coffee cake banana bread loaf

Where to even begin? It’s banana bread. It’s coffee cake. It’s banana bread coffee cake. And it’s delicious.

why you’ll love this coffee cake banana bread loaf

• It’s easy to make. Just mix the ingredients in one after another and you have a banana bread batter!
• The flavor is delicious and layered with so many intentional ingredients that improve flavor (like butter instead of oil, brown sugar in addition to granulated sugar for some depth, plenty of salt for balance, cinnamon and nutmeg for spice, and espresso powder for a little something-something)
• A streusel crumble just makes everything better, and this one is so good.

ingredients in coffee cake banana bread loaf

the streusel

• unsalted butter– salted is fine if it’s all you have, and it needs to be cold
• all purpose flour– the structure of the streusel which makes it cookie-like
• brown sugar– I like brown sugar because it adds more flavor and a little bit of a chew
• nutmeg– for flavor
• cinnamon– for flavor
• salt– my recipe calls for Diamond Crystal (the BEST and you should get some), but if all you have is sea salt or table salt, just halve the amount (so use ¼ teaspoon instead of ½ tsp)

the banana bread

• unsalted butter– You can use salted butter if it’s all you have. Lower the salt called for by ¼ teaspoon if you’re worried about an overly salty banana bread. Good news is that it doesn’t have to be room temperature since we’re melting it. Yay! Small victories.
• bananas– ripe, but not too ripe. Ideally, the perfect banana is deep yellow with lots of brown spots. Even a solid dark brown banana is fine if your bananas have been hanging out for a long time. Generally speaking, the riper the banana, the more flavor and the more sweetness to the banana bread. Just don’t use bananas that are leaking, have broken peels, or have white mold spots on them.
• granulated sugar– for sweetness and tenderness
• brown sugar– swapping some granulated sugar for brown sugar because ✨flavor✨
• salt– my recipe calls for Diamond Crystal (the BEST and you should get some), but if all you have is sea salt or table salt, just halve the amount (so use ¾ teaspoon instead of 1 ½ tsp)
• vanilla bean paste– for flavor (extract works too, but vanilla bean paste is an actual secret weapon in baking)
• sour cream– We need some dairy for tenderness and moisture, and my favorite is sour cream. Whole fat Greek yogurt or whole milk works as a 1:1 swap in grams.
• eggs– for texture, moisture, and lift
• all purpose flour– for the structure of the banana bread
• baking powder– for lift
• baking soda– for lift (and it works because we have acid present in the form of sour cream and brown sugar)
• cinnamon– optional, but delish
• nutmeg– optional, but delish
• espresso powder– optional, but delish

supplies needed to make coffee cake banana bread loaf

• mixing bowl
• wire whisk
• scale
• parchment paper– to make a sling so the banana bread can be easily lifted out of the pan
• loaf pan– I use a 10″ x 5″ or 1.5 lb. loaf pan, which is larger than standard. This is the one I have. I love this thing even though I accidentally bought it by mistake. It is amazing and makes sure there is no overflow if you are making a big loaf with extra toppings like streusel. I also have this 9″ x 5″ pan that is great and will work if you don’t have the larger size. Measure your loaf pan to make sure it isn’t 8″ x 4″, because your banana bread could overflow. ALTERNATE OPTIONS: Use an 8″x8″ square pan or 9″x9″ square pan. You could also use a 9″ springform round pan. Basically, no matter what pan you have, you can make this banana bread.

how to make coffee cake banana bread loaf

start with the streusel

Start by making the streusel so that it is ready to go for when it’s needed. It is so easy to make and comes together so quickly. Keep this streusel recipe on hand any time you make a quick bread that needs a little something-something.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add the cubed cold butter and work with your fingers to combine the butter into the dry ingredients. I like to coat the butter cubes before pressing them between my fingers to flatten them. Keep going until the butter is completely combined and you have a dough that can be pressed into a ball. Pop it in the fridge, loosely covered until it’s time use.

make the banana bread batter

Preheat the oven to 400 F while preparing the batter.

Mash the bananas well. Any chunks should be very tiny.

Melt the butter and add to the mashed bananas. A bowl-saving hack is to add the butter, cubed, to the bowl of mashed bananas and microwave in 30 second increments until the butter is nearly melted, like the first picture. Stir it until the butter has completely melted. If there are any bits of butter that are still remaining, microwave for another 10 seconds and stir again.

Add the sugars, salt, vanilla, eggs, and sour cream to the butter/banana mixture. Whisk well to make sure it is fully combined. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and espresso powder and gently stir to combine, being careful not to over mix. Once the dry ingredients are incorporated, stop stirring.

Pour half of the batter into a parchment lined loaf pan (it must be 9″ x 5″ or 10″ x 5″). Sprinkle half of the streusel over the batter, breaking up clumps with your fingers so it is more of a fine dusting.

Pour the rest of the batter over the streusel, smoothing the top into the corners and sides if needed. Sprinkle the rest of the streusel over the top, keeping the clumps larger.

Bake at 400 F for 10 minutes before dropping the heat to 350 F and baking for an additional 50-60 minutes. Check the banana bread at 50 minutes with a cake tester or toothpick- it should not be wet. Keep baking until the cake tester comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before trying to remove it from the pan. Cool on the wire rack a bit more before cutting into it. The banana bread should be warm, not hot.

success tips for making coffee cake banana bread loaf

• I have made this banana bread SO MANY times, and my bananas weigh a different amount each time. It’s fine. The bananas can weigh 300g-450g and it works every time. That is a huge amount of difference. Don’t worry about it, just use three medium to large ripe bananas or 4 small ripe bananas.
• If you don’t have sour cream, you can use buttermilk, whole milk, or full fat Greek yogurt. Sometimes I don’t have enough sour cream, and I use part sour cream and part whole milk.
• Mise en place’ is a French phrase with the idea of putting everything in its place before beginning to make a recipe. It helps everything to go smoothly and eliminates so much possible stress. Getting all of your supplies and ingredients together beforeever starting the recipe will help tremendously.
• Weigh your ingredients, particularly the flour. It is the most important measurement in this recipe to weigh. Flour can be off in volume measurements by up to 30g, which is a quarter cup! Having incorrect flour measurements can cause your cookies to spread too much or, alternatively, be dry and crumbly. Weighing your ingredients makes everything so much easier, as you don’t have to wash all the measuring cups at the end. However, I do not use the scale to weigh out teaspoon or tablespoon measurements for things like baking powder, salt, vanilla, or cornstarch, for example.

variations on coffee cake banana bread loaf

• as a round cake in a 9″ springform pan
• as a square cake in a 8″ or 9″ square pan
• as 12 regular muffins or 6 jumbo muffins

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