Banana Ginger Bread Loaf

This Banana Ginger Bread Loaf is the antidote to all your tired, frantic holiday preparation. Start your morning with this moist, spiced loaf and a cup of coffee and that stack of Christmas wrapping will seem much more manageable, I promise. 

This Banana Ginger Bread is the sweet and spiced love child of banana bread and gingerbread. It's an easy, moist, and delicious loaf for the holidays!

This week, little P had one of the worst night’s sleep he’s had in months. Somewhere around 1:30 AM the sound of his vague, troubled yelps entered my consciousness and sucked me back to the land of the living. I dragged myself out of bed and into his room, only to be greeted by an ornery grin and a boy who apparently just wanted some company while he played in his crib for a few hours. If computer keyboards had emojis, I’d be inserting all the eye rolls and angry red faces here.

Parenting takes on a different meaning in the middle of the night. During the day, my child can drive me absolutely bonkers. He can whine. He can cop an attitude. He can repeat the same inappropriate behavior over and over, but at least in the light of day I can still see him. I can take in his sweet face and silly grins, the tender, tiny human-ness of him, even as I stop him from wildly shaking the Christmas tree for the fourth time in an hour. But things look different at 2 AM. In a pitch black nursery, you don’t really see cute. You see a faceless monster who is trying to steal your sleep.

This Banana Ginger Bread is the dark and spicy love child of banana bread and ginger bread. A super moist, easy loaf for the holidays.

Parenthood messes with all of your most primal instincts. You read books and rock and sing songs and dang it, you even manage to make some convincing airplane noises, all while your body is screaming for sleep. It’s hard. Really hard. But those midnight hours have given me some of my sweetest (albeit a bit hazy) memories. Our last moonlight session ended with him tucked in my arms, rocking on the recliner (a treat he rarely allows these days), with Dixie Chick’s Sweet Dreams crooning softly in the background. I rocked and I cried, heart full of all the overwhelming difficulty and joy of being a parent. In that moment I wanted nothing more than to be curled up in my own bed, but I also knew I wouldn’t trade that time with my baby for all the sleep the world can offer. How is it possible to feel so incredibly annoyed and also ludicrously happy at the very same time? Answer: parenthood, man.

This Banana Ginger Bread combines the best of both worlds with sweet, moist bananas and spiced molasses gingerbread.

The morning after a wild night, you need coffee and sweet, sultry Banana Ginger Bread. This bread is the love child of a hot affair between banana bread and gingerbread. Thankfully, this baby won’t keep you up at night, but it might cause you to be filled with thoughts of undying love and affection. Honestly, I love my Sour Cream Banana Bread, but this is my new favorite. This bread is darker, more complex, more serious. It’s sweet, but not too sweet, spiced but not spicy, and it makes your house smell like Christmas. I like to eat it warm with a smear of butter and a side of quiet that only an episode of Daniel Tiger can bring. This is an incredibly moist bread so it’ll keep for days, and it happens to make a great gift for tired parents, not that I know anything about that. It’s ideal for the holidays, but don’t be surprised if you find yourself craving a slice year round. This bread is good for the soul, no matter the month or season.

stack of banana gingerbread slices

Banana Gingerbread

Yield: 1 loaf
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

This Banana Gingerbread combines two favorites--banana bread and ginger bread--into one amazing loaf! Moist, spiced, and full of flavor, this is the perfect holiday bread!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • Pinch ground cloves
  • 1 stick (8 Tablespoons, 1/2 cup) butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup molasses
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 Tablespoons milk
  • 3 large bananas (about 1 cup), smashed

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.
  3. In another bowl, whisk together the butter, sugar, and molasses until well combined. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until well combined. Stir in the milk and smashed bananas.
  4. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir until no white remains. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or 45-55 minutes.

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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 207Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 38mgSodium: 258mgCarbohydrates: 46gFiber: 2gSugar: 27gProtein: 4g

Please note nutritional information for my recipes is calculated by a third party service and provided as a courtesy to my readers. For the most accurate calculation, I always recommend running the numbers yourself with the specific products you use.

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12 Comments

  1. This recipe is awesome! I love being able to use up bananas in a bread with a different flavor besides regular banana bread. Itโ€™s delicious and I make it all the time!

  2. Found this recipe by pure chance as had some bananas and black treacle to use up and am so glad I did, what a great twist on the usual banana bread and so yummy, didnโ€™t have a loaf tin so made muffins instead but perfect for a quick and scrummy breakfast on the go ๐Ÿ‘

  3. Hey I made this with my nephew (he’s 2 and the best at mashing bananas) and it turned out wonderful! As with any recipe I added a little bit more cinnamon than it calls for because my family loves cinnamon. The only issue we had with it was that it took a lot longer to cook than what the recipe says… and I mean like I had it in for an 1hr 40mins and it was barely done. But it didn’t matter, he enjoyed staying up late and the bread was delicious!

  4. Perfect post. I feel things these so much today, having been woken up many, many, many (many) times last night by my 6 month old daughter. We were doing so well on sleeping- what happened?!? Ugh.
    But, after more coffees today than I care to admit, she’s finally down for a nap and I am ready to have some me time. What am I doing with that time? Making this stupendous looking loaf. Thank you, Courtney!

    1. “I feel these things so much today”* excellent, I’m mixing up my words now.
      Aaaand, just put the loaf in the oven and I realized the eggs were still on the counter. Phew, not ideal, but at least I caught it before it was cooked and whipped them in. Maybe I shouldn’t cook/bake sleep deprived after all! :O

    2. Haha! I totally understand! Seems like you just get into a rhythm and thy change on you! 6 month sleep was rooooough for us, but it got so much better from there! I hope the bread turns out just great and I’m so glad you discovered the eggs before it was too late! I totally have those moments!

  5. Aw, thanks for sharing your stories, Courtney! I can’t empathize with parenthood, but I can say that it sounds beautiful and crazy and all the more wonderful because of it. Wishing you many slices of this gorgeous bread, just in case though ๐Ÿ˜‰

  6. This made me laugh so much: “You see a faceless monster who is trying to steal your sleep.” I don’t have kids yet, but I can totally see how this is SO true!! I can also see how waking up to this bread (and coffee!!) would help make things a little bit better.

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