This Homemade Autumn Bread is an ultra moist fall treat (without pumpkin) that’s a combination of zucchini bread, banana bread and carrot cake! This bread is truly a treat to eat!
Why You’ll Love This Homemade Autumn Bread Recipe
- Easy To Make! This is an easy quick bread style recipe that is prepped quickly and easy to bake in loaf pans. It’s a great way to use up any summer zucchini you may have around or simply a great fall recipe that is like zucchini bread, carrot cake and banana bread all in one soft, cinnamon-y loaf.
- Make Two Loaves! Nothing better than a recipe that makes one for now and one for later! You can easily freeze the extra loaf, or gift it to your best fall-loving friend. Or certainly it’s a great recipe to make for tailgating and to feed a crowd!
- No Pumpkin! I do love a pumpkin recipe in the fall, but this is a great alternative for those (like my husband) who claim “they don’t like pumpkin”. It’s just an easy alternative that still brings all the fall feels without any pumpkin spice!
What You Need / Ingredients
This is a quick list of the notable ingredients for the bread, but for the full list make sure to scroll to the bottom of the post to the recipe card!
- Granulated Sugar. You’ll notice that there are 2 cups of sugar in this recipe. I know this might seem like a lot, but remember this makes 2 loaves, so it’s essentially a cup per loaf. You can also half this recipe easily if preferred.
- Canola Oil. I recommend using a light oil in this recipe like canola or vegetable oil because it will produce a moist, tender crumb without being too dense. You might want to use butter in its place, which will work, but note that butter contains 16-17% water which will ultimately make your bread dense and possibly gummy. The added carrots and zucchini both contain water, so you want to try and avoid adding any additional moisture.
- Eggs. I always use large sized eggs in my baking recipes unless otherwise noted.
- Cinnamon, Salt, and Vanilla. These really add a depth of flavor to the recipe!
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda. You will use a combination of both of these leavening agents to produce the perfect texture.
More Autumn Bread Ingredients
- Flours. You will be using a combination of both whole wheat flour and all purpose flour in this recipe for a few reasons. Whole wheat flour adds a nutty flavor while absorbing more moisture than all purpose. I try and avoid using all whole wheat flour in this recipe because it will result in a drier, more crumbly texture. The combination of the two is perfect!
- Zucchini, Carrots, and Banana! These three ingredients are what makes this recipe special! Of course use the ripest banana you have. Also don’t use pre-grated carrots, those are thick, too big, and just too much fort his recipe. Grate your own along with the zucchini.
- Nuts. I love to add walnuts into my quick bread recipes. You can also use pecans as well, or omit them entirely!
Tips When Baking This Quick Bread
- Eyeball filling the pans with the batter! This recipe makes enough for 2 loaves, so simply divide the batter equally. You don’t need to measure it, just divide between 2, 9×5- inch loaf pans.
- No Mixer! Which makes it approachable with less to clean at the end!
3. When Baking: Bake it until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. As always with cakes if you notice the top getting too dark during the baking process and the center is still raw, simply tent a piece of aluminum foil loosely over the top which will slow down the browning.
4. Parchment paper! Using parchment paper helps is a few ways. First it prevents sticking, second, lining the bottom and up the ends of the pan with a long strip of parchment makes it easy to lift the baked bread from the pan.
5. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes or so and then lift out the bread onto a wire rack to cool completely before storing.
6. Add a little butter onto the sliced bread. Try it, it’s amazing! Add a drizzle of honey if you really want to go there!
How To Store Autumn Bread
You can store this bread airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also freeze this airtight for up to 2 months for best freshness. Thaw at room temperature.
More Fall Baking Recipes To Try
- Pecan Pie. My recipe is an absolute classic, tried and true! You’ll love it!
- Apple Strudel. This is a 5 star recipe that you will love and is great for beginners!
- Pumpkin Dump Cake. This recipe is one of my oldest, most viral recipes. It’s absolutely delicious and I have never met a single person whoo doesn’t go crazy for it!
Homemade Autumn Bread
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 16 servings 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Dessert
Description
This Homemade Autumn Bread is an ultra moist fall treat that’s a combination of zucchini bread, banana bread and carrot cake! This bread is truly a treat to eat!
Ingredients
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup canola oil
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup grated zucchini
- 1/2 cup grated carrot
- 1/2 cup mashed banana
- 3/4 cup walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat 2, 9×5 loaf pans with nonstick spay. Cut 2 strips of parchment paper to fit the bottoms and up the short sides of the pans, allowing the parchment to hang over the ends, for easy removal. Spray the pans again. Set aside.
- In a large bowl stir together the sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder until smooth.
- Next stir in both flours until just combined. Finally stir in the zucchini, carrots, banana, and walnuts until combined.
- Divide the batter between the 2 pans.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes and then using the parchment paper lift out of the pans to cool completely.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Wrap cooled bread tightly in foil or Cling Wrap and store at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 358
- Sugar: 26 g
- Sodium: 241.2 mg
- Fat: 18.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 45 g
- Protein: 4.8 g
- Cholesterol: 34.9 mg
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I think adding raisins to this would be perfect!!
Good idea!
Hi please help I made this today and it sunk slightly any idea
Also very sweet could I reduce the sugar ?
I would really like to cut back on the sugar. Would it be ok to use 1 cup instead of 2? How about substitutions? Any suggestions?
Did you find out about the sugar.
Made this today and very sweet
Nope. Never got a response. I was thinking that a cup of sugar would be plenty for 2 cups of flour. What do you think?
I’m thinking of upping the banana to one cup, and taking away 1/4 cup of zuke and carrots and dropping the sugar to one cup. If I need more sweetness after it cooks I’ll drizzle honey on my slice
I made this very sweet and it sun?
I am going to make this right now cutting back to one cup of sugar since my bananas are pretty ripe I’ve done this before with my banana breads and they taste great to me.
Let me know how it goes. I’m also interested in cutting back on the sugar.
…DO you happen to know the ratio of equivalency for using coconut or almond flour ? I dont use whole wheat or AP flour for baking. Sounds delish and want to try it !
Coconut flour would be terrible. Maybe try a gluten free all purpose nstead.
If I cut back on the sugar will that mess with the recipe? Maybe do 1 1/2 cups total instead of 2.
I used 1.5 cups of sugar and it came out fine and was in fact still very sweet next time I’m going to try cutting the sugar down again.
Looks good, but then with an entire cup of sugar in each loaf, it should be! If I make it, I will substitute 1 cup unsweetened, unspiced applesauce for the oil, and omit the salt. Baking powder and baking soda should provide enough leavening, especially without oil to make it heavy.
Just want to know if the substitution worked. This looks amazing but I am also concerned about the amount of sugar.
Hello just wondering if you can take out the whole wheat flour and just use regular ap flour??
yes, absolutely!
This was the perfect recipe to use up my mini carrots for school lunches that were on their last days, bananas that no one will eat anymore, and zucchini. The kids loved it! I will try to switch out the oil with applesauce next time. I made 3 batches plus other kinds of loaves to use up my one huge zucchini. I missed the note to freeze first before wrapping as that’s what I’ll be doing. Also, loved the ideas on other types of veggies to sub out the zucchini!
When I find and bake recipes I usually go to comments first to see if anyone has actually made it rather than keep seeing/reading comments, from others, on how good the recipe sounds or how delicious the picture looks. Thankfully there were a good few who’ve actually baked this as I truly did not want to skip your recipe (I usually wont bake/make a pinned recipe if no one has actually made and commented about it).
I happened to have almost everything on hand to make this other than the whole wheat flour, which was fine as whole wheat tends to make quick breads a bit more dense. So I simply did 3 cups (375 grams) of all purpose flour verses 2 cups AP and 1 cup WW. Other than that minor adjustment I kept everything else the same as stated in the recipe and baked it at 375F for 35 minutes. The bread came out absolutely delicious. I had never thought to mix carrots w/zucchini and banana, but the taste of the 3 plus the spices was/is amazing. I even called my mom at work (she works 15 minutes from my house) and drove her the 2nd loaf to take home when she got off work. I know she’s going to enjoy it just as much we did here in my house.
Thank you for the wonderful recipe – its a keeper!
Thank you so much for the feedback!! So glad you liked it!
Made this yesterday and will definitely make again – it’s DELICIOUS! The family LOVED it – Brought some with me to work and it’s getting a thumbs up all around!!
Love hearing this!! Thank you!
I was short on canola so subbed in coconut oil (for half the amount) and it worked just fine!