This recipe for banana nut squash bread has a perfectly soft inside, lightly crunchy outside and has freshly grated yellow summer squash inside that brings extra moistness to the bread. Grab a warm slice with a pad of butter and you’re in for a real treat!

I have a confession to make: I do not like bananas. At all. You won’t ever find a banana pudding recipe or a banana cream pie here on Southern Made Simple. Even their smell bothers me. I have to turn my head away when I’m peeling one for my daughters to eat. Banana flavored things such as pudding or candies are also a hard pass for me. However, strangely enough, the one exception to my strange distaste for bananas is banana nut bread. And I don’t just like banana nut bread, I love it.

I had a few over-ripened bananas sitting on my counter yesterday morning that I knew I needed to do something with. Knowing I also had several crookneck squash sitting in my crisper drawer, I decided to see what would happen if I combined the two – almost like a zucchini bread.  

I broke out my trusty cheese grater and shredded a medium sized squash. The recipe only requires a cup of shredded squash, so if you have extra, hold onto it and use it in these easy squash fritters or in this Lemon Poppy Seed Summer Squash Bread! 😉

Here are a few of my top picks for making banana nut bread. Make sure your loaf pan is a 9 inch pan!

In all my years of making banana bread and zucchini bread, I’ve always found both to be a bit…fussy. Baking breads like this can be a little bit tricky, and there are many factors that go into play when making sure your bread comes out completely done in the center and not cooked to a crisp on the outside. Making sure your oven is completely heated to the proper temperature is a big factor, and knowing how your oven bakes is important, too. It’s important to stick a thin knife into the center of the bread to make sure the center is done. A toothpick won’t reach down far enough into the bread to determine doneness. If you’re going to make breads like this frequently, I recommend using a meat thermometer to check the center. Bread should reach about 205 F in the center before consuming.

Another tip is to properly grease your loaf pan. I don’t typically add Crisco to my recipes, quite frankly because I don’t think it’s very good to cook with, especially in large-ish quantities. However, there is an exception to my no-Crisco rule when cooking. If I’m baking breads or cakes,  I always grease the pan with Crisco and dust the pan with either flour or powdered sugar.

For this cake, I spread a thin layer of Crisco throughout the bottom and sides of the pan, then sprinkled a smidge of powdered sugar and shook the pan to let the powdered sugar create a light dust on top of the Crisco. Dusting the pan with flour or powdered sugar creates a line of defense between the Crisco and the cake batter. It prevents the Crisco from seeping into the batter as the cake bakes, yet still lets the batter to rise up the sides of the pan. The Crisco creates a perfectly light crunchy layer that is one of my favorite parts of this recipe, and you won’t have a difficult time releasing the bread from the pan. Before you pour the batter in the pan, be sure to dump any excess powdered sugar that didn’t stick to the Crisco into the trashcan.

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Banana Nut Squash Bread

Cook Time55 minutes mins

Total Time55 minutes mins

Servings: 1 loaf

Author: Southern Made Simple

Ingredients

• 1 stick 1/2 cup salted butter - softened to room temperature
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 eggs beaten
• 2 bananas mashed
• 1 cup grated yellow squash
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Cream together butter and sugar
• Add in flour, baking powder, and baking soda and mix until combined
• Add mashed bananas, grated squash, eggs, and buttermilk and mix until well combined
• Fold in nuts and pour batter into a well greased pan (see note)
• Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a knife inserted all the way into the middle comes out clean. Internal temperature of bread should reach 205 degrees
• Serve warm
• Enjoy!

Notes

I highly recommend greasing the loaf pan with crisco and lightly dusting the pan with powdered sugar or flour before pouring the batter in

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One thing I love about banana nut bread is that the flavor always improves with age and it keeps very well in the freezer. There’s nothing better than a slice of this banana nut squash bread heated up with a pad of butter and a cup of coffee!

If you like this recipe, be sure to check out these other great recipes found right here on Southern Made Simple!

Lemon Poppy Seed Summer Squash Bread | Banana Nut Cranberry Cookies | Cinnamon Sausage Pull Apart Bread | Lemon Poppy Seed Bread | Mini Lemon Cakes

And don’t forget – if you have a bumper crop of summer squash, you can always freeze it!