*This post may contain affiliate links. Read more »
Regular cornbread is fine. I mean if you're a boring ol' butthead who doesn't want anything to be fun in life. If it's fall, then this vegan pumpkin cornbread says absolutely not to that basic AF vibe, and comes in swinging with ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, and a glorious glob of cinnamon scented pecan butter.
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Cinnamon Snail.
Pumpkin puree and a little vegan yogurt bring plenty of moisture. Notice there's no milk in the recipe? Well, that's actually why this stays soft and nice for longer than typical cornbread does.
Ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves are stepping this up to nearly-pumpkin bread vibes without forgetting that it'? still not dessert or anything. Then we need to talk about the cinnamon pecan butter. Piped on extra-fluffy lookin' with an icing bag or just smeared with a butterknife across a warm slice gives you pockets of crunch melting into spiced, rich bread.
This is gloriously moist, with just enough cornmeal grit to remind you it's still cornbread underneath all the theatrics. Plain-ass dinner rolls be gone!
Jump to:
🥰 Why you'll adore this vegan pumpkin cornbread recipe
🎃 Not Just Basic AF Pumpkin Pie Spice: Buffalo ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves stacked together mean this tastes and smells like actual fall instead of just "orange bread" with a vague memory of the stale potpourri from your aunt's guest bathroom.
🧈 Uh, There's A Maximum-Yummy Butter Too: Toasted pecans folded into spiced compound butter, melting into warm cornbread? Shut up and take my money.
🍞 Soft. Not Sucky and Crumbly: This isn't the dry, lifeless chore of a thing sweetened with raisin tears that people expect from vegan cornbread. Nope. It's hella juicy.
🎨 Gorgeous Enough for the Table, Easy Enough for a Workday: One bowl, one pan, done. This isn't an epic undertaking that's going to mess up your schedule.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all my vegan recipes, this cornbread went through close inspection from over 1,000 recipe testers before it ever went live.
I'm on my knees staring weirdly into your eyes, asking you in a soothing voice to be my taste-testing partner in crime. Sign up for the recipe testing crew and get early access to new recipes before they're published.
🎃 Pumpkin Cornbread Ingredients
Pumpkin Puree
Plain pumpkin puree only. Canned pie filling already has sugar and spice mixed in and will throw this recipe off completely.
If you opened a big can and want some fun ideas to use the rest up in, rock my vegan pumpkin muffins, vegan pumpkin cinnamon rolls, or vegan pumpkin creme brûlée.
The Spices
Ginger is in here for spicy warmth, cinnamon is the musky backbone, nutmeg adds that unmistakable thing I can only describe as "donut shop fragrance", cloves make it have a vegan pumpkin pie flavor, full-on.
For the ground ginger, the Buffalo ginger from Burlap and Barrel really is on a whole different level from anything sitting in a regular grocery store spice aisle.
Get my fave cumin seeds for free!
Using this link, add the wild mountain cumin to your cart, spend at least $15 on some of the other absurdly good spices from Burlap & Barrel (they all seriously slap) and the bottle of this bangin' wild mountain cumin becomes FREE, and you will love it so much.
Vegan Yogurt
Kite Hill's unsweetened almond milk yogurt is my top pick, texture and flavor-wise it's the closest thing to real yogurt. -Of course, this is the real yogurt. That non-veg stuff is just a crime masquerading as food. But I digress.
Trader Joe's cashew milk yogurt works great for baking too. It's truthfully a bit weird as a standalone eating-yogurt but totally fine here, and it's roughly half the price.
If you've already got sweetened yogurt on hand, that works too as long as you dial back the maple syrup a little to adjust for it.
Powdered Sugar
Just enough powdered sugar here to sweeten the optional compound butter without turning it into frosting, and it helps everything whip up smooth and spreadable. If you avoid refined sugar, feel free to skip it and use a dry sweetener of your choice instead.
One thing worth noting if you are vegan though: some powdered sugar brands use bone char in their filtering process, real animal bone, which means the sugar itself isn't vegan even though nothing animal-derived shows up in the ingredient list. Grab a brand marked vegan or organic to sidestep that whole sucky situation.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Pumpkin Tamale Pie
Pour this cornbread batter over a casserole dish of pinto bean chili or tofu chili and bake it right on top like a lid. You can follow the basic assembly instructions from my vegan tamale pie recipe, just with pumpkin now involved.
Grab my easy-yo-use app that builds your whole week with real, chef-tested vegan dinners in 30 seconds, customized to your budget, time, and taste, with a shopping list sorted by aisle.
📖 How to make Vegan Pumpkin Cornbread
This comes together fast, and most of the work is just waiting for the oven to do its thing while you make the compound butter. Follow the steps and tips below, or scroll to the recipe card if you already know your way around this one.
Step One
Dry Hard:
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly grease a 9-inch (23 cm) square baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in a medium bowl, or pass them through a sifter if you've got one.
Step Two
C.R.E.A.M. (Clooney Rules Everything Around Me):
In a stand mixer fitted with a whip attachment, or in a large bowl with a whisk, beat the brown sugar, softened vegan butter, pumpkin puree, yogurt, and molasses until creamy and smooth
Step Three
Batter Call Saul:
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir only until no lumps of dry flour remain. Don't even dream of overmixing, m'love, we're not building a brick here.
Step Four
For Goodness Bake:
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread it into an even layer. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the center is set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Step Five
Cool Runnings:
Let the cornbread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then move it to a wire rack and let cool.
Step Six
Pecan't Stop the Feeling:
While the cornbread bakes and cools, prepare the cinnamon pecan butter. Toast the pecans in a dry skillet over medium-low heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted. Remove from heat and cool completely.
Step Seven
Butter Off Dead:
Place the toasted pecans into a food processor along with the vegan butter, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and cloves and pulse a few times until mostly smooth.
Refrigerate or freeze the butter for 15-20 minutes to firm it up.
Step Eight
David S. Pumpkins:
Serve the cornbread with the cinnamon pecan butter and a couple of chunks of roasted pumpkin. If using the optional garnishes, arrange the toasted pecans over the buttered slices, and sprinkle with chives and cinnamon.
💡Serving Ideas
This cornbread was built to get dunked, so pick one of these bangin' autumnal soups and prepare for your best day ever.
Here's the low down on some rad squash soups that collab nicely with pumpkin: Chipotle butternut squash soup is wild and almost curry-like, acorn squash soup keeps things classic, my kabocha squash soup recipe has gochujang and miso, and Moroccan sweet potato soup shows up with harissa and chickpeas, ready to make your whole life more fun and nourishing.
Not in a squash mood? Not really sure what your problem is, but here's what I got for ya that's still fall adjacent anyway. Roasted mushroom soup, roasted carrot lentil soup is hearty without being heavy, and truffle cauliflower soup is pretty bomb too.
👉Top tips
- Chill the Butter, Then Let It Melt Its Way to Glory: Popping the cinnamon pecan butter in the fridge or freezer firms it up so it holds its shape when you plate it, then melts into every warm crevice of the cornbread the second it hits a hot slice. Especially if you are using a piping bag, you don't want your butter runny.
- Check for Doneness by Touch Too: A gentle press in the center should spring back rather than leave an indent. Pumpkin adds enough moisture that a toothpick alone can sometimes look clean a wee bit before the center is fully set.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Yuppp. Roast a halved sugar pumpkin cut-side down at 400°F (205°C) for 40 to 50 minutes until it's fork tender, scoop out the flesh, and blend it smooth. Fresh pumpkin holds way more water than canned, so strain it through cheesecloth in the fridge for a few hours, pressing out the liquid, until it's thick like canned pumpkin, not soup. Watch the bake time if your batter still looks wetter than usual.
Heck yeah, a 1-1 gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum works fine. My personal fave is the measure for measure flour from Kind Arthur.
The GF version of this bread is a little more delicate and slightly less moist though, so eat it the day you make it. Let it sit around and it turns dry and crumbly fast, this version doesn't do leftovers.
🧊 On the Counter
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. The pumpkin keeps it moist longer than regular cornbread.
❄️ In the Freezer
Wrap individual slices and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature or warm gently in the oven straight from frozen.
🔥 Oven Reheating
Warm slices in a 300°F (150°C) oven for about 8 minutes.
✌️You'll also love these savory Pumpkin recipes
Vegan Pumpkin Cornbread Recipe
Equipment
- 9-inch square pan
- Stand mixer (optional)
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 cup all-pupose flour
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¾ teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients:
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons vegan butter room temperature
- 15 oz. canned pumpkin puree
- ½ cup unsweetened vegan yogurt
- 2 teaspoon molasses
Cinnamon Pecan Butter:
- ⅓ cup pecans
- ½ cup vegan butter
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly grease a 9-inch (23 cm) square baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in a medium bowl, or pass those ingredients through a sifter if you have one.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a whip attachment, or in large bowl with a whisk, beat the brown sugar, softened vegan butter, pumpkin puree, yogurt, and molasses until creamy and smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir only until no lumps of dry flour remain. Don't even dream of overmixing.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread it into an even layer. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the center is set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cornbread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack and cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing.
- While the cornbread bakes and cools, prepare the cinnamon pecan butter. Toast the pecans in a dry skillet over medium-low heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently until lightly toasted. Remove from the heat and cool completely.
- Place the toasted pecans in a food processor along with the vegan butter, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and cloves and pulse a few times until mostly smooth. Refrigerate or freeze for 15-20 minutes.
- Serve the cornbread with the cinnamon pecan butter and a couple of chunks of roasted pumpkin. If using the optional garnishes, arrange the toasted pecans over the buttered slices of cornbread, and sprinkle with chives and cinnamon.
Notes
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Cinnamon Snail.
Leave a Reply