Best Cream Cheese Banana Bread
Moist brown-butter banana bread with sweet cream cheese ribbon — tall, fluffy, bakery perfection.
Ingredients
- Banana Bread:
- 1½ cups 340 g mashed very ripe bananas (3–4 large)
- ½ cup 113 g unsalted butter, browned & cooled
- ¾ cup 150 g light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ⅓ cup 80 g sour cream or Greek yogurt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups 260 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- Optional: ¾ cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips
- Cream Cheese Swirl:
- 8 oz 226 g full-fat cream cheese, room temperature
- ¼ cup 50 g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- Topping:
- 2 tbsp turbinado or granulated sugar for sparkle
Instructions
- Brown butter → cool.
- Make cream cheese swirl.
- Mix wet + dry → layer with swirl.
- Bake 350 °F 60–75 min → sugar top.
- Cool 2 hrs → slice.
Notes
- Brown butter + overripe bananas = depth
- Cream cheese swirl = no dry slices
- Freezes perfectly
- Day 2 = peak flavor
- Chocolate chip version = dangerous