Banana Cream Cheese Bread with a Crumb Topping

Banana bread with cream cheese is a moist dessert bread with a cream cheese filling and brown sugar crumb topping. 

Friday morning, I walked into my kitchen to find something to eat. I saw a bunch of bananas I had bought and forgotten…turning brown on my counter. I first considered eating them so they wouldn’t go to waste. Then I considered freezing them for later…before I remembered the bananas that once sat in my freezer for a full year because I swore up and down that I was going to use them later. Whatever I did with them, it had to be an immediate solution.

Then I thought back to the pumpkin bread recipe that I posted in October. Trying not to drool all over myself, I wondered if the same thing could be done with banana bread. Stupid question, right? It totally can.

Warning: I screwed up. And I knew I did before I even baked it. Don’t you hate when that happens? I accidentally doubled the cream cheese recipe (because I was reading the recipe I wrote for the pumpkin bread, which makes two loaves of bread…a fact that slipped my mind). So, uh…my bread sort of over-flowed.

But it was still delicious. And THAT is the most important part.

This recipe reflects the changes I should have made while preparing this bread.

Banana Bread with Cream Cheese Filling & a Crumb Topping

For bread:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (NOT packed)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 3 large, overripe bananas)

For filling:

• 8 oz (1 package) cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup half and half
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For topping:

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/8 cup white sugar
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 4 tbsps butter, melted

Step 01: Preheat oven to 325F. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients one at a time, mixing after each addition. Pour the banana bread batter into a prepared loaf pan, but only enough to effectively cover the bottom..

Step 02: In a small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the cream cheese filling. Pour it into the loaf pan over the bread batter. Pour the remaining batter over the cream cheese.

Step 03: In a small bowl, mix together the topping ingredients. Crumble over the bread batter.

Step 04: Bake for an hour and a half, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

There is nothing I can say about this recipe except, “Yum.” This is a new favorite. I stand by my decision in October: moist bread + cream cheese + crumb topping = perfection.

And now someone needs to get this bread out of my house before I eat it. All of it. Baking on a weekend was a terrible idea.

Enjoy!

Banana Bread with Cream Cheese Filling & a Crumb Topping

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Ingredients

• For bread:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (NOT packed)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 3 large, overripe bananas)
• For filling:
• 8 oz (1 package) cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup half and half
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• For topping:
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/8 cup white sugar
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 4 tbsps butter, melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325F. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients one at a time, mixing after each addition. Pour the banana bread batter into a prepared loaf pan, but only enough to effectively cover the bottom..

In a small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the cream cheese filling. Pour it into the loaf pan over the bread batter. Pour the remaining batter over the cream cheese.

In a small bowl, mix together the topping ingredients. Crumble over the bread batter.

Bake for an hour and a half, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Banana Cream Cheese Bread with a Crumb Topping was last modified: June 16th, 2018 by Chelsey