• Use a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan. (I prefer to use a dark, non-stick loaf pan)
• 2 or 3 mixing bowls.
  • 1 bowl could be a cereal bowl.  It’s for making the streusel topping.
  • The other two bowls need to be about 8″ wide and 6″ deep. 
• Electric mixer- or- not preferred- but you could use a food processor- you really won’t get this mixed well by hand. And, no, you can’t use a blender.
• Cooking Spoon or Baking Spatula
• Pastry blender or a dinner fork
• Medium size whisk, if you have one. You could also use one of your electric mixer beaters, as long as it is NOT connected to the mixer. Use it as if it were a whisk.

For the banana bread:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• a dash of nutmeg
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (you can use vegetable shortening (like Crisco) if you don’t have butter- but you may NOT use cooking oil- it has to be a solid.)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (It’s best if you have both types of sugar. If you don’t, use 1 cup of whichever you do have. You may NOT use powdered sugar.)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature- room temp is best, but the recipe will work fine if the eggs are straight from the frig
• 4 very ripe bananas. (Very ripe is when the peel is anywhere from extremely speckled to pure black. The closer to black and soft, the better!)
• 1/4 cup buttermilk (or yogurt or sour cream)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, if you like nuts in your banana bread. I do not.

For the streusel topping: (If you love streusel like I do, double this recipe and have an extra-streusely topping!)

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (again, use white sugar if that is all you have)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter, slightly softened and cut into pieces (You could also use shortening here, but it’s way better if you don’t).
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, if you like nuts in your streusel topping. I can take them or leave them.

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. (This is one of very few recipes for baked goods that require this temperature. Usually the temperature is higher. I’m mentioning this, because I don’t want you to think it’s a typo). Yes, preheat to 325 degrees!
2. If you are using a dark, nonstick loaf pan, just spray it lightly with cooking spray or lightly oil it with a vegetable oil.( If you are not using a non-stick pan, then spray it well with cooking spray (or wipe it with cooking oil) and then use about 1T of flour and tap it all around the pan to make sure you lightly coat the pan with flour. This is called “greasing and flouring” a pan). Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set this mixture aside.
4. Put the softened butter and both types of sugar in a larger mixing bowl and beat on a low setting until the mixture is light and fluffy.
5. Add the eggs and blend on low for about 15 seconds, being sure to mix the eggs in well.
6. Peel the bananas and put them into the egg and sugar mixture. Mash them a little bit with the electric mixer before turning it on. Then turn the blender on low and mix those bananas until you don’t really see any chunks- 30 seconds or so.
7. Add the buttermilk and vanilla and mix another 10 seconds
8. Slowly stir in the dry ingredients. You’ll want to use the spatula. Pour about a third of the flour mixture into the liquid mixture and fold the flour into the liquid. Do this until you have added all the flour and it is mostly covered in wet ingredients. This way, when you start the mixer to blend it all together, you don’t spray flour everywhere, Only mix until the white flour is thoroughly mixed- maybe 20 seconds. You never want to beat batter for too long. And in the case of banana bread, you won’t be trying to make it smooth- the bananas will stay slightly chunky, preventing a really smooth, lump-free batter.
9. Gently stir in walnuts.- again, optional
10. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Make the streusel topping:

1.  Using your small bowl- or the bowl that used to hold the flour mixture, Add the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon and stir with the whisk or the fork.
2. Streusel needs to look like crumbs when it’s ready, and the way we do that is called “cutting in the butter”.
3. Add the softened butter to the flour mix and use the pastry cutter or the fork to mash all the dry flour with the soft butter. It will take a little while, and it will look like there is not nearly enough butter. There is plenty of butter- you just have to keep pressing the fork into the flour like you were trying to pick up the last of the cake crumbs off your dessert plate. Eventually, you’ll have all the flour and butter combined.
4. Stir in chopped walnuts, if you want to use them.
5. Pour the streusel topping over the top of your banana bread dough.
6. Put the loaf pan into the middle of the preheated oven.
7. Bake 60 minutes, open the oven, and test for doneness by sticking a toothpick into the center of the loaf. You want very little residue to be on a toothpick or a wood skewer, after you sink it into the middle of the loaf and pull it straight out. You will just have to learn what “it looks done” is- and that is what experience gives you. This bread usually takes 70 minutes to bake fully, but you should always test early, because you don’t know if your oven temperature is consistent or correct. Also, humid and dry conditions affect baking time. This whole doneness thing is what makes baking a real skill and harder than “cooking”.
8. Remove from oven and cool 10-15 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Remove the bread from the pan and continue to cool on the wire rack. Serve warm, cool, or cold.

NOTE: The streusel will be a bit crunchy when it first comes out of the oven, so some streusel will fall off when you try to cut the loaf and serve it. The streusel will moisten and stick better if you cover the loaf with plastic wrap or a cake cover and wait to eat it until the next day. I can’t see how you could wait a day to eat this amazing banana bread.

This can be frozen and served another time!