As the weather is getting colder, many people are beginning to bake for the holidays again.  A sweet treat is just what a family needs to kick off the holiday season. I used these two bread recipes I found on Google and I compared them. 

Here is the first recipe.

Banana Bread

Prep: 2 hours Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

• 1 & ½ cups all-purpose flour, spoon and leveled
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ¾ cup granulated sugar 
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 & ½ cups mashed ripe bananas (3-4 medium sized bananas)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan and line the bottom and sides with parchment paper, leaving a bit of parchment paper hanging over the sides to make it easier to pull the loaf out. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine butter, oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk to combine. Mix in mashed bananas.
4. Add the dry ingredients and chocolate chips to the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined. Take care not to overmix.
5. Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Bake in the center of your preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs (some melted chocolate on the skewer is fine, too.) If you notice the loaf is browning too quickly, loosely tent the top with aluminum foil and continue baking until cooked through.
6. Cool the bread in your loaf pan until slightly warm or room temperature before slicing and serving!

This recipe turned out to be very good. I let my family try some of it as well and they really enjoyed it. I think the chocolate chips made it even better. The bread itself wasn’t overly sweet, which my mom definitely loved about it. The instructions were not hard to follow and very straightforward. The banana bread was also full of bananas, which was wonderful because I love bananas. I would recommend this to anybody wanting to make an easy, delicious, and classic banana bread loaf.

Here is the second recipe.

Pumpkin Bread

Prep: 1 hour 23 mins  Yield: 2 loafs

Ingredients:

• 1 & ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 & ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp ginger
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 & ½ cups canned pumpkin
• 1 & ½ cups sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup melted butter
• 2 eggs

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, lightly whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt. Set aside.
3. Combine the oil, melted butter, and vanilla in a liquid measuring cup.
4. In a mixing bowl with a fitted paddle attachment, beat the pumpkin, sugar and eggs until combined.
5. Turn the mixer to low and slowly stream in the liquid ingredients. Mix for 1 to 2 minutes until the batter looks light and smooth.
6. Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet and slowly fold until the ingredients are blended.
7. Prepare a 10 x 5 loaf pan by buttering it well and then adding a strip of parchment paper to the bottom and up the sides for easy removal.
8. Bake for 1 hour, until the center is fully risen and the top is golden brown. If underbaked, the loaf may sink as it cools, so be sure it’s done before removing from the oven.

In comparison, I think the pumpkin bread was the better choice to bake. It was the better suited loaf for autumn, and it definitely brought the flavor you expect in a fall-themed dessert. While it took a bit more effort to assemble and bake than the classic banana bread, the work definitely paid off. I would recommend this recipe even to a beginner baker, and anyone else looking forward to the leaves turning orange and falling or drinking a hot chai tea next to the fireplace.

Maybe next time, if you can’t decide, make banana pumpkin bread combined!