Pumpkin Banana Bread

This is a recipe you absolutely must try. It turned out so yummy that I was beside myself giddy. Fall and pumpkins go together, so there’s no question that I bust out my secret weapon:

Inside it contains one fabulous, seldom made pumpkin bread. A bread moist and sweet simply due to the addition of bananas. I had me some bananas. Ripe. Brown. Unlovable to anyone but me. And I had me some pumpkin puree too. And all the other fixin’s. With a little twist I could make it a tad more healthy, less sugary and it passed the test at Oliver’s school (no cupcakes, candy, sweets, etc). I whipped up a batter, made it my own, and delivered the goods to Oliver’s class the next morning.

Here’s the original recipe:

My version has less sugar, an extra banana, no nuts, whole wheat flour, all organic ingredients. Then I assembled a trick to make the crust soft. When you bake with whole wheat flour, crusts turn out hard. A hard crust doesn’t suit a pumpkin or banana bread well. Read carefully and you’ll find my secret to keeping crust moist.

Here’s my version of the recipe:

Pumpkin Banana Bread

INGREDIENTS: (all 100% organic)

• 1 cup Canola oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1  15 oz can pumpkin puree (1 1/2 cups)
• 4 eggs beaten
• 2T organic apple juice
• 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2t baking powder
• 1t cinnamon
• 1t ginger
• 1t salt
• 1/4t baking soda

METHOD:

•  Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two bread loaf pans 
• Beat oil and sugars in a bowl until blended. The mixture will look grainy. Add the pumpkin, bananas, eggs, and apple juice. Mix until blended. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices. 
• If you want to add nuts (or raisins, cranberries, apple chunks, or chocolate chips) do it now. Fold into batter.
• Divide batter into two pans. Bake 80 to 90 minutes. Use a toothpick to test for done’ness. 
• Cool on a rack before removing from pan. Cool longer before serving.

TRICK for soft crust:

• Place a cast iron pan in the oven filled with water. This introduces a bit of steam to the baking process, softening the crust.
• About 1/2 through baking (40 minutes), put a foil tent over the bread. This allows the inside to finish baking while the outside remains done.

I know that I made more than enough for 20 children and two teachers. And I saved 1/2 of one loaf for myself.

Next week: start diet. :)

Enjoy!!