Recipe and Tutorial: Banana Pumpkin Bread of AWESOMESAUCE!

Wow, two banana posts in a row. I must be on some kind of banana kick. Don't worry, I have plenty of other yummy fewdz to talk about; it was just the roll of the dice this week.


In any case, earlier this month, my friend, Erynith, decided to stay at our place for a few days and "take care of our cat" while I was away visiting family....uh huh...

I think the visit had more to do with a combination of her house being renovated and our 52" flat screen HDTV with unlimited US Netflix, but no matter...heh heh...

In any case, as she's a good house guest, Erynith brought her own groceries to prepare and consume. When she left, there were two bananas left behind. As I'm not much of a fruit person, nor is the Hubster, they sat there for a few days, getting older and browner and less appetizing, as bananas do.

I finally got sick of looking at them last week, and decided to make something out of them before they needed to be binned, so I went on my Epic Search through my cookbook library, digital recipe compendium, and online for interesting ideas. I knew I wanted to bring the resulting product with me to our Scout Camp this past weekend, so the recipe I used had to a) be pleasing to a crowd consisting of teenage boys, young men, and "oldies" (i.e. Leaders), b) be sturdy enough to survive a car ride, and c) be sufficient enough to feed all of us (including three growing teenage boys with apparently hollow legs).

I finally decided on this recipe because I had a sugar pumpkin I had brought back from my visit; however, when I finally got to making the recipe, the sugar pumpkin ended up being rotten in the middle, so I had to use my emergency go-to tin of pureed pumpkin. Ah, well.

Regardless, this recipe baked up beautifully, and was really substantial!  It also was moist enough that I can confidently state it will last for several days, wrapped and kept cool (not that it had the chance to last around our Scouts!)

Banana Pumpkin Bread

Prep Time: 20 Minutes

Baking Time: 45 Minutes

Yield: 1 loaf (12 servings)

Original Source: Allrecipes.com

• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup light vegetable oil
• 1 1/3 cups pumpkin purée
• ½ cup honey
• ½ cup golden brown sugar
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour           
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cardamom
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp cloves
• ¼ tsp ginger
• 3/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries or diced dried apricots
• 1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds) (optional)
• 1/2 cup nuts, coarsely chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350˚F (175˚C). Butter a 9”x5” loaf pan.

 In a large bowl, stir together the mashed banana, eggs, oil, pumpkin, honey and sugar. 

Whisk together the remaining dry ingredients 

 and stir into the banana mixture until just combined. 

Fold in the raisins and/or cranberries and the chopped nuts, 

 reserving 1 tbsp of nuts to sprinkle on the top (optional). 

 

Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. 

Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.