Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

Today, while perusing Pinterest for things to do with a bunch of overripe bananas on my counter, I came across this gem of a recipe on Riches to Rags.

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread? How had I never thought of this before?

I immediately rushed into my kitchen and whipped it up.

Folks, this recipe is not hard.  It was in the oven 5 minutes later.

One hour later it was cooling on my window sill and I was feeling terrible old fashioned and impatient.  I half expected a cartoon character to come and steal it out of the window because the smell of it was so amazing.

Cooling in the kitchen window.

I am happy to report it did not disappoint.  Next time I’ll turn my oven down a bit, because the outside got a bit dark before the inside was done, despite being covered in foil.  It was still amazingly delicious though.

Give this one a try, you’ll be glad you did.

Recipe from Lovin’ From the Oven

For the bread:
• 3 over-ripe bananas, smashed up
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• dash of salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour
For the swirl:
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbs cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter and four a loaf pan. Mine was 9 x 5, but you could use any sort, I suppose. Just keep a close eye on it in the oven, and adjust the time as needed
2. Mix bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together. sprinkle baking soda and salt around on top of the banana mixture. Then gently stir in flour. Be careful not to over-mix!
3. In a small dish, mix together the 1/3 cup sugar and 1 Tbs cinnamon.
4. Add 1/2 of the batter to the loaf pan and then sprinkle half, or a little more than half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture all over the batter in the pan. Add the rest of the batter, and then sprinkle the leftover cinnamon-sugar on top.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes, but remember, if you’re using a different-sized loaf pan, be careful and keep a close eyeball on it!