• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Bake Offs
  • Recipes
  • Travel
  • About
  • Work With Me
  • Nav Widget Area

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
The Pancake Princess

The Pancake Princess

A baking blog curating internet recipes.

You're here: Home > Pancake Princess

Family Classics: A to Z Bread

by erika 11 Comments

JUMP TO RECIPE PRINT RECIPE

Family Classics is a series that features some of the classic recipes I grew up with, slightly adapted to adhere to my current pescatarian, dairy-free diet. Say hello to all the flavors of nostalgia!

A to Z Bread // The Pancake Princess I’ve had a luxurious three weeks at home before my last and final semester of business school begins, and baking up two hefty loaves of this childhood favorite was a perfect afternoon activity in between…well, eating and more eating. And planning and baking and long walks and meeting up with old/new friends. And watching BABIES EATING LEMONS HOW DID I JUST FIND THIS. All in all, a solidly relaxing and rejuvenating break. How has your new year been treating you?A to Z Bread // The Pancake Princess

 

A to Z Bread // The Pancake PrincessI asked my siblings for help in coming up with ideas for this series and banana bread! was unanimous, instantaneous from both. Fitting, since it was probably the recipe my mom baked the most as we were growing up. For me, it conjures up a kitchen enveloped in a warm haze of buttery banana scent and toasted nuts (even though we abhored the nut-topped loaves as kids and always pleaded for a just-plain chocolate chip loaf), leftovers kept moist and plush in a deep orange container and barely crisp, toasted slices for breakfast.

A to Z Bread // The Pancake Princess

In my years of baking away from my mom’s plastic roladex of handwritten recipes, I’ve found that Smitten Kitchen’s zucchini bread recipe is nearly identical to this recipe except that this recipe bumps up the vanilla to a full tablespoon, omits the nutmeg, and REQUIRES chocolate chips–they’re practically a birthright in banana bread in my family. The original recipe calls for a full cup of oil and 2 cups of sugar, but I find that subbing in almond milk for a portion of oil leaves it just as moist and delicious as I remember, and cutting down on the sugar leaves more room for the chocolate chips to shine. If you’d like to halve the recipe, I’ve made this successfully using only one egg and subbing 1/2 tablespoon of flax or chia seeds with 1.5 tablespoons of water for the “half egg.”

Ironically, we have never used this recipe for anything other than banana bread, but the good friend and neighbor who gave my mom this recipe listed a bunch of other ingredients you can use as add-ins in place of banana–from A to Z, the ingredients range from apples to eggplant to peaches to zucchini.

…I think carrot will probably be my next adventure. I’ll leave the eggplant to you–let me know how it turns out, will you?

A to Z Bread // The Pancake Princess

PRINT PIN

A to Z Bread

The classic banana bread recipe I grew up with, this plush and sweet quickbread loaf can also be adapted to any number of add-ins, from apples (A) to zucchini (Z).
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 2 loaves
Author Erika

Ingredients

  • 3 cups flour I like 2 cups all-purpose, 1 cup whole wheat
  • 3 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 cups A-Z ingredient see below*
  • 1 ¾ cups sugar
  • ¾ cup vegetable or olive oil
  • 1/4 cup almond milk
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

  • Mix dry ingredients (flour through salt) together. In a separate bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients except for the chocolate chips. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until fully combined, then fold in the chocolate chips. Pour into two well-greased loaf pans.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes, or until inserted tester comes out clean.

Did you try this recipe?

Tag @thepancakeprincess on Instagram!

*A-Z ingredients can include 2 cups of the following:

  • apples (grated)
  • applesauce
  • apricots (chopped)
  • bananas (mashed)
  • carrots (grated)
  • cherries (pitted and chopped)
  • dates (pitted and chopped finely)
  • eggplant (ground up)
  • figs (chopped finely)
  • seedless grapes
  • honey (omit sugar)
  • lemons (1/2 cup juice)
  • marmalade (use only 1 cup and omit sugar)
  • oranged (chopped)
  • peaches, fresh or canned (chopped)
  • pumpkin puree
  • raisins
  • zucchini (grated—do not peel; cut out center)

A to Z Bread // The Pancake Princess

FacebookTweetPin25

Reader Interactions

Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




  1. cynthia

    January 14, 2016 at 11:32 pm

    I am so excited for this series, Erika!!! Such an amazing, amazing idea. Just like this A-to-Z bread — I love the little tweaks to this to make it a little lighter and that moist texture looks like perfection. I can’t wait for more family classics <3

    Reply
  2. Kim

    January 12, 2016 at 9:48 am

    This looks/sounds SO GOOD. Banana bread might be one of my favorites because it doesn’t tend to be overly sweet, so I love your idea of halving the sugar amount. And I really REALLY love the Family Classics idea. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! 🙂

    Reply
  3. Michelle @ Hummingbird High

    January 8, 2016 at 11:46 am

    HEEEYYY so great to hang out the other day!

    And this bread??? Looks bomb. xoxo

    Reply
    • erika

      January 8, 2016 at 12:46 pm

      YES SO HAPPY I GOT TO SEE YOU!!!! And thanks lady <333 I'm so excited to follow your next moves over the next year!!

      Reply
  4. Renee

    January 8, 2016 at 11:43 am

    Omg this looks great!! I love a good, moist bread with plenty of mix ins with a nice cup of coffee on a weekend morning 🙂 Definitely will have to try this!

    Reply
    • erika

      January 8, 2016 at 12:47 pm

      Thanks Renee! You totally deserve a loaf with all your amazing fitness guru work <3 Hope you love it!!

      Reply
  5. Katrina

    January 8, 2016 at 8:44 am

    This bread should definitely include chocolate chips! And I love the concept of an A-Z bread! Yum!!

    Reply
    • erika

      January 8, 2016 at 12:48 pm

      Totally agree, thanks Katrina!!

      Reply
  6. Tori

    January 8, 2016 at 6:06 am

    This is something I’ve never heard of but it’s brilliant! I love all the super healthy ingredients thrown in that make this the perfect bread for snack attacks!

    Reply
    • erika

      January 8, 2016 at 12:49 pm

      Omg I didn’t even think about combining the A to Z ingredients, but that’s kind of brilliant! Tori, you may have set me off on an entirely new project…thanks for your genius!! <33

      Reply

Primary Sidebar

Baking recipe curator and tester.

I’m here to give you confidence that you are finding the recipe that’s right for you.

I test recipes side-by-side and use a data-driven approach to analyze and rank the “best” recipes and put it all together for you.

Get to know me.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Subscribe to get the latest

Popular Now:

Gingerbread Coffee Cake
Best Gingerbread Cookie Bake Off
Campfire Crunch Cookies
nine slices pecan pie Best Pecan Pie Bake Off
Best Parker House Roll Bake Off // The Pancake Princess Best Parker House Roll Bake Off
Sara Cornelius’ Pureed Zucchini Bread
Best Coffee Cake Bake Off // The Pancake Princess Best Coffee Cake Bake Off
Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes // The Pancake Princess Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

Instagram

New year, new profile pic surrounded by cookies ✨

For those of you who like to plan, here’s a very tentative guide to what I’m envisioning for this year’s bake offs (if the world doesn’t blow up). Thank you, as always, for your constant enthusiasm and support for the bake offs! 💕💕💕 

🍪Jan: lemon poppy muffins, Levain choc/pb cookies?
🍪 Feb: cream cheese kolaches, loft house copycat cookies, flourless chocolate cake?
🍪 March: carrot cake
🍪 April: liege waffles??
🍪 May: tres leches
🍪 June: key lime pie 
🍪 July: tiramisu
🍪 August: oatmeal cookies
🍪 Sept: doughnuts 
🍪 Oct: shortbread?
🍪 Nov: Mac n cheese 
🍪 Dec: ginger molasses or chocolate crinkle cookies

Photo credit: @juliejulez.jpg 👹💕
{HOUSTON GIVEAWAY} Hi friends! If you’ve been f {HOUSTON GIVEAWAY}

Hi friends! If you’ve been following me for a little bit, hopefully you know how obsessed I am with @happyearthcompost and their mission to make composting more accessible and easy for the Houston community! Here is just a sneak peek of all the eggshells and lemon peels from the lemon poppy seed muffin bake off that are going straight into my Happy Earth compost bucket instead of the trash 🎊

I’m thrilled to be partnering with @happyearthcompost to do a giveaway for one lucky winner! Here are the deets:

🌱 you will win 2 free months of monthly pick ups from @happyearthcompost! You’ll get a little counter top bin (pictured here) and a larger bucket to keep outside (in the second pic)
🌱 must be located in Houston or Bryan/College Station to win
🌱 to enter, just make sure you’re following me and @happyearthcompost and tag a friend in the comments! Each comment is a separate entry
🌱 giveaway will close this Saturday (1/16) at midnight! GOOD LUCK!!!
Thankful for another year of bake offs with you gu Thankful for another year of bake offs with you guys! Loving the appreciation for the coffee cake, blueberry muffin, pecan pie, gingerbread and Levain cookie bake offs (more Levain to come in 2021 hopefully!) 🎊💕

While on vacation, I’ve scraped a lot of recipes for future bake offs (thanks to your help) and I feel refreshed and ready to get back to baking ASAP! On the list for 2021 bake offs: carrot cake, oatmeal cookies, copycat lofthouse cookies, Levain chocolate pb cookies, shortbread, lemon poppyseed muffins, etc. Let me know if there’s anything else you’re dying to see in the comments!

THANK YOU for all of your support, your kind comments, your reviewing of different recipes and your spreading of joy through baked goods this past year. Thanks to my tasters for their critical tasting and hilarious comments. Can’t wait to do it all over again next year 💕
Gingerbread bake off is up! Commence all the ginge Gingerbread bake off is up! Commence all the gingerbread baking!! 🎄🎄🎄

Tap the pic to see all participating recipes and tell me which one looks the best or which recipes you’re most excited to try!! You really can’t go wrong with any of them 🎊🎊🎊 and if you’re planning on baking any other holiday cookies this weekend, gimme the deets on what you’re making! I need more inspo for my cookie boxes 🍪🍪🍪 #pancakeprincessbakeoff
According to Google, interest in apple cider dough According to Google, interest in apple cider doughnuts has waned by now but I’m not exaggerating when I say these doughnuts might be one of the best things I’ve made all year #sponsored

Pictured here are a few recipes I tried to satisfy a craving: @smittenkitchen, @tasty, and a few of @sallysbakeblog’s baked apple cider doughnuts as mini muffins. Sally’s were good but clearly in a different league than the fried doughnuts. I liked the denseness, tang and substantial exterior crunch of @tasty’s doughnuts that came from the sour cream, but once I got the hang of frying @smittenkitchen’s doughnuts, they edged @tasty out as my winner—ethereally light, they just melt in your mouth. Plus, Smitten’s method for rolling out the doughnuts is MUCH MUCH easier. 

I used @whitelily flour in all recipes and loved the way the fine texture led to feather-light doughnuts! If you’re looking for an application for low-protein flour, I can’t recommend these doughnuts enough. They’re worth getting over your fear of deep frying for 😜 #whitelilyflour
@THEPANCAKEPRINCESS

Footer

Back to Top
Bake Offs
Recipes
Travel
About
Work With Me

Subscribe to get the latest:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Recent Posts

  • Gingerbread Coffee Cake
  • Best Gingerbread Cookie Bake Off
  • Campfire Crunch Cookies
  • Best Pecan Pie Bake Off
  • Best Parker House Roll Bake Off

Privacy Policy and Terms of Service · © Pancake Princess · Site by Meyne