Pumpkin Banana Bread

{Written by: The Mama}

The pumpkin obsession continues. Yes, I have a problem. No, I don’t care. The sad thing about it is my original intention was good old-fashioned banana bread. Then that little pumpkin shaped light bulb in my brain went off and screamed, “what about pumpkin banana bread?!” A quick search on Yahoo and I stumbled across this adorable blog, Cheeky Kitchen. I glanced over the recipe, realized I had all the ingredients and went to the kitchen. I love this time, it is the perfect excuse to pour a glass of wine and unwind over my mixer. Baking is so much fun for me and one of the few “getaways” that I can have being a busy working mom of two toddlers.

Back to the bread. The first stages of this recipe had me a little nervous. The creaming of the butter and pumpkin looked totally bizarre. I pushed forward regardless and after all of the ingredients were combined it tasted great (by the way, I believe I am totally invincible to salmonella and always gobble down test my batter) and looked absolutely like normal dough.

• 2 very ripe bananas
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt*
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup**
• 1-2 tablespoons milk or heavy cream***

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously spray a loaf pan with nonstick baking spray.

In a stand mixer, beat together (with whisk attachment) the bananas, pumpkin puree, butter, brown sugar, and eggs until very smooth. Toss in the spice, flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat until smooth again. Bake in preheated oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, turn out onto a cooling rack (I turned mine out immediately), and allow to cool slightly before spooning icing on top.

I placed a plate under the cooling rack while pouring the glaze over to keep my counters mess free.

For the icing:

In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and maple syrup. Add just enough milk or cream to make the icing  slightly runny. Use a spoon to drizzle the icing over the bread. Allow icing to harden before slicing into bread and indulging!

For my oven it took closer to 72 minutes for the bread to bake through, it is fairly dense but moist and delicious. The glazing is literally the icing on top. My husband received the first hot test slice and fully approved. The kiddos also enjoyed it for breakfast the next morning. I hope you all enjoy, be sure to stop by Cheeky Kitchen and see what else she has to offer, I know I’ll be checking back as well.

*In my own opinion, the salt could probably be cut in half

**I used a no name brand pancake syrup that I had in the pantry

***I probably used closer to 1/4 – 1/2 cup of milk, mostly due to lack of paying attention to the recipe but just watched until I got a consistency I liked for the icing/glaze.

{Jen}