Banana Nut Bread with Sour Cream and Streusel Topping
Mar 24, 2023, Updated Oct 26, 2023
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Sour Cream Banana Bread with Walnut Streusel is delicious and easy-to-make, combining flavorful moist banana with a pecan or crunchy walnut topping.
This recipe adapted from ‘Janet’s Rich Banana Bread’ and modified by me with the addition of a deliciously rich, walnut and brown sugar streusel!
This easy banana nut bread recipe has become one of my favorites! It’s 3 simple steps which involve assembling a sweet, coffee cake-like-streusel topping, then combining wet ingredients and dry ingredients together for an aromatic and tantalizing 1-hour bake. Eat it as a delicious treat with coffee, or cube this scrummy homemade banana bread and line a trifle dish for use in a no bake banana pudding trifle!
This bake has a tender, moist crumb that is both fluffy and dense, making it a satisfying and comforting treat. It’s also a versatile dessert that can also be enjoyed for breakfast or snack. It’s best served warm or at room temperature and can be enjoyed plain, with a spread of butter, or even toasted or griddled.
Overall, the combination of ripe bananas, warm spices, and a comforting texture make this bread a delicious and popular dessert that is enjoyed by my family and I know will be by yours, too.
The history of banana bread can be traced back to the early 1900s, when baking soda and baking powder became widely available and recipes for quick breads (breads leavened with these ingredients) started appearing in cookbooks and magazines.
The popularity of this bake can be attributed to a few factors. Bananas were becoming more widely available in the United States in the early 20th century, as transportation and refrigeration technologies improved.
Also, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, people were looking for ways to use up overripe bananas, which were often sold at a discount or thrown away. This recipe was a perfect solution.
Sour Cream Banana Bread with Streusel Topping Ingredients
for the bread
- Granulated sugar – a fundamental ingredient in baking and cooking, and is less sweet than confectioners’ sugar and more sweet than brown sugar
- Unsalted melted butter – a neutral flavor that is primarily focused on sweetness when used in baked goods
- Eggs – act as a binding agent for all ingredients
- Vanilla extract – has a sweet, warm, and floral aroma that is highly appealing
- All-purpose flour – use gluten-free flour if you prefer, but the texture may be slightly different; avoid whole wheat flour
- Baking soda – a leavening agent; ensure your baking soda is fresh and not expired, or the bread may not rise properly
- Kosher salt – helps to balance the sweetness in the bread
- Sour cream – full-fat sour cream is recommended for this recipe
- Pecans or Walnuts – crunchy, either slightly sweet, rich and earthy
- Mashed bananas – brown bananas are the key ingredient as they’re naturally sweet and provide a moist texture
optional bread ingredients
- Chocolate chips – sweet, slightly tangy, everybody’s favorite ingredient to work with
- Dates – add a chewy and rich highlight in each bite
for the crunchy streusel topping
- Unsalted butter – will act as the binder to the streusel ingredients
- All-purpose flour – use gluten-free flour if you prefer, but the texture may be slightly different
- Brown sugar – gives the topping a burst of sweetness; use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar
- Pecans or Walnuts – for additional crunch
- Kosher salt – for balancing the brown sugar in the streusel
Kitchen Tools You’ll Need
To make this bread, you’ll need a handful of basic kitchen equipment. Of course, you may need additional equipment depending on if you alter the recipe.
Begin by grabbing a small bowl for the crumbly streusel mix and two larger bowls for the dry flour mixture and the batter. I use an electric mixer for this method, but you can also use a stand mixer.
You will also need a loaf pan, wire rack, measuring cups and spoons, and a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. This method will yield one loaf of banana bread and a nutty banana bread topping.
How to Make Banana Streusel Bread
before you begin
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch loaf pan with butter or cooking spray. If you prefer to cut parchment paper to fit the pan with an overhang, do so.
for the topping
To make the nut streusel, mix together the flour, brown sugar, salt, and melted butter in a small bowl until crumbly. Stir in the chopped nuts. Set aside.
for the batter
In the first large bowl, stir melted butter and sugar together mixing well. Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until well combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
Add the mashed bananas, sour cream, and chopped nuts to the bowl, and mix until smooth. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
bake
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour. As an aside, my most recent loaf of the bread took 1 hour and 15 minutes, so there will be variations due to ovens, density of the batter, etc.
Cool loaf in pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack on your kitchen counter to cool completely. Enjoy with soft butter or even softened cream cheese spread over top.
Modifying the Norm to Make It Not Entirely Average
- Add in 1/2-cup of any of the following for a variation on this recipe: chocolate chips, mini chocolate chips, chopped dates, chopped macadamias.
- In lieu of a streusel topping, consider a peanut butter cream cheese frosting or roasted glazed bananas as a topper for this bread.
Banana Nut Bread with Sour Cream and Streusel Topping
Equipment
- 1 small mixing bowl
- 9 x 5-inch loaf pan
- wire cooling rack
Ingredients
for the streusel topping
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour, spooned/leveled
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar, packed/leveled
- ½ cup walnuts, chopped; may also use pecans
- pinch Kosher salt
for the bread
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup butter, melted
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned/leveled
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup walnuts, chopped; may also use pecans
- 2 large bananas, mashed; use brown or black, overripe bananas
Instructions
make the topping
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease or line a 9×5 loaf pan with baking spray or parchment paper. Set aside.
- Mix together the flour, brown sugar, salt, and melted butter in a small bowl until crumbly. Stir in the chopped nuts. Set aside.
make the bread batter
- In the first large bowl, stir melted butter and sugar together mixing well. Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until well combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the mashed bananas, sour cream, and chopped nuts to the bowl, and mix until smooth. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour. As an aside, my most recent loaf of the bread took 1 hour and 15 minutes, so there will be variations due to ovens, density of the batter, etc. Cool loaf in pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack on your kitchen counter to cool completely. Enjoy with soft butter or even softened cream cheese spread over top.
Notes
-
- Add in 1/2-cup of any of the following for a variation on this recipe: chocolate chips, mini chocolate chips, chopped dates, chopped macadamias.
-
- In lieu of a streusel topping, consider a peanut butter cream cheese frosting or roasted glazed bananas as a topper for this bread.
- The riper the bananas, the sweeter and more flavorful they will be in the bread. If you have overripe bananas that you are not able to use right away, you can freeze them and use them later for banana bread.
- Overmixing the batter can lead to a tough and dense bread. Mix the ingredients until they are just combined, and don’t worry if there are a few lumps.
- Make sure to add the nut streusel to the top of the bread before baking. If you add it afterwards, the streusel may not stick to the bread as well.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Full fat Greek Yogurt is the best substitute for sour cream. Use a 1:1 ratio, meaning if the recipe specifies 1 cup of sour cream, use 1 cup of full fat Green Yogurt.
Sour cream delivers moisture without thinning out a batter resulting in a cake with a very tender, very fine crumb.
When incorporated along with other ingredients and then baked, sour cream and the tangy flavor that is sour cream is nearly undiscernible. In this recipe, the banana overpowers all other flavors.
Wonderful, but didn’t mention whether to use metal or glass pan, or placement of oven rack(middle, or lower) my loaf exterior got to brown. I rotated the loaf half way through. I used a metal nonstick pan. ??
Hope, apologies that you struggled with these two attributes in the recipe. I do not specify what type of loaf pan because it can be any type. I switch between a Pullman (carbon steel/high-sided with a top) pan, and my favorite stoneware pan. In terms of where to set your oven rack, that too, depends much on your oven.
To avoid over-browning when baking banana bread, the ideal oven rack position is usually the middle, where heat circulates evenly for balanced baking. If the top of the loaf browns too quickly, shifting the rack to the lower third reduces direct heat exposure from above. Over-browning can also stem from inaccurate oven temperatures (check with an oven thermometer), using dark or thin pans that transfer heat too quickly, or placing the loaf near hot spots in the oven. Rotating the pan halfway through and tenting the top with foil during the last 15–25 minutes can further prevent over-baking while allowing the loaf to cook through properly.
It sounds like you kept a keen eye and rotated the pan when you saw the surface browning too much for your liking. I would encourage you to bake this again (because the end result really is just so worth it, I PROMISE) and bake in the lower third of your oven for the full time specified OR in the middle, rotating halfway thru, AND with tented foil during the last 15 to 25 minutes of the bake, shiny side up to deflect heat. Should you bake it again, I’d really love to know how you and yours enjoy it. 🙂 Jenny
Are there additional instructions or changes for high altitude?
Shirley, you must add an additional 2 tablespoons of flour to the amount of flour called for in the bread. For the streusel, add 1 additional tablespoon of flour. Since I live below sea level slightly, I do not have a lot of experience with high altitude baking, but I do vet the methods for high altitude with a lady who lives in Colorado Springs. She says adding the flour ensures this will bake as indicated. I really would like another opinion; if you can, circle back and let me know your result 🙂 Jenny
What’s the oven temp? You stated to cook for 1hr and then for 1 hr 20 min. Please clarify.
L, you want to bake for 1 hour and test for doneness. At this point, you will know if your bread requires additional oven time. All ovens vary, so I put a variable of 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. Once a tester pulls away clean, allow the bread to rest in the hot pan for 10 minutes before turning out. Let me know if this clarifies the confusion. I will re-word the directions to quantify what I have just told you in case others might read it the same as you did. Thank you for bringing it to my attention! Jenny
I should also note a caveat to my instructions; if you have an especially slow oven or are using anything other than the 9×5 loaf pan specified, you may require less than 1 hour or more than 1 hour 15 minutes. Everything…literally…is a variable in baking science 😉
Ok thank you. You are very responsive. What is the oven temp? So sorry..,i just found it… m vaf!
All good! Happy baking! I thought I’d get to some baking myself today, but it was not to be 😉
Ok thank you. You are very responsive. What is the oven temp?
Oh goodness! 350°F. Please, please let me know how you enjoy the bread! I love it regardless of the topping, but I must say that I think the topping ‘completes’ the bake! Jenny
Oh my….this is seriously soooooo good. It was done in about 55 mins. So moist. The topping is divine. I took your advice and left some of the banana chunky…then you get a nice piece of banana in some of the bites. Also, the topping makes for a very attractive loaf that anyone could not find tempting. Thanks for sharing!!!!!
Well, see what you’ve gone ahead and done? You MADE my day 🙂 Thank you, thank you for this sweet comment. I’m elated you are enjoying it. x – Jenny
This is a keeper. . I doubled the recipe because my family loves banana bread. Added a teaspoon cinnamon and about 1/4 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg to the batter and about a teaspoon cinnamon to the streusel topping. Also used pecans instead of walnuts. Delicious
Shellie, these variation ideas are great for inspiring other readers. The changes you made were small and yet you yielded significant and delicious results. I always want for readers to know they can bend recipes to suit their eaters, so thank you for circling back to leave this feedback. This is awesome! 🙂 Jenny
This recipe is AMAZING!! I put it in mini loaf pans so I could give it as gifts so I had to make a bit more streusel topping, but followed the recipe exactly. It is awesome! The topping makes it bakery quality.
I have a question though. I have a friend who can’t eat bananas and I was wondering if you work such magic with apples or another fruit in bread or cake that uses this decadent topping? Sign me up for your newsletter for sure please!
Angie, wow thank you! This streusel is my go-to. It’s easy to change it up by adding chopped nuts, flaked coconut, freeze dried strawberries, or chopped banana chips…it’s solid. One quick bread I use this streusel atop is my zucchini bread. . The bread is moist and the streusel makes it the pièce de résistance! I so, so, so appreciate you circling back to leave me this feedback, Angie! x – Jenny
Oh YUM!! I love zucchini bread!! I just came back from a Spring Break trip, I took some with me to share with friends and literally everyone who tried it LOVED it. Most of them could not wait to say it and were talking with bread in their mouths LOL!!!
Now I can’t wait to get to the store and buy supplies to try the Zucchini bread!
Angie, oh what I would give to be enjoying a spring break adventure somewhere! I hope is was warm, reasonable, and did NOT rain on you! Do try that zucchini bread recipe – it’s literally the best I have EVER run across and it’s KILLER with the streusel we discussed. Send photos, girl! x – Jenny
I’m sorry, I didn’t think about photos. I thought I would put some away for quick breakfasts, but no luck, they went too fast. But oh my, I have some black bananas, and I know exactly what I’m going to do with those!!
Thank you so much for sharing your recipes.
Isn’t this the bomb? Everybody’s always looking for that uber-moist banana bread method, and THIS is THAT BREAD! Thanks for taking the time to share your success with me, Angie! Jenny
I seem to always have a question! I love the idea of the streusel on the top. How many cups would two large bananas be? I have a collection of bananas in the freezer and when they are frozen it is hard to figure out what size they were! They seem to actually shrink.
Barbara, not to worry because I love answers to great questions! I too, freeze my brown and black bananas and have the same challenge when knowing which ones to fish out of the freezer bag. I have now decided the easier thing to do is to slightly thaw, mash, and fill two (2) US measure cups. And just so you know, my cups are rounded, overflowing…I want that banana flavor. So, in answer to your question, I’d start with 2 cups. If after assembling you got either too much or not enough banana, adjust for the next time. For the record, I use both mashed banana and chopped banana pieces when I put this all together. Texturally it’s just really satisfying 🙂 Jenny
Perfect! Thank you for answering so quickly. I plan to make it for this weekend, family is coming!
The streusel was perfect! It is going to be the streusel on any future baking recipes. I had been looking for one and this is just right! Doubled the recipe, because I had so many bananas in the freezer, and had a slice for breakfast this morning. The streusel added a nice crispness/crunchiness to the top. I ended up using organic brown sugar. Might add a little cinnamon next time. I have a problem with leaving recipes alone.
Barbara, you go and just keep experimenting and reporting back because I LOVE THIS FEEDBACK! And, so do readers who are looking to learn from others who have made a recipe. Thank you, Barbara. I hope you have a Blessed Easter 🙂 Jenny
How many eggs does this recipe require. It calls for eggs but doesn’t say how many
Anna, thank you for that catch. It’s 2 eggs and I have made the addition to the recipe card already. Let me know how you enjoy it! Jenny
We made this a couple hours ago and just sliced into it. I couldn’t wait for it to cool! It’s so so very good! I can honestly say this may be the best banana bread I’ve ever baked, eaten…your recipe is awesome.
Krista, fabulous! I agree it’s a great cake and I hope others will try it, too!