Yes, I know it is January and I’m posting about pumpkin bread, but it has been far too long since I have shared a recipe with you! Besides, pumpkin is a wonderful, immune boosting food that you can easily get in a can year round. See my pumpkin waffles/pancakes recipe if you are looking for more inspiration.
Unfortunately, we had a major setback in our constipation woes around here after a nasty little virus made it’s rounds among the kids. That got me thinking about two things: Fiber and Immunity. I wanted to serve up a bread that I knew my kids would gobble up and would help both of the issues. In light of our recent potty troubles, I will be revisiting the constipation issue again in a post soon. Also, stay tuned for an in depth post next week on how to build your child’s immune system!
UPDATE: Here are Helping Constipation Part 2 and Building Immunity.
Since I’m not a baker by trade, or by hobby for that matter, I, of course, turned to Pinterest for some inspiration and pulled together a recipe from a few others. I made some pretty big adjustments, especially to up the fiber, but was mostly inspired by the vegan version of this pumpkin recipe from Lunch Box Bunch.
I think fruit/veggie breads are a great strategy for getting nutrients into picky eaters and they are also fantastic for babies and toddlers eating their first finger foods. However, far too many times, I think they are basically glorified cakes. Not this recipe, it his healthful, fiber full, and immune boosting! Best of all, it doesn’t taste healthful, fiber full, or immune boosting. It is light and delicious. My 5 and 3 year old LOVED it and I will be sure to make it again in a few months when baby is ready. Heck, I might even make it again today because it is already gone – didn’t even last a whole day! The sweet potato, in particular, added a unique, but yummy taste.
I don’t just want to slap the “high fiber” and “immune boosting” labels on this recipe. I put a lot of thought into each ingredient and what I wanted to include to make this a power packed bread. This is what I was thinking:
High Fiber Foods:
- Oat Bran
- Whole Wheat Flour
- Pumpkin
- Sweet Potato
- Chia Seeds
- Ripe Bananas
Immune Boosting
- Olive Oil
- Sweet Potato (A vitamin A powerhouse!)
- Pumpkin
- Chia Seeds (Loaded with antioxidants!)
Life is wonderful here, but a little crazy with a 3 month old, so I didn’t get any pics of us preparing the bread. There isn’t anything tricky in this recipe though, so you should be fine! I include any appropriate substitutes in parentheses. Use any combination of the banana, sweet potato, or pumpkin, depending on what you have on hand.
Banana Sweet Potato Pumpkin Bread
High Fiber Immune Boosting Banana Sweet Potato Pumpkin Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour or oat flour regular whole wheat will be fine but will give a denser quality to the bread
- 1/2 cup oat bran
- 1 generous tbsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 generous tsp pumpkin pie spice can use combination of cinnamon and nutmeg
- 3 tsp of chia seeds soaked in 3 tsp of water for 10-15 minutes
- 1 cup milk
- 1 and 1/2 tsp of vanilla
- 1/3 cup of olive oil canola oil, vegetable oil, or applesauce
- 3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar lemon juice
- 1/2 cup maple syrup honey, brown sugar, sugar
- 1/2 cup of ripe banana* about 1 medium banana
- 1/2 cup of unsweetened canned pumpkin if pumpkin is watery add 1/4 to 1/2 cup more
- 1/2 cup of mashed cooked sweet potato** canned sweet potato
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 420 degrees.
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Mix all of your dry ingredients so they are thoroughly combined.
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Mix all of the wet ingredients together. Make sure the pumpkin, sweet potato, and banana are combined.
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Pour the wet mix into the dry and combine by folding together. Do not over mix.
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Pour into a greased bread pan and bake at 420 degrees for 20 minutes. Then turn down to 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Depending on your oven you could potentially need another 10 minutes, but check after 40 minutes with a toothpick.
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Cool for 30 minutes before removing from pan. The longer it cools the more solid the bread will become. We only waited 20 minutes and it was a bit crumbly.
Recipe Notes
*If you use a banana that still has green on it or is totally yellow, it could have a constipating effect. Only ripe banana will be helpful for elimination.
**I used a left over baked sweet potato, but you could also boil ahead of time or use canned. The small pieces of orange you can see the picture are the sweet potato. As I mentioned above you can use omit the banana and sweet potato and use all pumpkin.
I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!
More Immune Boosting Recipes
Alisha Grogan is a licensed occupational therapist and founder of Your Kid’s Table. She has over 19 years experience with expertise in sensory processing and feeding development in babies, toddlers, and children. Alisha also has 3 boys of her own at home. Learn more about her here.
So healthy and delicious! I found this recipe a while back and now these are the only muffins we make. My whole family has started making them. You can’t beat the health and taste of these muffins! We sometimes add nuts and raisins or even increase the oat bran.
Amy,
So glad you like them! Nuts and raisins in them sounds delicious!
Best,
Laura
Your Kid’s Table team member
I’ve made this biweekly for three months now and it is tremendous. Kids think its cake because of the consistency and slight sweet taste so they eat it constantly as snacks, meals, etc. I just sit back and smile and reduce the amount of sugar in it (i use brown sugar instead of maple syrup for expense) slightly each time I make it (though the volume of sugar in it is already very low). Do not try and use the entire can of pumpkin puree to get rid of it, along with two of the last two bananas, big mistake, it never solidified in the middle. I mean, they still ate it. I didn’t use pumpkin spice, even if I did want to be her friend, I used nutmeg and cinnamon instead. kids.do.not.care. or know the difference yet.
I forgot to say I made it gluten free by using 1 1/2 cups Bobs red mill 1 to 1 baking four, and a 1/2 cup Bobs red mill brown rice flour with a 1/4 cup roasted sunflower seeds mixed in using a blender on chop instead of using oat bran. I also use a blender to mix all the wet ingredients because I cook the sweet potato and cant seem to mash the banana consistently.
Hi Anthony,
We are so glad this recipe worked for you and that the kids loved it! Thanks for sharing your modifications to make it work for you family 🙂
Best,
Andrea
What size loaf pan?
Hey!
8.5 x 4.5 🙂
I stumbled on your recipe and are giving it a go. I’ve made a few adjustments, too.
I used double the ground chia / flax and added a half cup of cape cod 5 seed mix (cranberries plus a bunch of nuts / seeds). I also put a layer of the nuts and seeds on top. I used honey instead of brown sugar, since I associate brown sugar with cookies. Finally, I replaced 1/2 cup of oat bran with a full cup of rolled oats, since the mix was a bit runny.
I thought this was going to be way too much mix, but it’s just right.
I’d also add that if you have a bunch of bananas turning at the same time, you can freeze them for later.
I can’t wait to taste this. Thank you so much for listing the substitutions. Awesome recipe idea!
i forgot i didnt have chia seeds, what is a good substitute for that?
Ground flaxseed, or egg would work in place of chia.
I made them as mini muffins and used coconut sugar as the added sugar and a mix of normal cake flour and nutty wheat flour. They came out amazing! Now to test them on the kiddies.
Awesome suggestions!! Sounds great!!
What temp/ how long did you bake the mini muffins? That’s my preference for the baby!
This bread tastes great! I notice that it contains several med- and high-salicylate foods like olive oil, sweet potato, lemon, spices, and more. I just wanted to mention this in case any kiddos are sensitive–substitutions may need to be made. It’s a bummer, with such great ingredients.
(PS don’t forget the salt! Tastes really plain if you do.)
Is it really a generous tablespoon of baking soda?! I just made this bread & that’s all I can taste!
Same…its a bit too much.
I think there are a few typos in terms of TBLS vs TSP. I use up to 3tbls of chia seeds and a heaping TBLS of pumpkin pie spice but a slightly heaping TSP of baking soda because agreed, it would be so bitter otherwise! Same with. the vinegar, 3/4 tsp doesn’t seem like it would do much, I use a scant tbls. I’ve made this so so many times over the past 3 years and my kids and I LOVE it.
Could I omit the oat bran? I have all the ingredients on hand except the oat bran.
I’ve never tried it without the oat bran. But I suppose you could substitute it with something else or leave it out. The oats will soak up the moisture in the bread though.
Could I just add another half cup of flour in place of the oat bran?
Yes, that will work fine
Hi! Can I use ap flour instead of white whole wheat? Thanks!
Hey Kate,
You can, however it will decrease the fiber content!
Best,
Desiree
I used flour and it worked fine, though I suspect the fiber content is lower.
Hi, I just read through all these comments and I’m wondering why you keep saying it’s 3 cups total when your recipe says 1 1/2 cups flour and only half cup of oat bran? I really want to make these and want to make sure I have it right. Thanks!
Last year we had an error in the recipe that has since been fixed. The correct total is 2 cups. 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/2 cups oat bran. The recipe in the post is accurate.
Hi! I found this recipe linked from a post on high calorie foods for baby. I am asking you to please edit this recipe to say it’s for toddlers and not babies. As a pediatric dietitian I strongly encourage parents to avoid any added sugar of any kind for babies. Even if they need to boost weight gain- it can be done without sugar. Thank you!!