Banana Pumpkin Bread is a must-make quick bread recipe for Fall. Mashed banana and pure pumpkin help this pumpkin bread bake up perfectly moist and delicious each time. The chunks of milk chocolate chips through out the bread make it even better!
For more family favorite pumpkin recipes try my cinnamon streusel pumpkin cake and these perfect pumpkin muffins.
Banana Pumpkin Bread Recipe
This banana pumpkin bread recipe with mashed bananas and chocolate chips was the very first pumpkin recipe ever posted to my blog. That was like 4 years ago! It has been made hundreds of times since then. It's never Fall at my house until we make this banana pumpkin bread!
The mashed banana plus pure pumpkin help make this bread so moist each and every time.
What You'll Need
This banana pumpkin bread recipe calls for simple pantry staple baking ingredients. Most of these you probably already have in your kitchen!
- Butter - I use salted butter. You can use unsalted butter but you may want to add some additional salt to balance it out.
- Granulated Sugar
- Vanilla Extract
- Large Eggs
- Pure Pumpkin - You want the 100% pure pumpkin and not the pumpkin pie filling.
- Mashed Banana - The uglier, the better!
- Flour - I use unbleached all-purpose flour for all my baking. Feel free to use a gluten-free flour but make sure it's a 1:1 ratio for regular flour. I would suggest not using whole wheat flour as that can lead to dry and dense bread. The recipe does not have the extra moisture to support whole wheat flour.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda - Helps the bread rise up and helps the moisture of the bread as well.
- Salt
- Pumpkin Pie Spice
- Milk Chocolate Chips - You will need an extra little bit of flour for the milk chocolate chips to help prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the bread while baking.
How To Make Banana Pumpkin Bread With Milk Chocolate Chips
This pumpkin bread recipe gets made in only one bowl!
Mix Butter, Eggs, Sugar, and Vanilla : Combine these into the mixing bowl and beat until it's mixed well. There may be chunks of butter and that's ok. Just make sure the butter is well softened to avoid this.
Pumpkin + Bananas : Add the mashed bananas and pure pumpkin. Mix to combine.
Dry Ingredients : Add all the dry ingredients and mix on low speed, increasing speed as needed, until it's mixed together.
Chocolate Chips : In a small bowl mix the chocolate chips with the flour, then dump into the pumpkin bread batter. Doing this helps the chocolate chips not sink to the bottom of the bread while baking.
Bake : Divide the batter evenly between the loaf pans and top with additional milk chocolate chips. This is totally optional as it just makes for a prettier presentation.
How To Store Banana Pumpkin Bread
It's best to store this banana pumpkin bread at room temperature, wrapped tightly, on the counter top.
After the bread is completely cooled, I wrap the loaf in plastic wrap and then put it inside a gallon-sized Ziploc bag. You don't have to do the bag, it would be just fine staying wrapped up on the counter top.
Can I Freeze Pumpkin Bread?
Yes! You can. Let the loaf cool in the loaf pan for 10-15 minutes and then take the bread out and let it cook completely on a cooling rack. Once cooled, wrap it tightly in tin foil making sure that the ends are wrapped up tight. Place it inside a freezer gallon-size Ziploc bag. Close it up making sure all the air is let out.
Freeze for up to three months.
When ready, remove the bread completely from the tin foil and let it sit on a cooling rack, at room temperature, for 3 hours before slicing and serving.
Tips For Success
- #1 is to make sure the butter is SOFTENED! I place my butter in the microwave (with wrapper still on and all), set the microwave for 30 seconds, and then every 5 seconds I open the microwave and turn the butter to a different side, and then keep microwaving it (while turning it every 5 seconds). This gets the butter nice and soft without melting it. If the butter is too hard, it will not blend into the sugar and eggs and instead will chunk up and look curdled.
- Do not take the bread out too soon from the oven. This bread will look done on the outside and edges but if the middle of the bread is wet at all (even a little bit) your bread will end up sinking in the middle. Bread sinks when it's not cooked all the way. The best way to tell if it's done is to use a toothpick. Stick it in the center and if it comes out with crumbs or nothing at all then it's done! If it comes out wet, well you better leave that bread in their longer. You can also just use your finger. Gently press on the top of the bread and if it's springy and comes back up then it's done. If it feels wet and soft then leave it in there longer. With quick bread recipes, its more important to go by the bread than the timer or the bake time a recipe calls for. All ovens cook differently. So if your bread is not done at 50 minutes (like mine was) don't worry! Just leave it in there for 5-10 minutes longer.
- Loosely cover the bread with tin foil for the last 20 minutes of baking. This ensures that the bread will cook all the way through while not browning too much on the outside.
More Banana Recipes
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread - A quick bread full of all your favorites! Peanut butter, banana, and chocolate.
- Chocolate Chip Banana Bars - Snack bars that are so deliciously moist with mashed bananas and chocolate chips.
- Lemon Blueberry Banana Bread - A bright, citrus lemon bread with mashed bananas and plump juicy blueberries.
- Banana Bread Muffins - The #1 recipe on my site with nearly perfect reviews!
- Best Banana Bread Cake - The best banana cake with a whipped and fluffy cream cheese frosting.
Banana Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
Ingredients
- 11 tablespoons butter softened
- 1⅓ cups granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup pure pumpkin
- 1 cup mashed bananas about 2 large bananas
- 3½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups milk chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350° and spray two 9x5-inch bread pans with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl add the softened butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Beat together until combined.
- Add the pumpkin puree and mashed banana. Blend until combined. Batter may look lumpy but that's ok.
- In a separate mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Stir with a whisk to break up any clumps.
- Add half of the flour mixture into the wet pumpkin mixture and combine together at low speed just until incorporated. Add the other half of the flour and blend in at low speed just until combined.
- Stir the 1 tablespoon of flour into the chocolate chips. Add into the pumpkin bread batter and stir together with a wooden spoon or spatula. ** The flour helps the chocolate chips not sink to the bottom of the bread. Reserve some of the chocolate chips (about ¼ cup) before adding the flour to sprinkle on top of the bread. Or you can just use additional chocolate chips to sprinkle on top.
- Divide the batter between the two pans. Loaf pans should be about ½ to ⅔ full. Sprinkle the reserved chocolate chips on top of the bread before baking.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes. With about 20 minutes left of the cook time, loosely lay a piece of tin foil over the bread to prevent burning. Use a toothpick inserted into the middle to test for doneness. It should come out with only crumbs on it or nothing at all. If it comes out wet, then the bread needs to bake longer.
- Let cool in the bread pan for about 15 minutes. Take the bread out and let it cook completely on a cooling rack at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
recipe adapted years ago from Oh, Sweet Basil
If making muffins instead of the loaf, what would the temperature and bake time be?
I would leave the temperature the same, 350 degrees. If you are baking regular sized muffins, I would start with 12 minutes and then see from there. I've never tried these as muffins so I am not sure how long they would take. I would guess 12-15 minutes. If you are doing mini sized muffins, then the time would be closer to like 8 minutes.
I made them as cupcakes and baked at 350 for 25 mins
I made this last night and it turned out beautifully, and tasted even better! I did one regular loaf pan, one regular muffin pan and one mini muffin pan. All baked well at 350. Thanks!
So glad you loved it. I've never made muffins out of them but that's a great idea! Thanks for coming back to leave your comment 🙂 Have a great week.
Do you remember how long for muffins?
What type of butter was used in the recipe? Unsalted or salted?
I always use salted butter. If you use unsalted just reduce the salt a bit.
Can I easily cut this recipe in half? I just want to make one.
I have never done that but it seems like it would work just fine. Just use half of every ingredient. Hopefully it works out for you!
This is such a delicious recipe!! Thank you for sharing!
You're very welcome. So good to hear you love this!
Glad others enjoyed it. Unfortunately, although I followed the recipe carefully and am an experienced baker, I found it to be dry and lacking in flavor.
So sorry to hear this Mary. The banana & pumpkin bring so much moisture so that's weird it was dry. Thank you for coming back with your feedback ?
Turned out great, very rich just to warn you all.
To make muffins:
normal size cupcake pan w/ Cupcake liners
same temperature
25-30 minutes for the bake
Can you use coconut oil instead of butter (how much) and flax for eggs? Thank you
I’ve never made it with those substitutions so I can’t say for sure. You could always experiment if you want.
I use earth balance without soy sticks for baking. I haven't ran into any issues with things I've baked so far. This bread is in the oven now, but I don't foresee any issues.
Fantastic recipes! Thank you soooo much for sharing!!
Thank you! So happy you’re finding some good stuff. Thanks for being here.
Had anyone tried this recipe with canned pumpkin? ?
The recipe calls for canned pumpkin? Not sure what you mean. Sorry I can't help more.
I just made this’ll for a brunch, and I had some extra batter left over so I baked it in a cookie sheet to try it. It was amazing! The pumpkin I bought came in a can with ~1 1/2 cups in it so I threw in the whole can, plus honey to help with the sweetness, and it was perfect! I also increased the pumpkin pie spice in the second batch I made because I found the first batch lacking just a little bit of kick. I also mixed a titch in with the flour I used to coat the chocolate chips. I baked one batch in two disposable square cake pans and it took ~40 minutes. Absolutely amazing.
Sounds delicious! So glad you loved this recipe 🙂
Can you use gluten free flour in place of the regular flour in the same measurements?
As far as I know, gluten free flour is an equal substitution for regular flour.
Is it so supposed to be a thick batter? Mine turned out thick and it was a little harder to put in the pans.
Love this recipe but I am seriously struggling with getting the middle to cook! 🙁 I end up sacrificing the loaf to dryness because I am trying to get the middle to cook through. Help!!
I sometimes have this problem too. If the middle of the bread is consistently not cooking, then try adding a few tablespoons of extra flour. Sometimes that can help OR you can reduce the oven temp by like 25 degrees and cook the bread for longer, which that may also help.
So I've come to love baking my banana bread in an 8x8 pan. I've found it always bakes more evenly bc it's not as thick. I'll also do it in a muffin tins occasion bc then it's like individual slices with out having to slice.
Absolutely a quick, easy bread to throw together. My batter was thicker than I expected too even though I thought the recipe called for 11tbsp plus three more tbsp. because I was reading it off my small cell phone screen!
It was ready in about 50 minutes but even with the tin foil tenting, the top and sides were overbaked.
I used all semi-sweet chocolate chips so it's not very sweet which is nice.
It was hard as a brick coming out of the fridge after supper but I remembered reading "warm in microwave and slather with butter, which I did. That is some great advice right there, thanks.
It is ok and I'll likely make it again when I need to use up some pumpkin and bananas at the same time. I just couldn't taste the pumpkin or bananas. Thanks for sharing.
This was so good! And so easy to make, thank you for this wonderful recipe.
This was sooooo yummy!!!! I even forgot to soften my butter good before mixing. It had sat out for a bit so it wasn't chilled necessarily but it wasn't soft. But it turned out yummy and moist. I ended up doing 1 regular size loaf and 2 mini loaves. The 2 mini loaves came out of the oven at about 40 minutes and the big loaf was more like 60-65 minutes. I'm going to try muffins next time.
This is so good,thanks.I put a cup of nuts in it, and it made it even better,I love baking
Love this recipe! I had two loaves that were super moist and full of flavor. I used fresh pumpkin and 2 frozen bananas. I also added about the zest of half a lemon which came through nicely. Overall, I will definitely make this again!
Very easy to make. Made for seniors and they loved it. I’ll be making this again.
Awesome! Glad to hear it and thank you for coming back to leave your comment and feedback. I appreciate it.
I also had trouble with the recipe. I followed it to a T and only did 50 min for the loaf and 25 min for muffins. They were both a tad dry and had no flavor, so I think the salt needs to be upped. And I know banana and pumpkin aren’t super strong flavors, but I couldn’t taste either.
I just want to confirm the amount of butter. 11 tbsps. plus 1 stick (1/2 cup) plus 3 tbsp. ( 1/4 cup)
Is this correct?
11 tablespoons total. The 1 stick + 3 tablespoon = 11 tablespoons.