One bite of this cinnamon banana bread and you’ll agree – cinnamon is the best thing that ever happened to banana bread!
This love story began when I was craving something “fall”, but I wasn’t feeling apples or pumpkins. So I decided to incorporate one of my favorite baking ingredients – cinnamon chips – into my classic banana bread recipe. And boom!
I swear it was magic.
You’re going to find a lot of cinnamon swirl banana bread recipes out there, but this one is different. We’re using actual cinnamon chips. And that, my friends, makes all the difference.
The texture, the flavor, the aroma, it’s all next level. Trust! Let’s bake.
Ingredients
- Ripe or overripe bananas
- All purpose flour or gluten free flour
- Cinnamon chips. The star of the show! Find them in the baking aisle next to the chocolate chips. When all else fails, try Amazon.
- Butter
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Sour cream. This is the key ingredient! Adding sour cream to banana bread batter ensures a super moist texture that will melt in your mouth! You could also substitute full fat Greek yogurt for extra protein.
- Vanilla extract
- Baking soda
- Salt
How to Make Cinnamon Banana Bread
Be sure to set out three separate bowls before starting on this recipe – small, medium and large.
In the Small Bowl
Mash up the bananas and sour cream. You can do this using a potato masher or just a plain old fork.
In the Medium Bowl
Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt.
In the Large bowl
Beat the butter, vanilla, eggs and sugar. You can use do this in a bowl of a stand mixer or by using an electric hand mixer.
Combine the ingredients
Now, alternate adding the dry ingredients and the banana mixture into the wet ingredients little by little.
Mix as few times as possible, because the more you mix, the tougher the bread will be. Finally, fold the cinnamon chips into the batter.
Bake the Banana Bread
Now, pour the batter into a prepared loaf pan.
Bake until the top is golden brown and the bread pulls away slightly from the sides of the loaf pan.
Storage Instructions
This super moist banana bread will stay fresh on the counter top for 3-5 days if you wrap it tightly in plastic wrap or aluminum foil.
After that, pop it into the freezer for longer storage. I like to pre-slice the bread, then wrap it in plastic wrap before placing it into a freezer bag or airtight container.
Variations
1. Chocolate Chip Banana Bread: Incorporating mini chocolate chips to the batter is never a bad idea, and always a hit with kids. Use 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of cinnamon chips, or swap out the cinnamon for chocolate completely. Find my recipe here.
2. Banana Nut Bread: For a fun textural twist, try adding chopped walnuts or pecans to the batter. Follow the instructions in the recipe card, but only use 1/2 cup of cinnamon chips and 1/2 cup of nuts.
3. Gluten Free Banana Bread: I have tested this recipe using 1:1 gluten free flour many times, and it comes out great!
FAQs
Absolutely! Simply swap a quality 1:1 gluten free flour blend for the all-purpose flour. The results are delicious.
Too ripe is when the bananas themselves are fully discolored. The banana peel can be brown or even black, but if the inside isn’t totally discolored, you can still use it in banana bread.
The riper the banana, the sweeter your banana bread will be.
For the best banana bread, use bananas whose peels are speckled with brown spots, but haven’t turned brown on the inside.
Watch for the edges of the bread to pull away from the sides of the loaf pan. The top should also be a golden brown color.
You also want to insert a toothpick into the top of the bread to be sure it comes out clean.
When you make this cinnamon banana bread recipe, I’d love to hear about it! Drop a star rating or leave a comment below. Enjoy!
For more quick bread recipes, try these:
Cinnamon Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 3-4 medium sized ripe bananas
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 cup cinnamon chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Coat a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray or line with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, beat butter, vanilla and sugar with a handheld electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. (Alternatively, do this step in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.)
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda.
- In a separate bowl, mash bananas and sour cream together.
- Using a wooden spoon, blend flour mixture into the creamed mixture alternately with the mashed bananas. Fold in the cinnamon chips.
- Pour into the prepared loaf pan. If desired, sprinkled extra cinnamon chips over the top of the bread.
- Bake for 1hr 10min or until cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool to room temperature on a wire rack before removing from pan.
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