Cinnamon Sugar Crumb Banana Bread

This recipe came about in much the same way all of "my" recipes come about. I was hungry.

I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to make though. I wanted something new and exciting! I also did not want to go to the store so I scrounged around the pantry to see what I could come up with.

I saw a bunch of overripe bananas hanging on the banana tree but passed them over since by now I wanted a sugary sweet dessert. I love banana bread but I wanted something with a little more pizzazz...

Then it came to me. Why couldn't I make banana bread sugary sweet? It already was somewhat sweet from the bananas. Why couldn't I make it more like a coffee cake with cinnamon and sugar, or put a delicious crust on it like on Dutch Apple pie?

I decided that was exactly what I was going to try to do.

So I whipped out my recipe book and found my mom's tried and true banana bread recipe from one of her church friends. This recipe is delicious all by itself but with my additions it takes it to a whole new level! So without further ado here is my recipe:

Cinnamon Sugar Crumb Banana Bread
1/2 cup margarine butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 egg
3 bananas mashed
1 TBSP milk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Crumb Topping
mix together in small bowl:
2 1/2 TBSP packed brown sugar
2 TBSP sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Beat sugar and margarine butter. Add other ingredients. Beat until smooth. Pour into greased loaf pan. Sprinkle crumb topping all over the top of batter. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until it tests done.

Please excuse the appearance of my "well loved" loaf pan. This is how the crumb topping should look just before going in the oven.

I left margarine in the ingredient list because it was originally on it. I made the mistake of making this bread with Smart Balance once when I had run out of butter and it never set up. So needless to say I only make this bread with butter. I'm a huge fan of butter nowadays anyway, since someone told me margarine is one molecule away from being plastic. Who knows if that's true or not but it made me lose my taste for margarine. In fact now that I'm writing about margarine I believe I have a tub of Smart Balance in the fridge that's over a year old...excuse me while I throw that away right now.

I also never beat the ingredients. I just stir them vigorously. No point in dirtying the mixer when I saw a few years after I'd been making this banana bread successfully that it said beat not stir. Also worth noting, whenever I make this bread it tends to take more than an hour, sometimes up to 1 1/2 hours. Hmm maybe it's because I don't beat the ingredients...

Here she is in all her glory straight from the oven. This time it took 1 hour 20 minutes.

Regardless of beating or stirring (that's up to you) this banana bread is to die for. The crust is crumbly and just the right amount of sweetness. This banana bread has ruined me, I can never go back to plain old banana bread ever again. Hope you all like it just as much as my family does! It never lasts more than a couple days over here! Enjoy!