Banana Pudding Zucchini Bread

For the crumb topping, in a medium bowl, combine the sugar and salt. Stir in melted butter. Add cookie crumbs and flour and stir until combined. Spread the crumb mixture on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and let it dry, breaking apart any large pieces to form coarse crumbs as the mixture dries.

For the bread, preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease (6) 5×3-inch loaf pans or (2) 9×5-inch loaf pans. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pudding mix. Set the dry ingredients aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until combined. Whisk in oil, banana, vanilla and banana extract. Stir in zucchini.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the zucchini mixture. Stir just until everything is combined—do not over mix.

Place a single layer of whole vanilla wafers in the bottom of each prepared loaf pan. You may have to cut some of the cookies in half.

Divide the batter between the loaf pans. Spread the crumb topping evenly over top of each loaf. There’s a lot of crumb topping so it makes a pretty thick layer. Press the topping down lightly with a fork to help it adhere to the batter.

I like placing the loaf pans on a large baking sheet and transferring that to the oven—it makes moving the breads a lot easier. Just make sure when using the mini loaves that there is space between each pan when picking a baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for 35–40 minutes for the mini loaves, 45–55 minutes for the larger loaves, or until a pick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of each loaf. Place a piece of waxed paper under a wire rack. Take a paper towel to hold against the top of the bread when tipping it out of the pan. That keeps a good amount of the topping from falling off. Place breads on wire racks and cool completely. Any of the crunchy topping that does fall off can be put in a container and used to sprinkle over ice cream—it’s delicious!

Makes 2 full size loaves or 6 mini loaves.

Note: I found that it takes more than 1 box of vanilla wafer cookies to have enough for the crumb topping and lining the pan.