Who Says You Can't Combine Banana And Pumpkin For A Fall Bread?

Pumpkin bread is the ultimate autumnal treat. It incorporates all of the iconic fall flavors you could ask for from cinnamon and nutmeg spices to pumpkin purée. But who says you can't combine your love of pumpkin bread with another classic like banana bread? When combined, they morph together for a delicious bite. Bananas and pumpkins have even been known to act as substitutes for each other when baking, so putting them together into one bread only makes sense.

Take your classic pumpkin bread recipe, and add mashed bananas for a new twist. In traditional banana bread, you'll probably need to use two or three bananas to get the flavors through and to help your bread achieve the perfect moist consistency. Bananas have also long been used as substitutes for ingredients like eggs, butter, and oil in recipes. Another easy way to combine pumpkin and banana into one bread would be to replace the eggs or oil in your recipe with bananas. Replace the eggs or butter with bananas in a 1-to-1 ratio, or add ¾ of a cup of mashed banana in place of 1 cup of oil.

While plain pumpkin and banana bread would definitely be delicious, it's always fun to include add-ins that enhance the flavor even more. Chocolate chips are the obvious choice — you can get creative with the types of chocolate you choose to use, each bringing something unique to the bread. For traditional pumpkin bread, some common add-ins include raisins, candied ginger, chopped walnuts, pumpkin seeds, or shredded coconut.

For banana bread, the same add-ins apply, but others you could experiment with are peanut butter, dried fruits like cranberries, spices, or maple syrup to really bring out those fall flavors in combination with the pumpkin. This classic banana bread recipe with a twist adds chocolate chunks and cacao powder which could also work great when adding pumpkin. Like any other baked treat, you can also play with the form that your pumpkin-banana creation takes. The expected bread form is a loaf, but try out other shapes like muffins and mini loaves, or even try baking with a square pan.