This hybrid Zucchini-Banana Bread recipe combines the best qualities of two classic quick breads into one delicious loaf. Perfect whenever you need a little something sweet.
Try as I might, I've never been able to replicate mom's banana bread. Something's always missing.
Maybe it's the smell of our turquoise kitchen, or the slick yellow and chrome kitchen table I sat at to eat. Maybe it's just my mom in her brown flour-covered apron. Her recipe is likely long lost, along with her fading memory, so unless I stumble on it tucked between the pages of one of her many hoarded cookbooks, it may well be gone forever. But I keep trying.
POST UPDATE 5/2/2018: I did it! You can find Mom's Banana Bread recipe here.
Zucchiana Bread? Banini Bread?
During one of my attempts to replicate Mom's recipe, I ended up taking a significant detour. Instead of creating a banana bread recipe, I merged my banana and zucchini bread recipes into what turned out to be an amazingly moist, tender, and tasty zucchini-banana loaf.
I attribute the softer texture and richer flavor of this delicious Zucchini-Banana Bread to the fact that, for the first time in years, instead of subbing in yogurt as I usually do, I went with full-fat ingredients for this recipe.
If you are trying to cut fat, you can always sub it back in, but keep in mind that the relatively small amount of fat used is balanced by the fact that most of the moisture (and a lot of the sugar) in this bread comes from fruit and vegetable sources.
TIP: I like to sprinkle some turbinado sugar on the loaves just before I pop them in the oven. It gives the tops a thin glazed texture, and I think it makes the bite feel more interesting on the tongue. Enjoy!
Zucchini Banana Bread
Equipment
- 2 Standard Loaf Pans
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup oil
- ½ cup white sugar
- ⅔ cup packed brown sugar
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 3 ripe medium bananas mashed (or two large)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 ½ cups flour
- 1 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- ¼ cup raw sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Grease and flour two 8x4 bread loaf pans (or just spray them with nonstick cooking spray).*
- In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixture, beat eggs until they are light yellow and frothy. Add sour cream, oil, white and brown sugars, grated zucchini, bananas, and vanilla.
- Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly to combine. Do not over mix.
- Fold in walnuts.
- Divide batter evenly between loaf pans.
- Sprinkle loaves with raw sugar. (optional)
- Bake in preheated oven for about 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the loaf pans for 15 minutes on a wire rack before removing. Allow to cool completely.
Nutrition
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.
This Zucchini-Banana Bread recipe will make:
- 2 standard loaves [as in recipe directions]
- 1 standard loaf + 2 small loaves
- 5 small loaves
- 24 standard muffins
- 1 standard loaf + 12 standard muffins
- 12 jumbo muffins
... or any combination that makes you happy. You get the idea.
Just be sure to adjust cooking times to compensate for different-sized pans.
We all love a quick something sweet now and then. Here are a few more of our favorite quick breads:
- Nana’s Old-fashioned Pumpkin Gingerbread
- Mom’s Classic Banana Bread
- Blueberry Banana Muffins (Naturally Low-Fat)
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Oh wow, I didn't realize that sprinkling sugar on the top would make such a big difference in texture, at least visually. I'm pinning this one!
Nice play on words and recipes. 🙂
This looks so, so yummy - Love the addition of the sour cream, and the sprinkling of sugar on top! Pinned!
Can this recipe be baked in a bread machine? Or is it best baked in the oven?
I've never tried to bake it in a bread machine. If you have a "quick bread" setting, I'd go for it and see how it turns out.