Canned Pumpkin Is The Fall Upgrade Your Banana Bread Needs

If there's anything the past few years have taught us, it's that we love banana bread. We are drawn to its natural sweetness, the subtle banana flavor mixed with nuts, the warm spices. Having a slice with a cup of coffee makes for an almost perfect breakfast. Almost. There's one thing that would make it truly perfect, and it's a simple addition to your favorite banana bread recipe: canned pumpkin. It will not only give your baked good a delicious taste of fall but also bring some moistness to your loaf.

Adding canned pumpkin to a banana bread is simple. You don't need to swap out any ingredients. You simply add a half to a full cup of pumpkin puree to the mixture at the same time you add the bananas. If you want a little of that PSL flavor, add some pumpkin pie spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. You do need to think about how much moisture the canned pumpkin will add to your bread. Canned pumpkin is about 90% water, which gives your bread a nice sponginess. However, too much liquid and it will end up soggy.

The simplest way to remove the moisture is to squeeze it through a cheesecloth, However, you can take a few extra minutes to cook the pumpkin on the stove over a low heat for five to 15 minutes. Cooking down the pumpkin not only eliminates some of the liquid, but it also concentrates the flavor of the pumpkin. It will also caramelize some of the natural sugars in the pumpkin and give you a sweeter end product. The cooking time will depend on how much flavor you want to add and how much moisture you want to eliminate.

You may want to add a few minutes of cooking time to make sure the bread is fully baked through. Another tip is to use a little additional baking soda and baking powder since both the canned pumpkin and bananas can weigh down the other ingredients and cause the bread to sink a bit. You'll also want to make sure you are using 100% pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling has added ingredients — like sugar, thickeners, and stabilizers — that can affect the outcome of your bake. Canned pumpkin is the only thing you truly need for a yummy banana bread update.