thought to myself has anyone made a bread with bns? Low and behold I found this one. I may have try it before Fall. 😉😉
Heather says
Thanks Kelli! Yes it came out of necessity when I couldn’t find a single can of pumpkin puree, so I just went with it. And it’s so good!!
Rebecca says
“Tis the time of year for pumpkin bread… except, not any more because, it turns out that butternut squash bread is even better! I made this over the weekend and my family devoured it in about 5 minutes. This is our new favorite fall treat!
Heather says
Aw that’s amazing! I’m so glad you and your family loved it!
Kari Alana says
This is just the recipe for this moment, So practical and so much flavour. Thank you My entire family loves Butternut Squash and this is so wonderful to use them up in season!
Heather says
You’re welcome Kari! I agree great way to use it all up this season 🙂
Leslie says
Why have I never heard of this? Everything tastes amazing when you put it in bread! Drooling over this!
Heather says
Aw thank you Leslie!
HEATHER says
Aw thank you Leslie!
Aleta says
Okay, this is definitely the best way to use up all of the extra squash I grew this year! Super moist and flavourful, this is such a great recipe!
Heather says
Aw thank you Aleta! 🙂
veenaazmanov says
I just love all the delicious combination of spices and flavors. This Butter Nut Squash Bread looks moist and delicious. I would enjoy a lovely breakfast for sure.
Heather says
Yes a perfect breakfast indeed Veena 🙂
Amy Liu Dong says
This bread look so soft and delicious. I’ll be making this on this weekend, thank you!
HEATHER says
Thanks Amy! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
Candice says
Such a better yield of squash than you get with bananas… genius! Such a great recipe and it came out so delicious. Easy, too! Can’t wait to make this one again.
HEATHER says
So glad you loved it Candice!
Amy says
We are still in a big baking foray in this house so we’re always on the look out for some fun recipes to try. This definitely fits the bill. Have never tried baking bread with butternut squash before! Sounds yum!
Heather says
Hi Amy! We are as well 🙂 I hadn’t either, but tough times call for innovation!
Gunjan says
This is such an awesome recipe idea to use butternut squash. Just getting started with it. Will update you once I am done.
[email protected] says
Thanks Gunjan! Can’t wait to hear how it turns out for you 🙂