Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Banana Bread Recipe

This post brought to you by LIBBY’S Pumpkin. All opinions are 100% mine.

Over the last few weeks, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve been working with a lot of LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin recipes. What can I say, I like to switch it up and keep things interesting in the kitchen! One of the reasons I was so happy to work on this #PumpkinCan project is that I truly do use LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin a lot in my baking, as it makes a great healthy baking substitution for all sorts of things!

Here’s the thing about LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin; you can use it to add flavor to your dishes, like the Pumpkin Waffles recipe I made a few weeks ago, or you can use it to enrich the nutritional content of smoothies, macaroni and cheese and other dishes that your kids are sure to love. You can even spoon in a tablespoon of LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin into prepared sauces to reduce the sodium. And did you know that pumpkin is a natural source of Vitamin A and fiber?

It’s no wonder that they call pumpkin a super food!

Now, of course you can always use LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin to create a flavor profile for a meal, but because it doesn’t actually have a very strong, overpowering flavor, I’ve found that it works really well as a baking substitution in some of my favorite recipes.

You can replace half of the butter in a recipe with pumpkin puree or replace the vegetable oil in a recipe completely with pumpkin puree to reduce the fat content. Your baked goods will still have the same moisture that they would if you had used butter or oil, but it’s much more friendly to your waistline!

Unlike eggs and butter in the fridge, you can keep a can of LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin in the kitchen cabinet year-round, so it’s always available when you’re in the mood for brownies, cake or muffins! The next time you are in the baking aisle at your local grocery store, grab a can or two just in case. Trust me, you’ll thank me for it when you have a midnight craving for brownies and no butter or eggs in the fridge! You can even portion away the leftovers and store them in the freezer so that nothing goes to waste!

Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin contains no salt, no sugar, no flavorings or preservatives. It’s just 100% Pure Pumpkin. YUM!

Now that we’ve established how awesome LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin is as a baking substitute, I want to show you my favorite way to use it in baking. One of my very favorite things to bake is Banana Bread – sometimes with chocolate chips, and sometimes without. I’ve been in a mood for chocolate lately, so we’re using dark chocolate chips in this recipe, but they are totally optional and it will still taste fantastic without them!

Normally this recipe would call for 1/2 cup of melted butter and 2 eggs, but we are going to substitute the butter with LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin puree and we are going to substitute one of those eggs with 1/4 cup of LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin puree (thus we will have 3/4 cup pumpkin puree).

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients

3/4 cup LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin puree
4 large, very ripe bananas
3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas, pumpkin puree and egg together until creamy, then beat in the sugars and vanilla. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder and whisk to mix them. If you have a sifter, you can use a sifter for this step.

Add the dry ingredients to your banana mash and beat on low speed for about a minute. You don’t want to over beat! Stir in the chocolate chips if you are using them and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. I always pull the loaf from the oven after 50 minutes and use a wooden skewer as a toothpick to check the doneness. Insert it right in the middle and if the toothpick is dry with a few crumbs sticking to it when you withdraw it, you’re done! If it’s still wet, that means your loaf still has a while to go – try another five minutes at a time.

Go check out the #PumpkinCan website where you can share your favorite #PumpkinCan fact via Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest for a chance to win weekly prizes!

Make sure to like LIBBY’S Pumpkin on Facebook , follow LIBBY’S Pumpkin on Twitter and LIBBY’S Pumpkin on Pinterest to find delicious ideas for enjoying delicious pumpkin all year long!