Healthy Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread with Cinnamon Oat Crumble Topping

Fall is by far one of my favorite seasons. Especially during October, when the weather hasn’t gotten too cold yet, and all of the leaves have fully changed their colors – it’s truly the best time of the year. One of my favorite ways to celebrate fall is to make all of the fall-inspired treats. This pumpkin sweet potato bread is one of my favorites to make. I created this recipe because I wanted a very healthy take on a not-so-healthy classic. A sweet bread that is normally full of refined sugars and flour, I wanted to create something that was less processed, less refined, and more nutritious.

This easy healthy pumpkin bread with oat flour is a high-fiber, nutrient-dense bread that can help you enjoy and celebrate the changing seasons and upcoming holidays, without it affecting your waistline. In this recipe, I’ll show you how easy it is to make, what ingredients you’ll need, how to change it up according to your dietary preferences, how to store it, and many other tips and tricks.

Is Homemade Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread Healthy?

Yes! Homemade pumpkin sweet potato bread is healthy, especially when you follow this recipe. In general, the pumpkin puree, roasted sweet potatoes, cinnamon, and other fall ingredients make it a healthy dessert or breakfast option, because it’s packed with fiber, healthy fats, and other vitamins.

Pumpkin is high in vitamins E and C, while sweet potatoes are high in vitamins A and B. These vitamins can help with your eye health, reproduction health, and the health of your brain and skin.

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Plus the fiber in this recipe will help you feel fuller longer.

How to Make Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread

Make the Oat Flour: For this healthy pumpkin bread with oat flour, you can either make your oat flour from scratch or just buy it from the store pre-made. If you’re making it from scratch, then take 2 ½ cups of old-fashioned oats and put them in a food processor. Pulse the oats for about 2 minutes, or until it becomes a course flour.

Roast the Sweet Potatoes: Just like oat flour, you can buy cooked sweet potatoes at the store, or roast them yourself. I recommend roasting them yourself because it’s cheaper and easier to do.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Rinse the sweet potatoes under cold water, and scrub with your hands or a scrub brush. You want to get any excess dirt off the potatoes. Then, poke holes all around the surface of the potatoes with a fork. Place on a baking sheet, and roast for 40-60 minutes, or until fork tender. Once done, let them cool for 10-15 minutes, and peel the skins off with your hands. You only need to roast one or two sweet potatoes for this recipe, depending on the size.

Mix Ingredients for the Batter: First, start by mixing the dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, including the oat flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger, and salt. Then, in a separate large-sized bowl, mix the sugar and wet ingredients with a hand mixer, including the eggs, sugar, maple syrup, and coconut oil. Mix the sweet potatoes and pumpkin puree into the bowl with the wet ingredients.

Next, dump the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients, and mix with the hand mixer on slow to medium speed, until fully combined.

Make the Crumble Topping: In a small bowl, combine the oat flour, light brown sugar, cinnamon, and coconut oil. Using your hands, pinch the mixture for 5 minutes in order to form the crumble. You want to group the coconut oil with the dry ingredients and pinch them together so they form a crumble.

Assemble the Batter and Crumble Topping: Grease a 9x5 loaf bread pan with cooking oil spray. Lightly coat the inside of the pan with oat flour. This will prevent the bread from sticking to the pan when it bakes. Pour the batter into the pan and sprinkle an even layer of crumble on top.

Bake at 350°F: Bake for 60-70 minutes or until evenly cooked through. To tell if the bread is thoroughly cooked, take a knife or toothpick and insert it into the center of the loaf while it’s still baking. If it comes out with batter on it, the bread still needs time to cook. If it comes out clean, the bread is done baking.

Ingredients for Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread

Roasted Sweet Potatoes: I prefer to use roasted sweet potatoes rather than potatoes cooked any other way. When you roast sweet potatoes, the sugars in the potatoes caramelize in the oven, providing an extra sweet and rich flavor profile to the bread. Check out my quick guide on how to roast sweet potatoes in the oven in order to prepare the perfect potatoes for this recipe.

Pumpkin Puree: Pumpkin puree is another star of this pumpkin sweet potato bread recipe. You can use canned or homemade.

Oat Flour: Instead of using white flour, I opt for oat flour, as it’s less processed and has more nutrients. White flour is highly processed and is stripped from many of its nutrients. Even store-bought whole wheat flour is really processed and will also affect the flavor of this recipe. You can buy oat flour in the store or make oat flour yourself in less than 5 minutes!

Eggs: Eggs not only add some added protein to this baked bread, but it acts as a binder to bind the ingredients together and add moisture too.

Coconut Oil: Coconut oil will add moisture and prevent the bread from being too dry or overcooked.

Sweetener: In this healthy pumpkin bread recipe, I combine a couple of healthier, more natural sweeteners instead of using white cane sugar. In this pumpkin sweet potato bread, use ¼ cup of maple syrup and ½ cup of coconut sugar. My recipe for pumpkin sweet potato bread isn’t as sweet as other recipes, allowing the earthy and sweet flavors of the pumpkin and sweet potato to really shine.

Fall Spices: Fall spices is what make the flavors of this pumpkin sweet potato bread pop. The spices I use in this recipe include pumpkin pie spice, ground ginger, and cinnamon.

How to Make Cinnamon Oat Crumble Topping

In order to make the cinnamon oat crumble topping for pumpkin sweet bread, you’ll want to combine coconut oil, cinnamon, oat flour, and brown sugar. The cinnamon and sugar give the crumble its flavor and sweetness. The firm coconut oil and flour will help form the clumps characteristic of crumb topping.

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl, and stir the ingredients to combine. Pinch the mixture with your fingers, and continue to do this for at least 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, you should see large crumbs forming. You should be able to pinch the mixture with your fingers and have it stick and clump together.

How Much Pumpkin for Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread?

That depends on how much pumpkin flavor you want and how dense and moist you want the bread to be. In this recipe, I call for one cup of pumpkin puree. By adding one cup of pumpkin, you’ll add enough pumpkin flavor and make the pumpkin sweet potato bread really moist.

If you want to omit the sweet potato, and just make healthy pumpkin bread, then I suggest you use two cups of pumpkin puree instead and keep the rest of the ingredient measurements the same.

How Much Pumpkin Pie Spice Goes Into Pumpkin Bread?

Again, this is largely preference based. How much pumpkin pie spice flavor do you want? Do you want it to be strong or very light? In this recipe, and any recipe that makes one 9x5 inch pan of bread, I recommend using two teaspoons. This will make the bread taste noticeably of pumpkin spice, but it won’t be too strong.

What Makes Pumpkin Bread Moist?

All of the wet ingredients in pumpkin sweet bread make it moist! The eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin puree all contribute to making moist bread. And in this recipe, the sweet potato also makes it moist.

If you want your bread dryer and more crumbly, then add fewer of these ingredients. If you want your bread really dense and moist, then add more of these ingredients. Just don’t add too much, as that could make your bread soggy, and prevent it from having a fluffy texture.

In order to make one 9x5 inch pan of bread, I recommend using ½ - 1 cup of sugar, 1-2 cups of pumpkin puree, 2-3 eggs, and ¼-½ cup of oil. With sweet potato pumpkin bread, add one cup of pumpkin puree and one cup of roasted sweet potato, no more.

Is Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread Vegan?

The original and traditional recipes aren’t vegan, but you can easily make them vegan. Omit the eggs and increase the amount of pumpkin puree or sweet potato to make up for the lack of eggs. You can also use more oil in place of eggs.

If you use other dairy products in your bread recipe (this one doesn’t), then you can replace any milk or yogurt products with more pumpkin or sweet potato.

How to Make Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread Gluten-Free?

Primarily, use gluten-free flour. If you’re using this recipe and you want to make it gluten-free, I recommend making your own oat flour from certified gluten-free oats. You can also buy store-bought oat flour that is certified gluten-free.

How Long Does Pumpkin Bread Last?

Pumpkin bread can last as long as 2-3 days on the counter, 4-7 days in the fridge, or 3-4 months in the freezer. You can store it in an air-tight container, or slice it and store it in Ziploc bags.

How to Serve Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread

You can serve this recipe for pumpkin sweet potato bread for breakfast, a snack, or dessert.

If you’re serving it as breakfast, share it with the whole family and serve it with a side of fruit and scrambled eggs for a balanced meal. You could also pair it with an apple-carrot breakfast smoothie.

I would even recommend serving it with chopped pecans sprinkled on top for extra flavor and crunch.

More Breakfast Recipes

• The Best Crunchy and Chunky Granola
• The Energizer Berry Smoothie
• Tofu Scramble
• Chocolate Coconut Cereal

More Fall Recipes to Try

• Quick Pickled Beet Salad
• The Best Tomato Soup Recipe
• Vegan Crock Pot Vegetable Soup with Lentils
• Creamy Sausage Asparagus Pasta