Cottage Cheese Pumpkin Spice Bread

If you like warm, cozy fall bakes, this cottage cheese pumpkin spice bread is one you will want to try.

It has all the classic pumpkin flavors, with cinnamon, ginger, and a little nutmeg in every slice.

The cottage cheese is the part that makes this bread special. It blends right into the batter and keeps everything soft and moist.

You don’t taste the cottage cheese at all, but you can tell it’s there. The texture is tender and never dry.

The top gets a nice crunch from a little coarse sugar and some toasted pecans.

It’s simple to put together and perfect with a cup of coffee or tea on a cool morning.

Why I Love This Recipe

Incredibly Moist – The cottage cheese and pumpkin puree keep every slice soft, tender, and moist for days after baking.

Cozy Fall Flavor – Warm cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg give this bread that classic pumpkin spice taste everyone loves in autumn.

Simple One-Bowl Blend – You just blend the wet stuff smooth, mix the dry, fold them together, and you are done.

Sweet Crunchy Top – Toasted pecans and coarse sugar on top add a lovely crunch against the soft crumb below.

The Ingredients

• 1 cup Small Curd Cottage Cheese (I highly recommend using this one - amazon)
• 1 cup Pumpkin Puree
• 2 Large Eggs
• 3/4 cup Packed Light Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup Avocado Oil
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour (use this, the only one I use - amazon)
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
• 1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
• 3/4 tsp Fine Salt
• 1/2 cup Chopped Toasted Pecans
• 2 tbsp Coarse Sugar

How to Make This Recipe

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and line it with parchment paper.

Step 2

Blend the cottage cheese, pumpkin puree, eggs, brown sugar, avocado oil, and vanilla until smooth.

Step 3

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl.

Step 4

Fold the cottage cheese mixture into the dry ingredients just until combined. Fold in the pecans, reserving 2 tablespoons for the top.

Step 5

Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Sprinkle the top with the coarse sugar and reserved pecans.

Step 6

Bake for 55 to 62 minutes, until the center is set and a tester comes out with a few moist crumbs. Loosely cover the pan with foil if the top darkens too quickly.

Step 7

Cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then transfer the bread to a wire rack and cool completely.

Quick Tips

Blend the Cottage Cheese Until Fully Smooth

The small curds in cottage cheese won’t melt away on their own, so you need to blend the wet mixture until it’s completely smooth with no lumps left.

From my experience, this is what gives the bread its soft, even texture. If you skip this step or stop too early, you’ll bite into little cheese pockets that never fully blended in.

A blender or food processor works best here. Give it a good 30 to 45 seconds and scrape down the sides once to catch anything stuck.

Fold the Wet and Dry Together Gently

Once you add the wet mixture to the flour, stir just until you don’t see dry streaks anymore. A few small lumps are totally fine.

My favorite trick here is to use a rubber spatula and fold from the bottom up instead of stirring in circles. Overmixing wakes up the gluten in the flour and turns your bread dense and gummy instead of soft.

Toast the Pecans Before Adding Them

Raw pecans get soft and lose their crunch once they bake inside the batter, so toasting them first makes a big difference.

Spread them on a dry pan over medium heat for about 4 to 5 minutes, stirring often, until they smell nutty. Let them cool before folding them in so they don’t warm up your batter.

You’ll get the best results if you keep an eye on them the whole time, since they go from perfectly golden to burnt very fast.

Quick Answers

Can I taste the cottage cheese in this bread?

Nope, you won’t taste it at all. Blending the cottage cheese until smooth breaks it down so it just melts into the batter and adds moisture.

What you end up with is a soft, tender loaf that tastes like classic pumpkin spice bread, not a cheesy one.