Recipe: Pawpaw Bread

With some of our pawpaws from the Dismal Swamp State Park, we made Pawpaw Bread. It’s like banana bread, just with pawpaws instead of banana. I thought it was delicious. Although I couldn’t tell the difference between it and normal banana bread, my mother said she could.

The recipe I used below is similar to the one in Better Homes and Garden’s New Cook Book (I add vanilla, put in more cinnamon and of, course, use pawpaws instead of bananas).

• 4-5 pawpaws
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon shredded lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. After removing the numerous seeds, mash the pulp of the pawpaws with a fork.
3. In a mixing bowl combine the pawpaws, the egg, the sugar and the olive oil.
4. Mix in the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, lemon peel, vanilla and finally the flour.
5. Stir in the walnuts.
6. Pour in a loaf pan and bake 50 to 55 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy!