Apple Banana Carrot Bread is a fruity quick bread topped with sweet cream cheese frosting. It’s like banana bread and carrot cake all in one!
This easy bread recipe is a fun twist on traditional banana bread. We love this Coconut Banana Bread and this Nutella Swirled Banana Bread too.
Why this Banana Bread Works
This freezer-friendly quick bread has everything but the kitchen sink!
- Perfect moist banana bread texture.
- Juicy bites of apple.
- Hint of cinnamon spice.
- Shredded carrots for extra flavor and moisture.
- Cream cheese frosting!
There are so many reasons to love Apple Banana Carrot Bread (or “ABC Bread” as we call it).
The batter comes together in one bowl and makes enough for two loaves. You’ll love one to eat now and one to freeze for later.
Ingredient Notes
- Butter – We use plenty of unsalted butter in this bread for rich flavor and a tender crumb. You can also make this recipe with salted butter; just leave out the added kosher salt.
- Banana – Ripe or even overripe ones are best in this banana bread.
- Carrot – Shredded carrot gives the bread color, flavor and moisture. Store bought carrot shreds tend to be dry, so we suggest shredding whole carrots fresh.
- Apple – Any kind of apple works. We like varieties with a little tartness like pink lady or honeycrisp.
- Sugars – A combination of white and brown sugar brings out the natural sweetness of the bananas.
- Spices – Ground cinnamon and a touch of nutmeg enhance the apple, banana and carrot flavors beautifully.
- Cream cheese frosting – This frosting is a blend of cream cheese, powdered sugar and milk. A teaspoon of vanilla completes the creamy, delicious taste.
Tips and Tricks
- No need to mash the bananas first! Use an electric mixer to mash the banana as you combine it with the butter.
- Want a less sweet apple carrot banana bread? Skip the cream cheese frosting. It’s delicious both ways.
- This bread is perfect for freezing! If you won’t be eating both loaves right away, wrap one in foil and a freezer bag and store in the freezer.
- Apple Banana Carrot Bread keeps well in the refrigerator for about 1 week. Frozen bread stays good for about 3 months.
Recipe FAQs
You can use a box grater or a food processor fitted with a grating disk. If using a box grater, choose the small to medium sized grating holes for perfect size shreds.
We always use the toothpick test. Insert the toothpick into the center of one of the loaves. If it comes out clean with no wet crumbs attached, the bread is ready to come out of the oven.
The apples should be diced small for this apple banana bread. Aim to make them about a quarter inch, but don’t stress if they’re not perfectly equal in size.
Due to the cream cheese frosting this bread does need to be stored in the refrigerator. It can be kept at room temperature safely for about 2 hours at a time.
More Easy Quick Breads
- Sour Cream Banana Bread Recipe
- Amish Friendship Bread
- Apple Cinnamon Bread
- Cinnamon Muffins
- Coconut Banana Bread
- Zucchini Bread
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Apple Banana Carrot Bread
Ingredients
For the bread:
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 large bananas
- Âľ cup light brown sugar packed
- Âľ cup granulated sugar
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ÂĽ cup milk
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 cup finely diced apples
For the frosting:
- 4 ounce cream cheese softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Grease two 9″ x 5″ loaf pans with baking spray. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and bananas. Blend until bananas are mashed and mixed with butter. Add in sugars and beat until combined.
- Add in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and milk. Beat until well combined. Add in eggs and beat well. Fold in carrots and apples.
- Pour into greased pans. Bake for 60 minutes, until toothpick in center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and cool on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely.
- For frosting: beat cream cheese with sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth (about 3-4 minutes). Spread over cooled bread. Slice and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Three kinds of bread in one! Apple Banana Carrot Bread is an easy quick bread that tastes even better topped with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting.
Love the Apple Banana Carrot Bread but since I do not like cream cheese frosting, I just added a cup each of walnuts and raisins to the bread and served it warm with honey butter on it. Oh My Gosh it’s delish. That was two years ago and I’ve made it at least two dozen times since . So often in fact I had to come back and re-write the recipe because mine is so well worn. (Spilt coffee on it didn’t help!) Thanks for keeping it posted. I should have it memorized by now.
Also: you didn’t specify but I don’t peel the apples or the carrots since they are so small and the more vitamins the better.
Note: I’ve made it for our school baked food sales 4 times (3 loaves each time and one for us at home) and sold out every time at $10 a loaf!
The measure of All pupose Flour and butter is the same if I use whole wheat and coconut oil?
Hello Aimee
I am wondering if this recipe can be made for muffins instead of loaf bread?
I do not have two loaves pans cn I use another pan instead please let me know I would like to make the apple banana carrot bread.
If you have one loaf pan you can bake one batch of bread, remove it, and bake the second half of the batter.
Greetings.  I am sorry that you apparently have suffered some kind of setback with regard to Pinterest’s deletion of Pins.  However, I am relatively new to the Pinterest world (love the endless kaleidoscope of recipes!) and I’m afraid I really don’t understand how the deletion has a negative impact on you.  I wonder if you would be kind enough to satisfy my curiosity, and explain to me (in Kindergarten levels of detail) just why it is that “Pins” are desirable.  And then perhaps you could tell me how to make them happen.  I would be very appreciative.  And on a different topic, I am almost drooling over your Apple Banana Carrot Bread recipe, and plan to try it within the next few days.  Thank you so very much for sharing  —  in my day, the better a recipe was, the less likely any woman was to share it with others.  It was her “secret recipe”, and served to enhance her status in her social group.  I like your way better.
Pins from my website on pinterest lead people here to shugary sweets. The more people come visit me here from Pinterest (and those pins), the more traffic my website receives. The more traffic my website receives, the more money I make from ads and brands 🙂
Well I’ve been thinking on this one. I will have to make it of course as a kind of experimental project but secretly it already has my vote. Nutrition….oh yes that silly word… well if truth be known. You have veggies fruit and my favorite ….cream cheese!!!!…. oh yes dairy!
You must try it!!! Let me know what you think 🙂 We call it “ABC bread” here!
Good for you for not letting a mishap get you down. Â Things in life happen, and who we react or don’t react is the key to success! Â Baking always relieves my stress too!!! Â Love love love that thick frosting, and I love all the fruit goodness you have going on. Â Tell Michael kudos on catching your ABC mishap before it happened. Â LOL!
What a delicious combination! I am making this for my daughter’s 3rd birthday – she’ll love it (we all will) 🙂Â
Loving all the fruits and veg going in in this bread! And it *might* be a little early to plan, but this would be great for Easter!
Looks super moist! Deciding to frost was a good choice 🙂
I LIVE off Crunch Pak apples! I love the combination of banana, carrots and apples in this. Sounds extra healthy 🙂 Or that is what I will tell myself.Â
This bread looks amazing! I sorta want to lick all that frosting off each slice…haha ok that sounds gross but basically I want this whole loaf 🙂Â
This looks and sounds delicious! Â I love those prepared packs of apples to tote along for snacks. Â We eat organic produce almost exclusively so that is a bonus too. Â I’m so sorry about all your problems with Pinterest. Â What a head ache!
I hated loaf when I was a kid (it would be served at church get-togethers). But Apple Carrot Banana Bread sounds so yummy — it’s like the best loaf recipes combined into one!Â
Baking is definitely a great way to blow off frustration. I’m sorry about all your pins, darn that pinterest. Â This pre-sliced apple shortcut is a super idea.Â
It looks so unbelievably moist! Every fruit (or veg) used is going to keep it so moist and I would love a thick slice. And to frost or not frost, well duh, cream cheese frosting is an automatic win for anything!! 🙂
That is interesting about the pinterest glitch because one of my most popular pins disappeared from pinterest as well. Â I was wondering about that. Â I am loving that thick slab of cream cheese frosting all over the top of this bread. Â YUM!!
Been looking for a way to use “old” apples and carrots. Since its only my partner and i, i thought i would cut it in half and do one…. BUT decided to do the two and give one to the neighbors or freeze. I gave it away, and will have to make more! This is so good. The frosting adds that nice flavor. Love this recipe. I added walnuts for a bit of crunch. I’ve also substituted left over canned pumpkin for banana before. Worked nicely! Will look into more of your recipes. Thank you. 🙂
It’s always better to share 🙂 Thank you so much!
Perfection! And this would be so, so delicious with my morning coffee right now. Frosting included 🙂
In my world, frosting is always included 🙂
Wait. Pinterest can DO that?! Aaaaah. You get major props for not losing it completely, but then that whole “innocent mistake” makes me wonder just how much of what we create and build online could accidentally disappear without warning. Now I have to go take some deep breaths.
I’ll take this bread with me. It’s stupendous! And probably very good for stress levels. 🙂
yes unfortunately, one accidental hit of a delete button and they wiped out nearly 250K pins! Yikes. 🙂