Pumpkin Banana Nut Bread

Okay, so you know  how I got all obsessed with putting zucchini in every bread possible after I found the post with 50 zucchini bread recipes? Well, the same blog also has a collection of 50 pumpkin bread recipes. So guess what's coming soon? That's right--I'm testing some of them out!

Of course I failed to use my bananas in time again, so the first recipe I made was Banana Pumpkin Bread.

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup organic sugar

2 tablespoons honey

2 large eggs

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1 cup ripe mashed banana (about 2 bananas)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 c, whole wheat flour

1/2 cups white flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
 

  1)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a loaf pan.

2)  In a large bowl, beat together the oil, yogurt, sugar, honey, eggs, pumpkin, banana, orange juice, and vanilla.

3)  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Sprinkle the walnuts over the top, if using.  Fold the dry ingredients into the banana pumpkin mixture, and mix just until combined.

4)  Spoon the mixture into the prepared bread pan and Bake for 53 - 58 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  (I think there's something wrong with my oven, because I baked it for 1 hour and 40 minutes and a toothpick never came out clean so I finally just took it out)  Remove from the oven and cool on rack in pan for 10 - 15 minutes.  Remove from the pan and continue cooling on rack.  When completely cooled, slice and enjoy, or wrap in plastic wrap and store in fridge overnight. The original says it is better after sitting overnight, but I always like my bread warm. 

 

This one was still gummy even after the crazy amount of baking time, so I think my oven is wrong or I need to drain the bananas after mashing or something! It tasted okay, but I don't think I'm very crazy about pumpkin bread. I may make a few of the recipes on the list, but definitely not as many as the zucchini bread list. My husband and son really like this one, though, and it ended up being eaten up before I got around to making frosting for it, which I'd tentatively planned.

Banana Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Okay, so this is the very last of the banana zucchini bread recipes from the collection of 50 zucchini bread recipes. I don't know why I always end up with overripe bananas, but I do. So now that I've made all the recipes, I guess I better start eating my bananas faster!

This one wasn't much different from the Greek yogurt chocolate chip zucchini bread, but it was okay. It, like most of the recipes, turned out a little gummy. I don't know why I can never get it to rise and stay all puffy like when I first take it out of the oven. This wasn't my favorite, but it was edible.

I used:

3/4 c. whole wheat flour

3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour

1/2 Cups Sugar

1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 Egg

2 Mashed Ripe Bananas

1/2 c. coconut oil

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 Cup Shredded Zucchini

About 2 oz. chopped dark chocolate (or chocolate chips, if you have them)

 

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder

In a small bowl, beat eggs, bananas, oil, and vanilla

Combine wet and dry ingredients and beat until moistened

Add zucchini and mix until combined.

Add chocolate and mix.

Spread in buttered loaf pan.

Bake approximately 60-75 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. I baked mine for 85 minutes and it still came out sort of gummy. Grrr.

 This bread was okay with some butter on it, but Fanny's banana bread is much better.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Guess where I got this recipe? Off the wonderful collection over on this blog. My goal is to make 10 of them this year, so I'm working my way through. I already made a zucchini banana bread, but I was at my mom's and she asked me to make something from the overripe bananas she had sitting on the counter. Instead of making regular old banana bread, I went to the list and found one I hadn't made. This one calls for Greek yogurt, but I used regular vanilla, since that's what she had. I didn't adapt this one a whole lot, since it's already healthy-ish.

For this, I used:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cups white flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup organic sugar
• 3 large over-ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vanilla (or plain) yogurt
• 1 cup zucchini, grated
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.
2. Mix brown sugar, bananas, eggs, vanilla extract, yogurt, zucchini and chocolate chips in another large bowl.
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
4. Pour the mixture into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.
5. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until golden brown and a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean, about 60 minutes.

Banana Oat Zucchini Bread

As I am just recently beginning to both garden and cook a lot, I've noticed that my cooking follows the trend of what's getting ripe in the garden. So if you've noticed a lot of zucchini recipes, that's because I have tons. I planted 4 hills of zucchini, and I think all 4 plants lived, maybe even 5. Now I am giving the stuff away I have so much. It's not even the quantity so much as it is that I just don't know what to do with it! I thought planting four hills was being moderate, but when I have 8 zucchini on the counter, I just get overwhelmed. And Fannie only has about 5 recipes for it.

So, it was off to Pinterest for some inspiration. I searched for zucchini bread and found this AMAZING blog post that lists 50 zucchini bread recipes. That's right, 50! I looked at some and decided I wanted to make all 50. Then I put it on my favorites toolbar so I can find it easily. So check out the link if you need to use up zucchini or just want to be amazed at the long list of breads that you can make with zucchini. Banana bread? Yep. Lemon poppyseed cake? Yep. Cheesy bread? Of course. Basically, you can name any kind of bread or cake, and just put a bird on it zucchini in it.

Since there were so many I wanted to make, it was hard to pick just one. But I had an overripe banana hanging out on the counter, so I chose the banana bread recipe .

Here's my adapted version:

• 3/4 cups white flour 
• 3/4 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 cup organic sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 ripe bananas mashed
• 3 cups shredded zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 and oil a loaf pan.
 
In large bowl stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and oats.

In a second bowl combine sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla and mashed banana.

Pour sugar mixture into flour mixture and mix to combine.

Add in zucchini and mix until well incorporated.

Bake for 35-45 minutes or until bread pulls away from sides of pan and an inserted toothpick is removed clean.

My batter seemed the right consistency, but for some reason, my bread really didn't cook that well. I cooked it for 40 minutes and a toothpick came out clean--almost floated out on the oil in it. I haven't baked with coconut oil, so maybe someone more familiar with it would be able to tell me. But it was super 'greasy' feeling. It looked a little soft still, but the toothpick was practically falling through the bread it was so oily. And even after 45 minutes, when I took it out, it was still kind of moist feeling. I slid a knife in to make sure, and it came out really oily as well.

Anyway, the bread smelled delicious and my son couldn't wait to eat it. I let it cool about 30 minutes before cutting it, releasing all the wonderful fragrances. Seriously, this one smelled like a coconut and banana wonderland. It tasted very good, but after my son asked me what the green things were, I finally told him and then he didn't want to eat it. Bummer.

Also, when I sliced it open, I found that it was still moist and a bit gummy inside. So I'm not sure how to tell if it's done since the knife & toothpick both failed me. 

The original blog pics look like the bread is much more well done (and you can't see many green flecks, which makes me suspicious)! I'd recommend an extra 5-10 minutes beyond the 45 if you are using coconut oil. I guess that was the problem? Not sure, as I followed the recipe almost exactly, only cutting the sugar some and adding whole wheat. It tasted excellent, but needed more time cooking. To fancy it up, I made cream cheese frosting for it, which distracted from the gumminess. And after it had cooled completely, it wasn't gummy but was still a bit too heavy/dense.

Overall, I would recommend this recipe, because it tasted quite delicious. But maybe add a couple tablespoons of extra flour or squeeze your zucchini to make it extra dry for baking.

Banana Nut Bread

This is a simple banana bread that I think I've made a few times before. It's pretty simple to make, too. If you're looking for classic banana bread that's not too sweet, this is it.

You will need:
3 ripe bananas
2 eggs
1 c. white flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
optional: 2 tbsp. flax flour

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan.

Mash the bananas and add the beaten eggs.

Stir in flour, sugar, baking soda, and flax. Add walnuts and pour into loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hr or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from rack, cool for at least 10 mins before slicing.

 Unfortunately, I forgot to add the walnuts until I had already poured the batter into the pan. I love walnuts, so I can't believe I forgot them! I really wanted nut bread, but I didn't think I could mix them in without getting batter all over the loaf pan. So I just sprinkled them over the top. They did get a little dark, but they added a nutty, toasted flavor that I actually really liked! Next time, I might sprinkle a few over the top just because I liked them so much. But I will definitely remember to add them to the batter as well. Nice to know there's an alternative, though. The bread still turned out great, like usual. A classic.