An easy and quick bread recipe for Cinnamon Banana Bread features a sugared streusel topping and a cinnamon-swirl center.
Cinnamon Banana Bread
While I love good chocolate-chip or nut-studded banana bread, nothing compares to adding a cinnamon swirl and crunchy streusel on top! This bread is moist, cinnamon-y, and has a sweet, fruity smell. Cinnamon is a great complementary flavor to bananas—you’ll love it!
This particular recipe doesn’t have a high rise or a light texture; it’s very much a moist, dense hearty quick-bread loaf.
Quick Tip
To quickly ripen bananas, bake them on a lined tray at 350°F for 6-12 minutes until the skins turn black.
Ingredients
- Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the bread, and binds the streusel topping.
- Sugars: Sweetens the cinnamon banana bread and adds moisture.
- Eggs: Provide structure and help in creating a tender texture.
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances flavor.
- Overripe Bananas: Contribute the key flavor, natural sweetness, and moisture.
- Greek Yogurt: Adds moisture and a slight tanginess, improving texture.
- Flour: Builds structure in the bread and streusel.
- Baking Soda and Salt: Baking soda helps the bread rise, and salt balances and enhances flavors.
- Cinnamon: Adds warmth and spice to the swirl and topping.
How To Make Cinnamon Banana Bread
- Prep: Preheat oven to 350°F, grease a 9×5-inch pan.
- Cream: Beat butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla.
- Bananas & Yogurt: Mix in mashed bananas and yogurt.
- Dry Ingredients: Combine flour, baking soda, salt.
- Combine: Mix wet and dry.
- Swirl: Half batter in pan, add cinnamon-sugar, top with remaining batter.
- Streusel: Mix butter, flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt; sprinkle on top.
- Bake: 60-70 minutes.
- Cool: 10-15 minutes in pan, then on rack.
Storage
- Cool: Let your cinnamon banana bread cool completely.
- Room Temp: Wrap and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.
- Refrigerate: Keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
- Freeze: Wrap well and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.
More Quick Bread Recipes
- Healthy Zucchini Bread
- Apple Fritter Bread
- Pumpkin Bread
- Cornbread Recipe
- Lemon Blueberry Bread
Cinnamon Banana Bread
This Cinnamon Banana Bread is super easy to make, with a sweet streusel topping and a delicious cinnamon swirl in the middle!
Equipment
- 9 x 5-inch bread pan
- Parchment paper or cooking spray
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 cup, at room temperature, not melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup overripe bananas 2 medium bananas, mashed with a fork
- 1/2 cup full-fat vanilla Greek yogurt plain sour cream also works
- 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda not baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Cinnamon Swirl
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Streusel Topping
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease and lightly flour a 9x5-inch bread pan. Alternatively, line the pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add in the eggs and vanilla. Beat to combine.
- In a separate small bowl, mash the bananas thoroughly with a fork. Stir in the well-mashed bananas and Greek yogurt into the bread batter and mix until combined.
- In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Don’t over-stir the batter.
- Cinnamon Swirl: In a separate small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar and ground cinnamon. Pour half the bread batter in the prepared pan and evenly sprinkle the swirl ingredients on top. Pour the rest of the bread batter on top and smooth the top of the bread with a table knife.
- Streusel: Melt the butter in the microwave, then let stand at room temperature until cooled (don’t add hot butter to the streusel—it will make it greasy). In a separate medium bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the cooled melted butter and mix (knead with hands if needed) until the streusel is evenly combined and forms small clumps. If clumps aren’t forming or the streusel is too wet, add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Sprinkle the streusel mixture evenly over the banana bread batter. Do not press the streusel into the batter. Use all the streusel (yes, it’s a lot).
- Bake for 60–70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a couple of moist crumbs.
- Allow to cool for 10–15 minutes before running a table knife along the edges of the loaf and inverting the loaf onto a wire cooling rack.
Video
Recipe Notes
Storage: This bread stores 1–2 days at normal room temperature (wrapped tightly/stored in an airtight container). After 3–4 days, this bread is more prone to molding because of the ingredients used and the overall moistness of the bread.
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 372kcal | Carbohydrates: 59g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 63mg | Sodium: 234mg | Potassium: 143mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 34g | Vitamin A: 427IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 39mg | Iron: 2mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this banana bread last night and it turned out amazing!! It’s so nice to have with a cup of tea :). A couple of notes: Step #6 says to use “white sugar and cinnamon” for the swirl, but I think you probably meant to write “brown sugar and cinnamon”. Also – when I inverted the loaf onto a cooling rack, I lost a lot of the streusel topping. Should I just make sure there is a plate underneath the rack next time I do the flip and put the topping back on, or is there another trick that I’m missing? Thanks so much for this recipe – it’s delicious!
Love zucchini bread and love banana bread, so obviously I love this!! Yum!