Butternut Banana Bread with Currants

Butternut Banana Bread with Currants

The other day I was going through my freezer and I decided I needed to use up some freezer items. I have so many frozen ripe bananas and my husband is not a fan of banana bread. I also had a package of frozen butternut squash (left over from baby food days) so I decided to do a twist on the plain, old, normal banana bread. This bread adds in the sweetness of butternut squash and currants. You don’t have to use butternut squash, I think any sort of squash would work. To be perfectly honest with you, I have not tried this bread. My husband took it to work for a Potluck and it went fast, so I guess people must have liked it!
4-5 ripe bananas, mashed
4 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 (12-oz) package frozen butternut squash purée (sometimes called winter squash; 1 1/2 cups), thawed
1 cup honey
1 cup white sugar
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup dried currants or raisins(optional)
1 cup walnut pieces (optional)
powdered sugar (optional)

Yields: 2 loaves

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Grease two 9×5 inch loaf pan.
3. In a large bowl, combine mashed banana, eggs, oil, butternut squash, honey and sugar. Mix with mixer until ingredients are somewhat smooth.
4. In a sifter, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. Sift into bowl with banana mixture and stir until combined.
5. Stir in currants and walnuts, if wanted.
6. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
8. Cool loaf in the pan for 30 minutes, then you can remove it and let it cool the rest of the way on a wire rack to cool completely.
9. To make it pretty for serving, dust the top with some powdered sugar. (Which I did, but forgot to take a pic of it.)

Tags: