Banana Pumpkin Bread
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This Banana Pumpkin Bread combines the natural sweetness of ripe bananas with the cozy warmth of pumpkin, resulting in a healthy, mouthwatering breakfast that all ages enjoy. It’s freezer-friendly and can also be turned into Banana Pumpkin Muffins.
Reasons You’ll Love this Recipe
- Flavor Pairing: The pumpkin and banana combo gets me every time. Similar to our Cinnamon Applesauce Bread and our Banana Breakfast Cake, it has a subtle sweetness and the perfect amount of moistness.
- It’s Healthy: Although this sweet bread has healthy ingredients in it like whole wheat flour, flax seed, banana, and pumpkin, it is still light, moist, and flavorful. I serve it to my kids as a healthy snack or for a make-ahead breakfast in the fall, and it goes fast!
- Easy Ingredients: The good news is that you might have all the recognizable ingredients in your kitchen right now for this low-guilt sweet treat.
- Can Be Turned Into Muffins: This recipe works as bread OR as muffins. I like to double the recipe and do one of each.
Note on Loaf Pans & Baking Time
The choice of loaf pan can impact baking time due to factors such as size, material, thickness, shape, insulation, and coating.
Larger or deeper pans might require slightly longer baking times, while dark-colored pans could lead to faster browning. Thicker and insulated pans might result in more even baking, and non-stick coatings can affect heat distribution.
Regardless of the pan, it’s important to monitor your bread’s doneness using visual cues and testing, starting earlier than recommended if necessary, as oven and pan variations can affect timing.
Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the bread; it should come out clean or with only a few crumbs clinging to it.
If the top of your bread starts to get too brown before the inside is done, cover it loosely with foil.
Ingredients
You’ll find all the ingredients in the full recipe at the bottom of this article, but here are a few notes about my preferred ingredients.
Ingredient Notes:
- Whole wheat flour – I highly recommend using white whole wheat flour, like King Arthur or Prairie Gold. It makes the bread turn out much lighter than the usual whole wheat flour (made with red wheat).
- Vanilla – Did you know you can easily make your own vanilla? I have been doing this for years because it’s delicious and saves a lot of money!
- Sugar – You can use white sugar (it isn’t a huge amount), but if you want something slightly healthier, try Coconut Palm Sugar. It’s less refined, retains many of the nutrients found in coconut palm, and has inulin fiber in it.
- Bananas – It’s best to use very ripe or overripe bananas. Tip: If it’s close to Halloween, use extra bananas to make Banana Ghosts!
How to Mash Bananas
You can use a fork to mash bananas but did you know you can use your electric mixer to mash bananas?
Just place the ripe or overripe bananas in the bowl of your stand mixer. Begin beating on low, then gradually increase to medium-high speed as the bananas break down into mashed banana.
I use this method in recipes like our Chocolate Banana Muffins, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Banana Baked Oatmeal.
How to Make Banana Pumpkin Bread
Prep for Baking
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch loaf pan (I like and use this metal pan) with cooking spray.
Make the Batter
In a large mixing bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Whisk together until combined.
In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
Mix Wet Ingredients with Dry
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix them together. Don’t over mix. It will be a thick batter.
Bake the Bread
Add the Pumpkin Banana Bread batter to a bread pan and bake as instructed.
When cooking time is done, a toothpick should come out clean. It does get pretty brown on top so don’t let that trick you into taking it out too soon! If it’s getting too brown on top but not down in the center, cover loosely with foil.
How to Turn Pumpkin Banana Bread Into Muffins
What’s fun is that you can easily turn this bread into muffins, too.
To do so, divide the batter evenly among the cups of a greased muffin tin. Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
If making mini muffins, check them at 11 minutes.
How to Freeze Pumpkin Banana Bread
We are big advocates of make-ahead breakfasts, so I highly encourage you to double and freeze a loaf for later.
To Freeze:
- Cool baked bread completely.
- Tightly wrap the loaf or slices (individually or grouped) in 2–3 layers of plastic wrap or aluminum foil.
- Place wrapped bread in a large freezer-friendly storage bag or reusable container.
- Freeze for up to 3–4 months.
To Prepare:
When you’re ready to enjoy your frozen bread, let it thaw in on the counter, in the fridge, or using the defrost setting on your microwave. Cut a slice and warm it for about 20 seconds in the microwave.
This freezing method works on all of our sweet bread recipes like: Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread, Chocolate Sweet Potato Banana Bread, and our Blueberry Banana Bread.
Serving Suggestions
This recipe has a mild sweetness that I love.
However, kids might want more sweetness. If you’re looking for more sweetness, add a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar.
Serve it alongside our classic fruit salad or our Blueberry Muffin Smoothie.
FAQs
Yes! I use frozen bananas for baking quite often. Let them thaw on the counter for the most part before mashing them.
Yes! Just bake muffins at 350°F for 15-18 minutes. If making mini muffins, check them at 11 minutes.
Yep! This recipe would be delicious with the addition of 1/2-1 cup of mini chocolate chips.
More Sweet Bread Recipes
If you like this healthy, moist quick bread, then we’d love for you to try some of our other top sweet breads:
Make 6 Grab-and-Go Breakfasts in 1 Hour!
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Banana Pumpkin Bread
This baked sweet bread is packed with nutritious ingredients and all the best flavors of fall. We’ve also included directions for making this into muffins and how to freeze a batch for later.
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed overripe bananas (about 1 banana)
- 1/2 cup canned pureed pumpkin
- 1/3 cup plain yogurt (sub: plain Greek yogurt or sour cream)
- 5 tablespoons butter, melted (Can you freeze butter?)
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (Sub: white whole wheat flour)
- 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour (Sub: all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour)
- 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
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Instructions
Make It Now:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9×5-inch loaf pan (or muffin tin) with cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the mashed bananas, pumpkin, yogurt, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and sugar, until well combined. (Or, put all the wet ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth. Use a spatula to help remove it in the next step.)
- In another mixing bowl, whisk together the flours*, flaxseed, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add this flour mixture to the wet mixture; stir just until blended. *Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife.
- Pour batter into the loaf pan (or evenly into muffin cups). Use a scraper to make sure all the batter gets used.
- For the bread, bake for about 45-55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. It does brown quickly so don’t let that trick you to taking it out too soon! Cover with foil if it starts to get too brown on top before the inside is done.
- Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Remove bread or muffins from pan and cool completely. (Freezing instructions begin here.)
Freeze For Later: Bake and cool completely. Remove bread from pan and wrap tightly with plastic wrap and a layer of foil. For muffins, remove from pan, place in freezer bag in a single layer, press out all air, and seal. Freeze.
Prepare From Frozen: Thaw in fridge or on counter or use defrost setting of microwave. Warm in 15 second increments in microwave.
Notes/Tips
- The choice of bread pan can impact baking time due to factors such as size, material, thickness, shape, insulation, and coating. Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the bread; it should come out clean or with only a few crumbs clinging to it.
- Dairy-Free Version: In place of butter, use melted coconut oil or plant-based butter. In place of Greek yogurt, use a dairy-free yogurt.
- To Make Muffins: Divide the batter evenly among the cups of a greased muffin tin. Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. If making mini muffins, check them at 11 minutes.
- You could substitute sweet potato puree for the pumpkin.
- If you’re looking for more sweetness, add a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar when serving.
- The recipe will brown quickly. Bake it on the middle rack and use a toothpick to determine doneness. Cover loosely with foil if the top starts to get too brown.
- You can substitute sour cream for the plain Greek yogurt. They work interchangeably in most baking recipes.
- This recipe would be delicious with the addition of 1/2-1 cup of mini chocolate chips.
Easy, quick, and delish.
Thanks Catherine! This is a favorite in our house… with chocolate chips added. 🙂
1 overripe banana at my house is not 1 cup of mashed bananas…the recipe needs about 3 “medium” bananas and it doesn’t hurt to throw in 4 of them out of frustration LOL.
Is unrefined sugar the turbinado sugar?
Yep.
Can I use brown sugar instead of “unrefined” (or is that the same as sugar in the raw?) trying to avoid going back to the store!
Brown sugar has more moisture in it because of the molasses, so I would recommend just granulated sugar (white sugar).
I didn’t see the amount of brown sugar listed in the recipe. So, I just winged it at 1/4 cup. Then I sprinkled chopped black walnuts on top.
Thanks for being creative with the pumpkin/banana idea.
Oh thanks for pointing that out! I actually don’t use brown sugar, so I’ll take that part out.
I’m from Australia and we use either plain flour(doesn’t rise) or self raising flour ( which does rise). Your recipe just says flour, can you tell me which flour to use
Thanks
We use plain flour unless a recipe calls for self-rising flour. Thanks for stopping by Suzette! I think you’ll really enjoy this recipe.
This is my new “go-to” recipe. I have tweaked it a little, but my kids devour them. I have no idea if they freeze well, they never make it that far. I also add zucchini, cranberries, flax seed, walnuts, and whatever else I can find. Sometimes I use oat flour instead of, or in addition to wheat flour. I even added spinach once that no one knew. I use greek yogurt too. I LOVE this recipe and make it often. Thank you so much.
That’s awesome and I do the same thing you do. I add all kinds of stuff from the fruit/veg drawer. I love that you love this recipe as much as our fam does!
heh pro tip – read the yield rather than relying on the pictures to know how many pans to divide the mixture between…
Great sub ideas and idea for V-Day post, Natalie! What recipe did you make again? I’m not sure I have a chocolate banana bread. Do you mean Chocolate Sweet Potato Bread or Chocolate Banana Muffins?
Whoops, I meant to post this on the chocolate banana bread post!
I made these this morning with frozen sweet potato puree instead of pumpkin. My 10-month old thinks he’s too big of a boy for puree now. 😉 They are so yummy! I used nonfat greek yogurt and subbed 2 T agave nectar for the turbinado sugar. These would be great to feature as a part of a Valentine’s post!
Healthy Refuge is my "go to" for healthy recipes my kids will like. I just made these and they turned out great! Instead of granulated sugar I used honey and instead of white flour I used WWFlour. Thank you for yet another great recipe:)
Hey Rach! I made the loaf of bread today with 3/4 white and 3/4 wheat flour. I also used 1/4 brown sugar and 1/4 florida crystals. I did add some chocolate chips though… because I can't help myself and it's for bible study tonight. 🙂 Oh, my pumpkin puree was one I had in the freezer from last year that was marked apple/pumpkin puree. Not sure why I mixed them last year, but I did… used the same amount, but not sure if it made a difference in sweetness or anything since there was some apple in it? Thanks for the idea though. So yummy!