Butternut Squash Bread

4.94 from 15 votes
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If you’ve ever had the pumpkin bread at Starbucks, this butternut squash bread is very similar: tender, slightly sweet, moist and full of roasted squash seeds for a little crunch. It’s easy to make and keeps for days.

A loaf of butternut squash bread on a cutting board.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

My rendition of butternut squash bread is a simple quick bread, so no yeast. It’s a super easy, “dump and stir” bread you can make even while distracted, and since it has a fair amount of melted butter or oil in it, it will stay fresh for days.

I mostly eat this bread at breakfast with coffee, but it’s a good road or trail snack, too. My recipes for fig bread and persimmon bread are very similar.

As you might expect with an autumn bread featuring winter squash, this has all the “pumpkin spice” flavors: clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and even a little cardamom if you are so inclined.

It’s reasonably sweet but not terribly so — the recipe I took my inspiration from, a pan de calabaza recipe in the book La Cocina Familiar en el Estado de Guanajuato, is much sweeter.

I also add a few touches, such as the pepitas (roasted, hulled pumpkin seeds) and a little of the dark squash seed oil from Austria I love so much. You can skip the oil, but you definitely want the pepitas, especially if you are trying to get close to the Starbucks pumpkin bread.

Butternut bread sliced on a cutting board.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

A word on the squash. I use butternut squash because I like growing them, and they are fairly dry for a winter squash. That lets me make a butternut bread with less flour than I would if I were to use actual pumpkins, which are much wetter.

Kabocha squash is an excellent alternative, but really any winter squash will do, except for spaghetti squash. The batter you make to make a butternut squash bread needs to be thick but pourable, so in some cases you will need to add as much as another half cup of flour for wet squashes.

Oh, and while technically you can use canned pumpkin, I don’t like the stuff. My recipe also calls for grated squash, not puree, so you kinda do need a real butternut.

Additions for Butternut Squash Bread

So I use pepitas for my butternut squash bread, but most nuts would work just as well. Hickory nuts, butternuts — now there’s a cool one, butternut butternut squash bread — black or regular walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, hazel nuts would all be nice. Hell, even peanuts would be pretty cool.

Some people like to add chocolate chips, and they’ll work well here. Even white chocolate chips are good in this case, and I normally don’t like them.

Berries or dried fruit is an option, too. Lingonberries or cranberries or red huckleberries would be my top choices, but blueberries or purple huckleberries are also nice, as are currants, small gooseberries, or saskatoons. Chopped dried apricots work, too.

Storing Butternut Bread

After it cools and I eat a piece or two, butternut squash bread keeps in a plastic produce bag on the kitchen table about five days or so. I don’t refrigerate it, because while I like this bread at room temperature, I don’t like it cold.

It is great toasted with butter, however.

You can freeze butternut squash bread — or any other quick bread — really well. Just let it cool completely over a few hours before you wrap it plastic wrap, then another layer of either foil or freezer paper. It will keep, frozen, about 6 months. After that the texture will get a little weird.

If you liked this recipe, please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below; I’d love to hear how everything went. If you’re on Instagram, share a picture and tag me at huntgathercook.

Close up of sliced butternut squash bread.
4.94 from 15 votes

Butternut Squash Bread

Keep in mind this recipe works with most winter squash. Butternuts are drier, though, so if you use a pumpkin you might need some more flour.
Course: Appetizer, bread, Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine: American
Servings: 10 servings
Author: Hank Shaw
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients 

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon clove
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon cardamom (optional)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar or honey
  • 500 grams finely grated squash (17 1/2 ounces)
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 2 tablespoons squash seed oil (optional)
  • 1 cup melted butter, or vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup milk (skip if using pumpkin instead of squash)
  • 3/4 cup pepitas or nuts

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a loaf pan with butter.
  • In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and powder, salt, spices and sugar. In another bowl, mix together the eggs, milk, squash, melted butter, and the squash oil if using. Pour the wet into the dry and mix well. Fold in the pepitas.
  • The mixture should be a pourable but very thick batter. If it's too dry, add milk. Too wet, add flour. Pour this into a loaf pan, and sprinkle some more pepitas on top. Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean.
  • Let the bread stand 10 minutes out of the oven once it's done, then turn it onto a cooling rack.

Notes

This recipe makes one loaf. 

Nutrition

Calories: 490kcal | Carbohydrates: 61g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 99mg | Sodium: 517mg | Potassium: 365mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 26g | Vitamin A: 5965IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 76mg | Iron: 3mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Tried this recipe? Tag me today!Mention @huntgathercook or tag #hankshaw!

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About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

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14 Comments

  1. Thank you for the great recipe, however instead of sharing I substituted 3/4 cup maple syrup 1/4 cup honey, and it is excellent.

  2. I had me butternut squash from thanksgiving believe it or not i grated the squash on a box grater not very fine and i had alot of squash so i doubled the recipe .What i like following hanks recipes he leaves you some leeway to experiment [sometimes you have to outta necessity . one thing i did cause i make banana bread and got the recipe off line and it added sour cream its made such a difference that when i make any quik bread i always add it. The one thing next time which he mentioned was pumpkin pie spice , the cloves were alittle over powering it was like a spice bread or cake depending on how you look @ it. but very good for like a brunch thing .

  3. Made as per your instructions, most excellent! Took a bit longer to bake but no problem I had the time. Made a mess of course but I do every time I cook. I got an end of season box of a dozen assorted sized butternut squash at our local Amish market for five bucks. Two used and tomorrow will be your Butternut squash soup. Butternut squash overload is not a bad thing. Thank you, Hank,
    Marty

  4. Followed the recipe but halved the sugars (as I do to most recipes for our own household consumption) and turned out great!

  5. Got some small butternut squash I managed to grow in the inferno here in Texas this year and found a how-to video on Youtube for grating it with a food processor. Going to make this this week. Thanks for the recipe!

  6. Made this exactly as written and it was wonderful. Don’t skip the cardamom. It transforms the bread into something different tasting than pumpkin bread. Thanks again for another winner, Hank.

  7. Didn’t want to grate the squash so ran it thru the juicer & added back in the juice. Also added a carrot just bc. Subbed 1/2 cup coconut sugar insteD, added raisins & shredded coconut for fun. It’s very nice! Thanks for sharing your recipe!

  8. I was out of brown sugar, pepitas, squash seed oil, nutmeg, and cloves (what kind of kitchen is this, anyway?!?) so I used honey and regular sugar, pistachios, seasme seed oil, and a dash of orange essense for good measure. Fingers crossed it’s not ghastly!