This cinnamon banana bread is super soft and moist and covered in a delicious walnut and cinnamon topping. It only takes 15 minutes to prep this recipe and you probably have all the ingredients already! The perfect recipe to use up those ripe bananas.
Tell me about this recipe
- This loaf cake is made using the creaming method. Butter and sugar is whipped together until light and airy, before adding dry ingredients and sour cream in three additions
- Sour cream is used to give lots of moisture in this loaf.
- It's covered in a walnut and cinnamon crunch topping, but you can make it without if you want the loaf to be plain.
Ingredients needed
Topping Banana Bread
The printable recipe card with the full list of ingredients and instructions can be found at the bottom of this post
Ingredient Notes
- Walnuts: I added chopped walnuts to my cinnamon topping, however you can substitute them for a different nut or leave the nuts out all together.
- Spices: the loaf is spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, while the topping has cinnamon and ginger. Switch up the spices though if you want to!
- Sour Cream: the sour cream makes the banana bread super moist! You can substitute it for full fat yoghurt if you don't have sour cream.
How to make this recipe
One Two
One: Mix together all of the streusel ingredients together, then place in the fridge while you make the loaf.
Two: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt.
Three Four
Three: In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth.
Four: Add the light brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix for 3 minutes on medium speeed.
Five Six
Five: Add in your egg and vanilla and beat again on medium speed for 1 minute.
Six: Turn the speed to low and add in your mashed bananas. The batter might be lumpy which is fine!
Seven 
Eight
Seven: Add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the sour cream. Make sure you start and end with the dry ingredients. Scrape down the side of the bowl after each addition.
Eight: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Pour the batter into a greased and lined 8.5x4.5 inch loaf pan. Tap on your counter to get rid of any air bubbles.
Nine Ten
Nine: Sprinkle over your topping. Bake for 50-60 minutes. A toothpick inserted will come out with a few crumbs.
Ten: Let the loaf cool for 20 minutes before removing it and putting it on a cooling rack.
Recipe Tips
- I highly recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way. It makes a huge difference to your baking and is the most accurate way to bake!
- I make sure that all of my ingredients are at room temperature before I start the recipe, so pull out all of the ingredients (including the sour cream!) before you start baking.
- Use a light metal pan for this recipe. A dark metal will scorch the sides of the loaf.
- Mash your bananas using a fork or potato masher
Frequently Asked Questions
I promise you this cake is worth the wait! BUT if you really need to get things going, make sure your bananas are in a warm area in a paper bag for a day or two. I have seen ‘hacks’ for cooking your bananas to make them ripen faster but this won’t give you the same banana taste!
Swap out the sour cream for full-fat yoghurt or greek yoghurt, swap in chopped pecans for the walnuts and mix up the spices or leave them out entirely.
Wrap up your banana bread in plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 2 days. To freeze, wrap up each slice in foil or plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge.
I'm using a 8.5x4.5 inch loaf pan. If you use a 9x5, while that doesn't seem like a huge difference, will make your loaf a lot flatter and won't need as much time in the oven.
Other Loaf Recipes to try
Make sure to tag me on Instagram @alpineella and leave a review below if you’ve made this bread! If you want more baking ideas, you can follow me on Pinterest
Recipe
Cinnamon Crunch Banana Bread
Equipment
- 8.5x4.5 inch loaf pan
Ingredients
Cinnamon Crunch Topping
- 55 grams light brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoon all purpose flour
- 30 grams unsalted butter room temperature
- 33 grams walnuts chopped
Banana Bread
- 192 grams bananas
- 180 grams all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 113 grams unsalted butter room temperature
- 99 grams sugar
- 106 grams light brown sugar
- 1 egg room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 113 grams sour cream room temperature
Instructions
- Whisk all of the topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C. Grease and line a 8.5x4.5 inch loaf pan.
- Mash your bananas until smooth, set aside. You can use a fork or a potato masher to mash them.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt and spices together. Set aside
- In your mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy. Add your sugars and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2-3 minutes
- Add the vanilla and the egg, then beat well to incorporate.
- Turn the speed to low and add your mashed bananas, your mixture might be lumpy which is fine!
- Add the dry ingredients in three additions on low speed, alternating with the sour cream, starting and ending with the dry ingredients
- Pour the batter into your pan and tape it on the counter to remove any air bubbles.
- Sprinkle over your topping mixture
- Bake for 50-60 minutes, a toothpick inserted will come out with a few crumbs. If it is browning too quickly, place some foil on top
Sue
Husband and I trying to lose weight - so shouldn’t really make a cake! But I halved the sugar in it and put no sugar in the topping. Still delicious.
Rosalind
Great recipe.
Vi.
This recipe sounds so good and I want to make it, But.
Teaspoons &,Tablespoons I understand , but when it calls for thing in grams, I don't how to transfer that into teas., or tablespoons, cups etc.
Could the grams be changed so people that don't know grams in a recipe be put in ( ) of tea's tab's cups etc. Thank you.
I really want to make this recipe. Wasn't good in math division was the highest I went in math.
Ella
Hi there! On the recipe card if you click on 'US customary' it will show you everything in cups instead of grams! I haven't tested this recipe using cups though so please keep that in mind 🙂
Joanne
It’s not changing when I hit us customary
Ella
Hi Joanne, do you mind refreshing the page? It should work now! 🙂
Pamela
You can use a kitchen scale if you have one to weigh it out in grams.