This easy pumpkin banana bread recipe is a delicious way to welcome in fall.
Pumpkin Banana Bread Recipe photo by Taste of Home

Rejoice, for fall baking is here! We’ve taken one of our favorite recipes and autumn-ized it, resulting in a truly delicious pumpkin banana bread. With the perfect combination of autumnal pumpkin mixed with sugary-sweet banana, it’s the ideal fall treat. Whether you have leftover pumpkin puree or a few overly ripe bananas (or both!), this is the recipe to add to your fall baking list.

Ingredients for Pumpkin Banana Bread

  • Bananas: Ripe bananas are absolutely essential in banana bread. Look for dark yellow bananas with a speckling of brown spots, which indicates they have developed a lot of sugar.
  • Canned pumpkin: When baking, we think it’s better to use canned pumpkin. Compared to making pumpkin puree from scratch, canned pumpkin is cost-effective and saves time, and produces more consistent results.
  • Walnuts or pecans: This is where your bread’s texture transforms from a one-dimensional springy tenderness to more of a definitive bite. The walnuts and pecans add a pleasant nutty note, but you can replace them with chocolate chips, dried cranberries or dried cherries.

Directions

Step 1: Beat the wet ingredients

A Bowl of Ingredient Mixture With a Whisk and a Banana PeelTMB Studio

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the bananas, pumpkin and vanilla, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated.

Step 2: Whisk together the dry ingredients

A Bowl of Mixture With a SpoonTMB Studio

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and carefully mix until just combined. Gently fold in the nuts until they’re evenly dispersed.

Editor’s Tip: Don’t overmix! If the dry and wet ingredients are mixed for too long, the gluten will over-develop and result in a dense, tough bread.

Step 3: Bake the pumpkin banana bread

A Group of Rectangular Pans With Batter in ThemTMB Studio

Pour the batter evenly into a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan. Or, for mini breads, pour the batter into five greased 5-3/4x3x2-inch loaf pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes for the full loaf or 35 to 40 minutes for the mini loaves.

Let the pumpkin banana bread cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan(s) and placing it on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Recipe Variations

  • Spices: When making the batter, stir in warm fall spices such as cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, ginger or ground cloves.
  • Add-ins: Instead of the nuts, use chocolate chips for an extra bit of sweetness, or swap in dried cranberries or dried cherries.
  • Streusel topping: Before placing the pumpkin banana bread in the oven, sprinkle on an unbaked easy streusel topping to give the bread more body, flavor and visual appeal.

How to Store Pumpkin Banana Bread

Once the pumpkin banana bread is fully cooled, wrap it. It will stay fresh for two days at room temperature, or seven days in the refrigerator.

How to Freeze Pumpkin Banana Bread

To freeze bread, wrap it in foil and store it in freezer-proof resealable bags for up to three months. For grab-and-go convenience, consider making pumpkin banana muffins, then wrapping and freezing the muffins individually.

Pumpkin Banana Bread Tips

Pumpkin Banana BreadTMB Studio

What’s the secret to good banana bread?

To make the best banana bread, use ripe bananas that have small brown spots. When combining ingredients, don’t overmix or you’ll wind up with a dense loaf. Another trick is using room temperature eggs: They’ll incorporate better with the other ingredients and provide structure and volume for your pumpkin banana bread.

Why use mushy bananas for banana bread?

Mushy, slightly brown bananas are best for banana bread because they have ripened enough to release sugar. The banana will be easier to mash up and will add more sweetness to the loaf.

Why is my banana bread so dense?

If you wind up with dense banana bread, you may have worked the batter for too long. When adding the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, only mix until everything is just combined. Do not overmix or you’ll over-develop the gluten, resulting in a dense batter.

How should I use leftover canned pumpkin puree?

There are lots of ways to use up canned pumpkin. After making this pumpkin banana bread, you’ll have a little more than 1 cup of canned pumpkin left over, which is enough to make pumpkin pie ice cream, a batch of pumpkin cookies with browned butter frosting or bakery-style jumbo pumpkin pecan muffins.

Pumpkin Banana Bread Recipe

I came across these loaves in a local newspaper about 10 years ago, and I still make this pumpkin banana bread recipe on a regular basis. It conveniently yields a number of mini loaves, making gift-giving easy. —Linda Wood, Roanoke, Virginia
Pumpkin Banana Bread Recipe photo by Taste of Home
Total Time

Prep: 15 min. Bake: 35 min. + cooling

Makes

5 mini loaves (6 pieces each)

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1-1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium)
  • 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in bananas, pumpkin and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking power, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Fold in nuts.
  2. Pour into five greased 5-3/4x3x2-in. loaf pans. If desired, top with additional walnuts. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Nutrition Facts

1 piece: 122 calories, 5g fat (1g saturated fat), 12mg cholesterol, 100mg sodium, 18g carbohydrate (11g sugars, 1g fiber), 2g protein.