I set out to make Stout Banana Bread, but it kind of accidentally turned into Banana Butternut Beer Bread. The result was a perfectly moist, tender sweet bread with a marvelously complex flavor profile. The malty chocolate stout beer I used gave the bread a nice chocolate flavor even though the recipe calls for just a hint of cocoa powder. The butternut and banana interplay so nicely together, supporting but not overwhelming each other. There’s a bit of peanut butter in there as well. And then the chocolate and butterscotch chips give it that childish fun factor. It’s a “grown up” sweet bread that the kids will absolutely adore as well.
Have you ever gotten half way through a recipe and realized that you accidentally doubled one of the ingredients? This was me, last month. I had looked at several stout banana bread recipes and THOUGHT I’d chosen one that called for 1 cup of stout (which is about what I had left of my chocolate lava stout after making the Flourless Chocolate Stout Cake that morning). But when I got down into the list of ingredients I realized that it said 1/2 cup, not a cup. Sigh. I thought I was almost ready to pop my bread into the oven! And I didn’t have another 3 bananas. What to do?
Fortunately, I’ve been down this road a few times. I know that you can substitute pumpkin or zucchini (or even applesauce) for bananas. I happened to have some butternut squash that I cooked up the other day and pureed for future use. Unfortunately, I’d just decided that very morning that I wasn’t going to use that lovely squash anytime soon and put it in the freezer. So I had to thaw it, but still. I had a solution. I just had to measure everything out AGAIN.
Then there was the problem of how the heck do you cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl that already has batter in it? You can’t go back unless you want to dirty yet another bowl. And that wasn’t somewhere I wanted to go. So I softened the butter to partially melted and did the same with the peanut butter. And it mixed into the batter just fine. I think the melted butter also helped finish softening the (partially still frozen) butternut. Yeah, guys, I didn’t have the patience to fully thaw the butternut at this point. My knee was yelling at me to give it some rest. I really wanted to be DONE.
I managed to re-measure all the ingredients once again from this recipe, skipping whatever I thought wasn’t absolutely essential and also substituting whole wheat flour for AP flour. This is something I ALWAYS do when I’m making quick bread. Why? Not only does the whole wheat flour add fiber and nutrients, it also adds a wonderful flavor and texture that really works in quick breads. If you’re gluten free, feel free to use your favorite gluten free flour in its stead. I promise it will work. I’ve been down THAT road too.
With all of that said, this banana butternut beer bread turned out absolutely fabulous: sweet, moist and dense, but so full of complex flavors that I had a hard time stopping myself from eating it. It was a bit of a journey, but well worth it. And hopefully, your journey to make this bread will be MUCH simpler.
I do recommend using a chocolate stout beer for this, although I imagine a blonde or a pumpkin ale would also be lovely. But different. Steer clear of any beers that are sour or bitter. I used this Chocolate Lava Cake Stout that I found at Aldi. I didn’t really enjoy DRINKING this beer, but I thought it would be great in baked goods. Boy was I right!
The recipe makes 2 large loaves. Adapted from Food52.
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Banana Butternut Beer Bread
- Prep Time: 20 min
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 min
- Yield: 2 large loaves
- Category: Quickbread
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 cup EACH: brown sugar and white sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, very soft
- 1/2 cup peanut butter (130 g)
- 3 super ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
- 1 cup cooked, mashed butternut squash (or pumpkin)
- 4 eggs
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- 1 cup stout beer
- 4 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 – 4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons EACH: baking powder, baking soda, salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 1/2 – 2 cups baking chips (I used part chocolate/part butterscotch) – save a few for sprinkling on top
- Optional: 1 – 2 cups chopped toasted nuts – save a few for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. and spray 2 large loaf pans with cooking spray or brush with oil.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the sugars and butter until fully mixed. Add in the peanut butter until fully incorporated, then the mashed banana and butternut, eggs and vanilla. Stir in the beer.
- Sprinkle the dry ingredients over top and stir, folding from the bottom to make sure you get everything incorporated. Stop stirring as soon as it’s all mixed. Fold in the chocolate chips and/or nuts. Pour into the prepared pans.
- Bake at 350 F. for 50 – 60 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean — or the internal temp is at or above 200 F.
Notes
RECIPE SOURCE: Sumptuous Spoonfuls – https://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/ … © Copyright 2025, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. This recipe was made by a REAL person with REAL ingredients. The photos are real photos taken by me personally. There is nothing AI here. This is real food made by real people for real people. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.
