Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment paper or baking spray. Butter or spray cooking oil can also be used, but loaf may stick more easily to the pan.
Place softened butter in a large mixing bowl. Whip butter with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar to the butter. Mix with an electric mixer until butter and sugar are creamed together, about 1-2 minutes.
Add eggs to the butter mixture. Blot the pumpkin with paper towels to remove moisture (see notes) then add the pumpkin to the butter mixture. Mix until the wet ingredients are fully combined.
In a medium bowl mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder pumpkin pie spice and salt. See notes if you don't have pumpkin pie spice.
Add half the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture then mix well until blended. Add the second half of the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix well until combined.
Pour pumpkin bread batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The top will also no longer be wet in the middle.
Let the loaf cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes. Remove carefully from pan and allow the loaf to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!
Notes
Drying The Pumpkin
Place pumpkin in a bowl and let it sit for at least 5 minutes. Then blot the excess liquid from around the pumpkin. You make need to blot several times with paper towels. A cheese cloth can also be used to strain the liquid. Blotting the pumpkin is important because different cans of pumpkin puree can have different amounts of water.Fresh pumpkin can be used in this recipe but will have more water then canned pumpkin. Fresh pumpkin must be well dried before adding to the pumpkin bread or the loaf will become soggy.
Swapping Pumpkin Pie Spice
If you don't have pumpkin pie spice, try 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon cloves.
Baking The Pumpkin Bread Tips
Place the loaf in the center of the oven, moving the rack if needed.Bake until the top is no longer gooey, as it is a sign it is not quite finished baking.I recommend starting to check the pumpkin bread for doneness after about 40 minutes.Using a metal baking pan will produce the best results. If you are using a glass baking pan expect that the loaf may take a little longer to bake as glass takes longer to heat up than a metal pan does.
Starbucks Copycat - Pumpkin Seeds
You can make this even more like Starbuck's pumpkin loaf by adding 2-3 tablespoons of green pumpkin seeds (also known as pepitas) to the top of the loaf before baking. Pumpkin seeds can be roughly chopped or just added whole. Green pepitas should not have the white shell on the pumpkin seeds, just the green center and can be purchased without this shell.