Pumpkin Banana Bread

One time when I was in Seattle with my friend Diana and her husband Rob, Diana introduced me to bananas as a breakfast food. I’d never really thought of a banana as breakfast without something like pancakes, cereal or oatmeal beneath it. As a traveling saleswoman, bananas were the breakfast she dined on often when staying in a hotel. OK. It wasn’t just bananas she dined on. It was bananas dipped in individual packages of Skippy peanut butter. I was immediately hooked.

Though breakfast (or brunch) is my favorite meal of the day, I never eat breakfast during the week. I don’t wake up hungry and usually don’t get hungry for hours – closer to lunch most days. Because I do get hungry an hour or two before lunch, I’ll often eat a banana and peanut butter to tide me over. I have a jar of peanut butter at my desk and occasionally buy bananas to have around just in case.

I always have the best intentions of eating bananas when I buy a bunch. Inevitably two or three bananas of the bunch turn brown before I have a chance to eat them. When that happens I either throw them in the freezer for a later date or whip up some concoction, like the one I made below:

bread ingredients.

2 very ripe bananas
1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
1 stick butter, softened
¼ c. sour cream
1 ½ c. brown sugar
½ c. sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 T. pumpkin pie spice
2 ½ c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
¾ c. walnuts, toasted or chocolate chips

directions.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously spray a large bread pan (or two medium-sized bread pans) with nonstick baking spray.
In a stand mixer, beat together the bananas, pumpkin puree, butter, brown sugar, sour cream, vanilla and eggs until very smooth. Add the spice, flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat until smooth again. Bake in preheated oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.
Remove from the oven, turn out onto a cooling rack, and allow to cool completely before slicing.

This is a great light bite to eat on Thanksgiving morning when you know you’ll be overloading on turkey and stuffing later. There’s so much pumpkin/banana in this recipe I almost think you could bake the crap out of these loaves and they would still be moist. This bread was so moist/dense it almost seemed bread-like in consistency.

Unfortunately there’s not a ton of banana flavor in these loaves, so if you’re looking for a more balanced recipe you may wish to try a different one. If you love pumpkin, you’ll love this loaf.

Recipe rating: 