Cinnamon Banana Bread

As I mentioned in the previous post, the Barichello's came to visit last weekend and so I baked them a bunch of stuff. I already wrote about the strawberry cheesecakes and the Oreo puppy chow I made for the occasion. Today I'll share the recipe I (kind of) came up with for the best of the three, Cinnamon Banana Bread.

The photos hardly capture the awesomeness of this stuff. Notice there is a ton of sugar and cinnamon on top :)

I found a recipe for cinnamon Amish bread and another recipe for cream cheese banana bread (from acooksquest.blogspot.com). I really wanted both, so I made them into one Cinnamon Cream Cheese Banana Bread.

It's a basic banana bread recipe, using cream cheese instead of milk or buttermilk. The cream cheese makes the bread a little softer and mushier and very delightful. All I did to make it a cinnamon bread is add a mixture of cinnamon and sugar in the middle layer of the bread and poured the rest on top. I suggest adding more in the middle so you don't have as much on top. All that sugar was a little intimidating (but yummy, nonetheless). I also put pecans in my banana bread, because I enjoy a good crunch.

This recipe would probably make really awesome muffins as well.

We ate a good chunk of that bread over the weekend, picking at it between beers in the apartment and warming it up with butter for breakfast.

We had to go out Saturday night so we wouldn't keep eating it.

Kyle's momma, Sharon, and I had a little too much fun while the guys went golfing.

Cinnamon Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 3/4c. softened butter
• 8oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 eggs
• 2c. sugar
• 3c. flour
• 1/2t. baking powder
• 1/2t. baking soda
• 1/2t. salt
• 1 1/2c. mashed bananas (about 4 bananas)
• 1c. chopped pecans (optional)
• 1/2t. vanilla

Cinnamon Sugar filling and topping

• 2/3c. sugar
• 2T. cinnamon

Directions

1. In a bowl combine the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until well blended. Add the two eggs and blend well. Add the dry ingredients and mix until everything comes together, do not overmix. Add the vanilla, nuts, and bananas. 
2. Pour half the batter into a large greased loaf pan or two smaller ones. Add most of the cinnamon/sugar mixture across the top, the add the rest of the batter. Sprinkle the leftover cinnamon/sugar blend across the top. 
3. Bake at 350 for about an hour, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.