Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe

Pumpkin chocolate chip banana bread is moist, delicious… and orange! My recipe uses ingredients such as ripe bananas, pumpkin puree and chocolate chips. This pumpkin banana bread makes a wonderful dessert. I also like to use my pumpkin banana bread recipe in order to make easy fall desserts (e.g. Thanksgiving or Halloween desserts).

Key Ingredients – Bananas, Pumpkin Puree & Chocolate Chips

Recipe Sections

1. Ingredients
2. Instructions
3. Helpful Tips

Your family will love the taste (and orange color) of my sweet & chocolaty pumpkin banana bread. My kids prefer pumpkin banana bread to any kind of “regular” pumpkin bread (those made without bananas). They think the addition of sweet bananas helps to “mellow out” the pumpkin taste. Therefore, this dessert is a great combination of pumpkin & banana flavors.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Banana Bread – An Easy Fall Dessert

This pumpkin banana bread recipe is also simple & easy to make. It takes me about 10-15 minutes or so to prepare and clean up (excluding the baking time, of course). Please be aware that this is an oven-baked banana bread recipe. It is not made with a bread machine. FYI – You will find a printable and “pin-able” recipe at the bottom of this page.

Ingredients – Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe

• 3/4 Cup – Pumpkin Puree
• 3/4 Cup – Mashed Bananas (ripe)
• 8 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (softened)
• 2 – Eggs
• 2 Cups – All Purpose Flour
• 1 Cup – Granulated White Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon – Vanilla Extract
• 1 Teaspoon – Baking Soda
• 1 Teaspoon – Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon – Salt
• 1 Cup – Chocolate Chips (semi-sweet)

Servings – Roughly 12 slices

Equipment Needed – Measuring cup & spoons, mixing bowl, long wooden spoon, 9 by 5 inch metal bread pan, oven mitts, silicon spatula, cooling rack and an oven. 

Instructions – Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Grease bread pan (if needed).
• Mash bananas with a fork.
• Soften butter in a microwave.
• Lightly beat eggs.
• Mix pumpkin puree, mashed bananas, butter and eggs together in a large bowl. Stir until completely mixed.
• Mix in remaining ingredients (except the chocolate chips). Stir until batter is completely mixed.
• Add the chocolate chips to the batter. Stir in chips until fully mixed into batter.
• Pour batter into bread pan.
• Bake in the oven at 325 F for 65 to 70 minutes.
• Take out of oven and let the banana bread cool down in the bread pan for 10 minutes. Do not remove the banana bread from the bread pan during this 10 minute cool down period. Use oven mitts as the bread pan will be very hot coming out of the oven.
• After 10 minutes, remove the banana bread from the bread pan. Use oven mitts. Place the banana bread on a cooling rack in order to completely cool. This cool down may take 1-2 hours. Gently slide a silicon spatula between the banana bread and the bread pan walls if the banana bread is stuck in the pan.

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Helpful Tips – Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe

• The tips below are designed to help banana bread “novices” and/or people with limited baking experience.
• Click on this “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include my tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on easy Banana Bread Recipes such as blueberry banana bread, cranberry banana bread and Greek yogurt banana bread.

• Pumpkin banana bread is a great fall “harvest” dessert. It is perfect for many fall occasions such as Thanksgiving, Halloween, harvest festivals, autumn family gatherings, etc. Of course, since my pumpkin banana bread tastes great and has a unique orange color, it is fantastic for any occasion!
• Use RIPE bananas for the best taste. Ripe bananas are soft and usually yellow with many small black spots. Hard yellow/green(ish) bananas are too starchy and have much less banana flavor. FYI – Beautiful pure yellow bananas are not fully ripe!
• Make sure that you are using pumpkin puree (and NOT a pumpkin pie mix). Pumpkin pie mix contains extra ingredients such as water, sugar & spices and this can throw off the taste & consistency of this pumpkin bread recipe if used.

• This recipe does not use pumpkin pie spice, etc. I didn’t want this pumpkin banana bread to taste just like a pumpkin pie. Rather, I wanted it to taste like a type of banana bread!!
• Since this banana bread is very moist (given the mashed bananas and pumpkin puree), there might be a few cracks in the top of the bread. However, most banana breads have these types of cracks. Moreover, this pumpkin banana bread tastes great with or without any small cracks.
• Optional – If you have run out of butter or you are trying to reduce the saturated fat in your family’s diet, you can replace the butter in the recipe with a neutral-flavored vegetable oil (such as canola oil, corn oil or light/mild olive oil).
• Optional – If you want to make only a pumpkin banana bread (without the chocolate chips), you can simply exclude the chocolate chips when making this recipe. Everything else stays the same.

• Use FRESH ingredients (e.g. baking soda and flour) for the best results. For example, if you use stale baking soda and/or baking powder, your banana bread will not rise properly and will be too dense. Old & hard baking soda/powder can also leave small bitter clumps in your banana bread.
• Old flour can affect the taste of banana bread. Old flour can spoil and taste bitter, sour, musty, etc. Banana bread made with old flour does not taste great!
• Try to keep your ingredients (e.g. flour) in airtight food containers in order to extend their shelf life and avoid spoilage (e.g. exposure to moisture, pests and dust).
• Old flour (when not stored in an airtight container) can absorb a lot of moisture from the air. This extra moisture throws off recipes and can lead to banana bread collapses, etc.
• You might also like to try some of my other delicious pumpkin-related “quick breads” such as Pumpkin Pie Bread, Pumpkin Cranberry Bread and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread.
• Or try my recipes for other “harvest” type quick breads such as Sweet Potato Bread, Cranberry Bread and Blueberry Banana Bread.

• This doesn’t happen often but if the top of the banana bread looks too moist or under cooked, you should try the “toothpick test”. Gently push a toothpick into the top of the bread and see if any batter sticks to the toothpick. If batter is sticking to the toothpick then it hasn’t completely cooked. Place the bread pan back into the still hot oven for another 2 or 3 minutes. Make sure to wear oven gloves because the bread pan will be very hot. After the 2 or 3 minutes, remove the bread pan and test the banana bread again with a tooth pick.
• Instead of the “toothpick test”, some people like to use a bread thermometer to test if their banana bread is done. Generally, a “quick bread” (e.g. banana bread or pumpkin bread) is done when the internal temperature reaches 200-205 degrees F. Just make sure to measure the temperature in the center of the loaf for the most accurate reading.
• Consider “greasing” your bread pan with butter (even if it is non-stick) because the chocolate chips may stick to the bread pan after melting during the baking process. Melted chocolate chips can sometimes make it difficult to get the banana bread out of the bread pan without breaking (unless the bread pan has been greased with butter). When greasing the pan, please give extra attention to the bottom of the bread pan (which is hard to reach with a silicon spatula).
• Baking parchment paper is probably the best solution to prevent sticking (especially if you are using really sticky ingredients such as chocolate chips). It also allows you to lift the banana bread out of the pan without disturbing the top of the banana bread… in case you have added any special ingredients (such as chopped nuts or chocolate chips) to the top of the banana bread. FYI – Baking parchment paper is NOT regular paper. It is a specialty paper designed for use with baking.

• Do NOT use an electric mixer to mix your ingredients (when combining the wet and dry ingredients). I prefer to use an old fashioned wooden spoon. An electric mixer can easily overmix the ingredients if used too long. Unfortunately, overmixing batter can result in a rubbery & gummy banana bread.
• Make sure that your oven has been completely preheated. If the oven has not been properly preheated, this quick bread could come out undercooked.
• It takes roughly 10-20 minutes to preheat most ovens with some variability due to the size of the oven, planned baking temperature (hotter takes longer), etc.
• If your oven does not have a built-in thermometer, you can buy an inexpensive hanging oven thermometer that you can place inside your oven (in order to correctly gauge the temperature & see if the oven has been preheated to the correct temperature). Moreover, some built-in oven gauges can be 25-50 degrees different than the actual temperature inside the oven. For the best results, you should know the actual temperature inside your oven (as this reduces the potential for over or undercooked baked products).

• Please use the suggested 9 x 5 inch bread pan to make this recipe. If you start using different sized pans, there is a greater potential for bread top collapses (potentially less bread pan “wall” support for the quick bread as it rises), different interior batter to exterior bread ratios (thus the need for different baking lengths), smaller pans are more likely to overflow, etc.
• My recipes are based on using a metal bread pan and NOT a glass bread pan. Glass bread pans bake faster than metal bread pans. If you use a glass bread pan for my recipes, you are more likely to overbake your banana bread (e.g. burnt crust).
• Long-term storage – If you want to keep your banana bread for more than 1-2 days (depending on your home’s temperature & humidity), you will need to freeze it. Please read Bread Dad’s How To Freeze Banana Bread for more details.

• If you have a problem with a banana bread recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (e.g. using the correct oven temperature), using the correct amounts of ingredients (e.g. don’t eyeball the measurements versus using a measuring cup or accidentally add a tablespoon when a teaspoon is called for), using the correct ingredients (e.g. baking soda/powder versus yeast or all purpose flour versus bread flour), etc. Please don’t “wing” things with recipes.
• Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a hot oven, bread pan, etc.
• For more easy banana bread recipes (e.g. blueberry, cranberry, chocolate chip, vegan, oatmeal, etc.), please visit Bread Dad’s main Banana Bread Recipes section.

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Pumpkin Banana Bread Questions

What is the pumpkin puree used in pumpkin banana bread?

Pumpkin puree is cooked and mashed pumpkin and/or squash. It is used in a wide variety of pumpkin-related recipes such as pumpkin banana bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cheesecake, etc. In contrast, canned pumpkin pie mix is usually a blend of pumpkin puree, water, sugar, spices, etc. Many cooks like to use pumpkin puree (versus pumpkin pie mix) because they can create their own delicious & unique flavors versus relying on the generic “company flavor” of a canned & pre-made pumpkin pie mix.

How many cups are in a can of pumpkin puree?

A 15 oz can of pumpkin puree holds approximately 1.9 cups of pumpkin puree. Leftover pumpkin puree can be frozen for later use in recipes for pumpkin banana bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cheesecake, etc.

Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, Banana Bread
2. Wikipedia, Types of Chocolate
3. Wikipedia, Pumpkin

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5. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
6. Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

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