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!

Pumpkin Bread Truffles on a wooden serving plate.
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🎃 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

Group of Pumpkin Bread Truffles decorated to look like mini pumpkins

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!

Loaf of pumpkin bread on white plate with several slices in front

🧾 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!
Close-up of Pumpkin Bread Truffles on a wooden serving plate.

📋 Instructions

Here’s how easy it is to make pumpkin bread truffles! You can grab the full printable recipe in the recipe card below.

Two photo collage showing how to mix the filling for Pumpkin Bread Truffles.

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.
Two photo collage showing how to shape and roll Pumpkin Bread Truffles.

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.
Two photo collage showing how to dip and decorate Pumpkin Bread Truffles.

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.”
Pumpkin Bread Truffles with one cut open to show interior

💡 Tips and FAQs  

Avoid water

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.

Don’t make the filling too soft

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.

Don’t freeze the centers

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.

CAN YOU USE REAL CHOCOLATE INSTEAD OF CANDY 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.

STORAGE INFORMATION

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.

Pumpkin Bread Truffles on a wooden tree slice serving plate.

🧡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:

Slice of Pumpkin Bread Pudding drizzled with cinnamon syrup, on a white plate.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Get your pumpkin fix with this cozy, comforting pumpkin bread pudding recipe. Eat it plain, add a drizzle of cinnamon syrup, or dress it up with whipped cream–however you serve it, this bread pudding is sure to become a family favorite.
View Recipe
Overhead shot of a loaf of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread on a wooden cutting board.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Pumpkin Bread gets an upgrade with the addition of LOTS of chocolate! It's moist, perfectly dense, loaded with pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice, and packed with melty chocolate chips.
View Recipe

Don’t miss the step-by-step tutorial showing how to make Pumpkin Bread Trufflescheck 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!

Close-up of Pumpkin Bread Truffles on wooden plate

Pumpkin Bread Truffles

5 from 6 votes
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!
Prep30 minutes
Cook0 minutes
Chilling Time2 hours
Total2 hours 30 minutes
Yields24 truffles

Ingredients

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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

Calories: 141kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 0.01g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Sodium: 23mg | Potassium: 3mg | Sugar: 19g | Calcium: 0.3mg | Iron: 0.01mg
Tried this recipe?Snap a pic and hashtag it #SugarHero. We love to see your creations on our Instagram @elabau.
Collage of four pumpkin desserts in a square grid.

Pumpkin Dessert RECIPES 🎃

We’ve rounded up over 50 deliciously cozy pumpkin dessert recipes to help you make the most of fall baking.  Click here to get all the recipes!

Photo of Pumpkin Bread Truffles with text overlay for Pinterest.

Meet Elizabeth!

Hi, I’m Elizabeth — a trained pastry chef, cookbook author, video instructor, and your new Baking BFF! I’m going to teach you everything you need to know to be a sugar hero. ❤️

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5 from 6 votes

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36 Comments

  1. Elizabeth – these are so darn cute! I love how festive they are – they are absolutely perfect for bringing in the month of October, and I love that they are filled with pumpkin bread!

    1. Thanks Kristi! Can you believe it’s October already? What is going on?! Time to eat all the pumpkin things…

  2. Oh, you always come up with the yummiest and most delicious looking stuff!! Pumpkin bread sounds so delicious.. I have never heard of it before! I suddenly feel like I’m missing out – I’m so going to make that this weekend, but I’m afraid that it’ll be gone before I ever get to make mini-pumpkins.. o.o

    1. Oh, thank you Siv! Pumpkin bread is one of my very favorites, I’ll bet you’ll love it! And if none of it makes it into truffles on the first round, well, that’s what doubling recipes is for. 🙂

  3. Ok now this is the cutest pumpkin truffles I´ve ever seen.. truth be told I haven´t seen much but these are adorable.. I lovveeeee them! Please send me a few (in vacuum pack)..lol xoxo

    1. Thanks Johlene! You made me chuckle with “truth be told I haven´t seen much”…that’s hilarious. 🙂

  4. These, like many things you make, are too adorable for words!
    I don’t know if this is embarrassing or not, but I have never had cake balls/pops. However, pumpkin bread balls sound FAR superior!

    1. Not embarrassing at all….but if you’re curious, you should give them a try sometime! Cake plus frosting–sounds pretty promising, right? 🙂

  5. How adorable are these little pumpkin truffles??? Because why make pumpkin bread if you can make a truffle out of it. As usual, it is your decorating which makes these special, over-the-top, and downright professional. These deserve a spot in your fantasy Bakery of Tiny Treats for sure! Awesome.