If you like the taste of pumpkin bread, you will love these Pumpkin Bread Truffles! Crumbled pumpkin bread is mixed with cream cheese frosting to form moist, flavorful truffles. Decorate them like miniature pumpkins to really get in the fall spirit!
🎃 Homemade Pumpkin Bread Cake Balls
Since pumpkins are the undeniable star of fall food and décor, it seems only appropriate to double down on the pumpkin recipe love with a pumpkin-themed, pumpkin-flavored, AND pumpkin-shaped candy, Pumpkin Bread Truffles!
These sweet little mini pumpkins are actually a play on cake balls—they’re pumpkin bread balls, made with pumpkin bread and cream cheese frosting. They’re a great way to use up extra, leftover, or slightly stale pumpkin bread or muffins.
Table of Contents
We have a lot of pumpkin cake recipes here on SugarHero, including fan favorites like this Decorated Pumpkin Roll, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake, and Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Pound Cake.
Pumpkin candies, however, are a little more rare. There’s the occasional Pumpkin Fudge and Pumpkin Marshmallows, but for the most part, pumpkin flavor is more likely to be found in baking recipes.
That’s why I love these Pumpkin Bread Truffles so much–they’re the perfect marriage of baked goods and candy, and the best of both worlds! AND they’re easy. Here’s how you make them!
🧾 What you’ll need
Ingredients
The ingredient list couldn’t be simpler! Here’s what you’ll need. (All Amazon links are affiliate links, and as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
- Pumpkin bread: you’ll need about 1 lb of pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, or unfrosted pumpkin cupcakes or cake. This is a great way to use up leftover, stale, or extra pumpkin baked goods!
- Cream cheese frosting: homemade or store-bought is fine. I usually use store-bought, unless I have extra cream cheese frosting lying around from another project. If you don’t like cream cheese, you can swap in an equal amount of vanilla buttercream and it’ll work great.
- Candy coating: you’ll primarily need orange candy coating, a small bit of brown, and green candy coating melts for the vines.
Equipment
The good news is that you basically need ZERO special equipment to make these pumpkin bread truffles! If you want to make your life easier, though, you can pick up a few candy-making tools. (All Amazon links are affiliate links, and as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
- Dipping tools: You can use a fork, but if you’ll be dipping candy regularly, you’ll want to pick up a set of dipping tools. They’re inexpensive, and make the candy dipping process MUCH faster, easier, and neater!
- Small candy scoop: I couldn’t live without my favorite candy scoop! It makes round, even balls approximately 1-inch wide–the perfect truffle size!
📋 Instructions
Here’s how easy it is to make pumpkin bread truffles! You can grab the full printable recipe in the recipe card below.
Make the pumpkin bread filling
- Crumble the pumpkin bread by hand into a large bowl.
- Add cream cheese frosting to the pumpkin crumbs. Mix until no streaks of frosting remain.
Shape the filling into balls
- The mixture should be moist and hold together if you squeeze it into a ball between your fingers.
- Roll it into balls (use that candy scoop to make this step go quickly!) and chill until firm, 2-3 hours.
Dip and decorate!
- Melt orange candy coating, and dip each truffle into the coating.
- Pipe lines of dark orange across the truffles, to represent the pumpkin creases, and finish them off with curly green candy coating “vines.”
💡 Tips and FAQs
Water and candy coating do NOT mix! Make sure that the bowl you use to melt the coating is completely dry, and do not get any stray drops or splashes in the chocolate. If you do, it might seize and become an unworkable clump.
Add enough cream cheese frosting so that it holds together, but don’t add so much that the filling is greasy, squishy, or otherwise too soft. The exact amount of frosting that you add will depend on how moist your bread is to start with. Always start with a smaller amount and add more if necessary.
You want the truffle centers to be cold but not frozen when dipping. If they’re frozen, they’re more likely to cause the candy coating to crack as it hardens, and it also runs the risk of introducing water into the melted coating.
Yes, but it is more complicated than using candy coating. For one thing, you will need to temper your chocolate, not just melt it. Tempered chocolate hardens at room temperature and has a beautiful shine and snap. Untempered chocolate is dull, streaky, and soft at room temperature — not ideal for dipping candies!
If you want to use white chocolate and add color to it, you will need to use special oil-based food coloring, designed to be used with chocolate. Regular food coloring is water-based and will cause your chocolate to seize.
Pumpkin Bread Truffles can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 7-10 days. Because of the cream cheese frosting in the filling, I don’t recommend storing these at room temperature for prolonged periods. For the best taste and texture, let them come to room temperature before serving.
🧡More Pumpkin Desserts
If you love pumpkin as much as I do, check out my collection of pumpkin dessert recipes! Here are just a few of my favorites:
Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
Don’t miss the step-by-step tutorial showing how to make Pumpkin Bread Truffles – check out the web story here!
Leave a Review!
If you make this recipe, let us know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the recipe below, and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram @elabau, or use #sugarhero on IG!
Pumpkin Bread Truffles
Ingredients
- 1 lb pumpkin bread, about one 9×5" loaf
- 8 oz prepared cream cheese frosting, (1 cup)
- 24 oz orange candy coating melts, (4 cups)
- 2 TBSP chocolate candy coating melts
- 2 oz green candy coating melts
Instructions
- Crumble the baked and cooled pumpkin bread into a large bowl and work it gently between your fingers until it is in small pieces.
- Add the frosting to the pumpkin bread crumbs, and stir them together until they're well-combined and no streaks of frosting remain. The mixture should be moist and hold together if you squeeze it into a ball between your fingers. If it seems too dry, add another spoonful or two of frosting, to get it to a workable consistency.
- Use a small 1-inch candy scoop or a spoon to scoop out small balls of pumpkin bread. Roll them between your palms until perfectly round, then place them on a baking sheet covered with parchment or waxed paper. Chill the balls for 2-3 hours, or until firm.
- Place the orange candy coating in a medium microwave-safe bowl and microwave it until melted, stirring after every 30 seconds to prevent overheating.
- Use dipping tools or a fork to dip a pumpkin bread truffle into the orange candy coating. Let the excess drip back into the bowl, then place the truffle back on the baking sheet. Repeat until all of the truffles are dipped.
- Melt the chocolate candy coating in the microwave, and stir the melted chocolate into the remaining melted orange coating, to make a deeper orange color. Transfer the dark orange color to a paper cone, piping bag fitted with a small round tip, or a plastic bag with a small hole cut in the corner. Pipe intersecting lines across the top of the truffles, to represent the pumpkin's creases.
- Melt the green candy coating in a microwave-safe bowl, and transfer it to a paper cone, piping bag fitted with a small round tip, or a plastic bag with a small hole cut in the corner. Pipe curls of green candy on top of each pumpkin to represent the vines.
- Refrigerate the truffles briefly to set the candy coating. For the best taste and texture, serve Pumpkin Bread Truffles at room temperature, and store extra truffles in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
Nutrition
Wow, these look so pretty, just in time for Halloween. Can’t stop looking at these pictures, so cute! Pinned!
I love this idea! They’re little works of art. And, get it girl–all up in BH&G like a rockstar. Double high five!
Hello! I was just wondering what you call the little fork and stick you use when dipping the bread into the icing (on the video)? I want to make these, they look amazing! I make other truffles and think those tools would be insanely helpful. Thanks!
Hi Christen, They’re called dipping tools, and those particular ones are from Wilton. You can get them here:
http://amzn.to/2bUDvZu
Cheers!
I am so looking forward to getting your recipes! I enjoy baking and decorating cookies and cakes. Thank you
Thank you Benita! I hope you love these, and would love to hear how it goes for you!
These truffles are adorable! I can’t wait to make these for Thanksgiving.
These are absolutely adorable and sooooo tasty! They really are the perfect treat for the holidays!
Thank you so much, Patty! I’m glad to hear that you loved them. 😀
Just tried them and loved them–thanks! I think I might make them again soon, they’re perfect for Thanksgiving!
Thank you Jess! They’re definitely an easy Thanksgiving option!
These are adorable and they look DELICIOUS. I’ll definitely be trying this recipe!
Thanks, Nathan! Please come back and let me know how they turn out for you!
Such incredibly cute truffles! I love that pumpkin design and the flavors sound amazing too!
Thank you, Tara! I admit the pumpkin design is one of my favorite parts. 🙂
These are delicious and easy to make. I made them last year for my Doctors office and they loved them. I think everyone enjoys getting a treat once in a while. My Truffles looked good and pretty enough they still didn’t match up to you. I was still very happy with them though. I will keep practicing my decorating skills. Thank you always for all the great treats you send to me….I appreciate them so much.
Hi Donna! Thank you for the recipe rating and review. It means a lot!! I bet everyone at the doctor’s office loved that special treat. You have such a great heart. Cheers!