“Live life on purpose, dream big, enjoy every moment, laugh out loud, let it be..” reads the wooden sign across from me, I have been staring at for the last 5 minutes. 

I want to share a recipe with you, but I don’t know where to start. Imposter syndrome kicks in, laughing at my face. You haven’t even added a “jump to recipe button” I hear it saying. “Be quiet” is my imaginary response to the never ending battle between feeling confident and feeling small when the Imposter comes knocking on the door. 

The truth is, I definitely have not added a “jump to recipe button” and I am mildly bothered by it. I am a person that constantly uses it, but only because I need to start on the recipe before I read the story of someones recipe. Ideally, it would be a pop up window, now that I am thinking about it. You know, so the recipe blog is still open to read, but the recipe itself is in a dedicated pop up screen for multitasking purposes. Have I just come up with a new way of consuming food blogs? I don’t know, I won’t have either for a minute. After all, I am not a food blogger, but a woman who dabbles into putting out her thoughts to share with you. If you get lucky, a recipe is shared too. I know you can manage to scroll down, or not. But if you scroll down today, you’ll find the recipe for a Pumpkin Spice Banana Bread. Matter of fact, it’s perfect for the coming season and it’s definitely different from the Banana bread everybody, and their grandma, made during the twenty-twenty lockdowns.

I hear your sigh.. another Banana Bread recipe. But hear me out. We both know you bought bananas last week, with good intentions, but now they are too soft and got brown spots all over. Perhaps you wish you wouldn’t have been so neglecting, but time won’t return. The bananas can be a delicious bread to have with coffee, or just keep ignoring them on the kitchen counter until you had it and fed them to the garbage. Your call, just know you won’t be disappointed with this delightful autumn inspired baked treat.

Pumpkin Spice Banana Bread

Ingredients to make one bread
2 bananas (overripe is ideal)
150g granulated sugar
120ml sunflower oil (anything neutral tasting will do)
2 large eggs
100ml butter milk (alternative use milk/ plant milk and add some lemon juice to it)
1Tbsp Molasses
1tsp vanilla extract
1Tbsp pumpkin pie spice (I make mine using ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger)
250g flour
1tsp baking powder

Ingredients for glaze (optional, dusting with just powdered sugar is also delightful)
200g powdered sugar
1tsp pumpkin pie spice (again, mix it yourself if you got none ready made)
1tsp vanilla extract
4-5 Tbsp heavy whipping cream or milk/ plant milk

Let’s get mixing. 

Preheat oven to 175°C/350°F

Grease a loaf pan with some butter. Get a sheet of baking paper, crumble it up, smoothen it out again and press it into the loaf pan. Crumbling it up and smoothing it out makes it easier to put into more smoothly into the pan. The butter will help making all the paper stick nicely and flatly down, especially along the sides of the pan. It’s a nice way to get smooth and even sides of your banana bread, and the baking paper makes it super easy to remove the bread after baking to put in a serving platter. 

You can also skip all that and only butter the load pan and flour or dust it lightly with sugar. In a big mixing bowl, smash the bananas, add sugar, sunflower oil, eggs, buttermilk, molasses and vanilla. Mix until just combined. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, spices and baking powder. Add your flour mix to the banana mix. Mix it until well combined, but just until well combined.

Be careful not to over mix it. Over mixing often results in the bread not baking fluffy and comes out sticky, almost like it hasn’t been fully baked. That’s not the kind of Pumpkin Banana bread you want, so please mix it only until well combined. You may use a stand mixer if you have, just keep watch so it won’t over mix.
Pour mixture into your prepared baking dish and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until it has risen, is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. 
Let cool completely before adding a glaze. If you don’t care for a glaze, let cool until warm enough to eat. I know, some of us can’ t wait. 

If cooled completely, mix powder sugar, spices, vanilla and a couple of tablespoons of heavy whipping cream, or milk, with a whisk. Add more cream or milk, by the spoon as you need to get the desired consistency. The glaze should be smooth and thick to add on top of the bread. 

Add glaze to the top. I always do that while the bread is still in the loaf pan, but cooled down. That way the glaze doesn’t drip down the sides and gets a nice, smooth finish. 

When ready to serve, put bread on serving platter, slice to your desired thickness and serve with a beverage of your choice. Sharing with friends makes it even more delicious. 

Happy Baking!