Banana Nut Bread

Topped with a sweet streusel, this banana nut bread is moist and delicious, packed with mashed bananas and pieces of walnuts or pecans.

A couple of months ago, I made a trip to Starbucks and treated myself to a slice of their banana bread. If you’ve never had their banana bread, it is studded with walnuts.

I had forgotten until then how much I love nuts in banana bread. So of course I had to go home and immediately whip up a loaf of my favorite banana bread with plenty of nuts in it. 

This banana nut bread is super moist, perfectly sweet, crunchy from the walnuts or pecans, and topped with a gorgeous streusel. It’s incredible on its own or alongside a cold-brew coffee or your favorite tea.

STREUSEL-TOPPED BANANA NUT BREAD

I love a streusel topping. Whether it’s on blueberry coffee cake, pumpkin cheesecake bars, or apple fritter bread, it’s just the best way to finish off so many baked goods.

So obviously, when I was working on this recipe for banana nut bread, I had to include a streusel topping.

This banana nut bread is adapted from Dominique Ansel’s banana bread. It has all of the flavor and moistness of the original recipe, but includes tons of chopped pecans or walnuts and a sweet, crunchy streusel on top.

If you love bananas and nuts combined, this is absolutely the bread for you!

HOW TO MAKE BANANA NUT BREAD

Banana bread is one of my favorite treats to make, partly because it doesn’t require a mixer. You can use one or you can just use a whisk and a spatula to bring the batter together.

Not to mention, it’s a great way to use up bananas that are a little past their prime!

What nuts should you use?

Don’t get stressed out in the baking aisle trying to pick nuts for your banana nut bread.

Pecans and walnuts are the most classic options and are what I recommend using. I also recommend saving yourself some work and buying a bag of the already chopped pecan or walnut pieces.

Other nuts, such as almonds or cashews, can be delicious in baked goods, but aren’t quite right here. 

Making this recipe

This banana nut bread recipe does use a less common size of loaf pan. You’ll need a 10×5-inch loaf pan, but I promise that it’s worth it. You can use it to make zucchini banana bread or brown butter pumpkin bread as well! 

Go ahead and line your loaf pan with parchment paper to make it easy to remove the baked bread later. 

In a large bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients: sugar, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.

In a separate bowl, thoroughly mix together the eggs and vanilla with the mashed bananas.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, then stir in the melted butter until incorporated. I know it seems like there’s a lot of butter in this recipe (and there is), but trust me: it makes this bread wonderfully moist.

Finally, fold in the chopped nuts before pouring the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Mix together the streusel topping and sprinkle it evenly over the banana nut bread batter.

Bake this bread for a little over an hour – I find it usually takes 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let the bread cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing and enjoying.

Helpful resources

Here are a few helpful tips and resources to reference as you make your banana nut bread:

• Make sure you know how to measure flour correctly before you get started. This will help ensure that your bread comes out perfect every time.
• You want your eggs to be at room temperature before you add them to the batter. Learn how to bring butter and eggs to room temperature.
• If you run out of brown sugar, save yourself a trip to the store by learning how to make a brown sugar substitute.
• We’ve all had times when we open our brown sugar to find it is hard as a rock. Don’t toss it! Learn how to soften brown sugar with several different methods.

FREEZING INSTRUCTIONS

You can store your banana nut bread well wrapped at room temperature for 3 days. If you want to keep it for longer, I recommend freezing.

You can freeze the loaf whole or in slices. 

For the whole loaf, wrap it in a layer of plastic wrap followed by a layer of heavy-duty foil. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let the bread thaw at room temperature for several hours.

To freeze individual banana nut bread slices, wrap each slice in a layer of plastic wrap and place them in a zip-top freezer bag. Remove as many slices at a time as needed and either let them thaw for about an hour at room temperature or microwave them for 30-60 seconds to both thaw and reheat them.

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Banana Nut Bread

By: Jamie

4.84 from 6 ratings

Prep: 15 minutes mins

Cook: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Total: 1 hour hr 25 minutes mins

Servings: 12

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Topped with a sweet streusel, this banana nut bread is moist and delicious, packed with mashed bananas and pieces of walnuts or pecans.

Equipment

• 10×5-inch Loaf Pan

Ingredients

1x2x3x

US CustomaryMetric

For the banana bread:

• ▢ 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
• ▢ 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ▢ 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 3 large eggs room temperature
• ▢ 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 4 overripe bananas mashed (about 2 cups)
• ▢ 14 tablespoons unsalted butter melted, plus more for greasing pan
• ▢ 1 ⅓ cups chopped walnuts or pecans

For the streusel topping:

• ▢ ¼ cup light or dark brown sugar
• ▢ ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ▢ ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ▢ pinch of kosher salt
• ▢ 2 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature

Instructions 

• Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 10″ x 5″ x 3 ½” loaf pan and set aside. I also like to line the pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang over the sides. This will ensure the bread removes easily from the pan.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and baking powder.
• In a separate large bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla and combine with the mashed bananas.
• Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix together until just combined. Stir in the melted butter until fully incorporated. Fold in the walnuts or pecans.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Prepare the streusel topping by stirring the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt together. Use a fork to mix in the butter until small clumps form. Evenly sprinkle the streusel topping over the batter.
• Bake in preheated oven until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before slicing.

Video

Notes

If desired, you can toss an extra few tablespoons of chopped pecans or walnuts with the streusel for the top of the bread.

If you don’t have a 10×5-inch loaf pan, you can make this bread into muffins instead. Divide the batter between 24 lined muffin tin wells. Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes.

Recipe adapted from Dominique Ansel’s banana bread.

Makes 1 10×5-inch loaf.

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice, Calories: 488kcal, Carbohydrates: 63g, Protein: 6g, Fat: 25g, Saturated Fat: 11g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g, Monounsaturated Fat: 6g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 81mg, Sodium: 318mg, Potassium: 252mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 39g, Vitamin A: 555IU, Vitamin C: 4mg, Calcium: 56mg, Iron: 2mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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