Nothing makes a house smell more amazing than a loaf of banana bread in the oven! Add some crunchy streusel topping and you've got this Cinnamon Streusel Banana Bread that is heaven in a loaf pan!

Sliced banana bread on a wooden cutting board

What's in this Banana Bread?

In 2020, banana bread was all the rage. People were at home making sourdough bread and banana bread. I have to admit, I was on the sourdough train, still am. I have been making sourdough for about 3 years now, but it really amped up in 2020. When it comes to banana bread, I've been making that for way longer! This recipe was shared by my mom, no idea where she got it from. I've added a few things to make it my own and to enhance the recipe a little. That's the amazing thing about food, you can always make it your own.

An overhead view of Cinnamon Streusel banana bread on a wooden cutting board

Ingredients To Note

There's not many ingredients in this banana bread. You probably have most of them on hand at any given moment.

Bananas- Obviously, the main ingredient in this banana bread. Make sure the bananas are really brown and ripe. The browner the better. A quick tip for you! If you find yourself with brown bananas but aren't ready to make banana bread, just freeze the bananas in ziploc bags. Then, whenever you are ready to make banana bread, thaw a few and you are ready to go!

Flour- I used all purpose flour, King Arthur is my favorite, but you could use whatever you have in the house. Unbleached is the best quality to use, you don't want to have that bleached stuff in your cabinet if you can avoid it. When I make this, I sometimes substitute half of the all purpose flour for whole wheat flour and it works great. White whole wheat flour is a great option too!

Cinnamon- In order to get to Cinnamon Crunch banana bread we need some cinnamon! I add the cinnamon into the batter as well as on top in the streusel topping. Can you ever have too much cinnamon? I think not!

Streusel Topping- Gives it the "Crunch" on top! This streusel topping is the same one I use for my Sourdough Apple Streusel Muffins. It's just equal parts brown sugar, granulated sugar, and all purpose flour. Then add cinnamon and melted butter and you are good to go! It should be the consistency of thick sand. When you press it in your hands it should clump and then fall apart. It's so good!

How to Make This Banana Bread

First, you will want to butter a loaf pan. You don't want this bread to stick to the pan because it will be really hard and annoying to get out. Grab your bananas, peel them, and mash them in a bowl. I know! Mind blown! Once that is done, combine all the dry ingredients for the bread and set that aside. Next, combine all the wet ingredients including the bananas in a different bowl. Mix everything well to combine. Then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix everything to just combine, try not to over mix. When everything is combined add the batter to the loaf pan. Next, top the bread with the streusel topping to get that "crunch" in this bread. Bake the bread for one hour. That seems like a lot, but this bread bakes slowly. After an hour, check the bread by sticking a toothpick in the middle. If it comes out clean, it's done. If it still has a little bit of batter left, leave it in for a few more minutes.

This banana bread could easily be made into muffins if you want! Instead of greasing the loaf pan, grease muffin tins and divide the batter into the muffin tins. Then top with the streusel topping.