Banana Pumpkin Bread
This Banana Pumpkin Bread is moist, nutritious, and delicious! Learn how to freeze it for later or make it into muffins, too.
To develop this recipe, I started with a Basic Banana Bread recipe from Cooking Light Magazine and then simplified and healthified it a bit. To up the nutrition, I added pumpkin, substituted some whole wheat flour for part of the all purpose flour, used a bit less sugar, and changed up the seasoning a little.
Let me tell you, my kids–pardon the pun–go bananas over it!
How to Turn 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 Banana Pumpkin Bread
I often bake up a double batch of this bread and then freeze one to have on hand for quick school morning breakfasts.
To freeze, fully bake, fully cool, and remove the loaf from the pan. Then wrap the loaf in several layers of plastic wrap and then in a layer of foil. Label it with the recipe name and date and freeze.
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.
More Baked Goods to Double and Freeze
Try doubling and freezing a few more of our favorite baked goods, using our freezing instructions in these recipes:
Banana Breakfast Cake
Blueberry Avocado Muffins
Cinnamon Applesauce Bread
Enjoy this tasty baked bread for breakfast, snack, or even dessert with no shame!
Print
Prep Time:
Yield:
Category:
Method:
Cuisine:
Print
PinDescription
This baked sweet bread packed with all the best flavors of fall and nutritious ingredients like whole wheat flour, flaxseed, pumpkin, and bananas. We’ve also included directions for making this into muffins and how to double the recipe and freeze one batch for later.
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed overripe bananas (about 1 banana)
- 1/2 cup canned pureed pumpkin
- 1/3 cup plain yogurt
- 5 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup unrefined 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
Instructions
Make It Now:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan (or muffin tin) with cooking spray
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the 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 a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan (or evenly into the muffin cups). Use a scraper to make sure all the batter gets used.
- For the bread, bake for 50-55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. (For muffins, bake at for 15-18 minutes until a wooden pick comes out clean.)
- 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.
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!