Sour Cream Banana Bread with Pecans
Fact: you will want a slice of this soft, moist, light, fluffy sour cream banana bread with sweet crunchy pecan streusel tucked in the middle of the bread as well as on top! Needless to say, it’s perfect with coffee, tea, milk, or any warm beverage you’d serve with a side of sweets.
Servings: 8 slices
Ingredients
Pecan Streusel
- ¼ cup light brown sugar packed, 50 g
- ½ cup all-purpose flour 64 g
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- A pinch of kosher salt
- 2 ounce unsalted butter cold and cubed, 57 g
- ½ cup pecans roasted and chopped, 52 g
Banana Bread
- 1 ⅓ cup mashed banana + sour cream see notes, 320 g
- 4 oz unsalted butter 113 g, brown and cool
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar lightly packed, 133 g
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour 230 g
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Prepare the streusel: First, toast the pecans in a skillet over medium heat until fragrant. Set aside to cool and then coarsely chop. Whisk together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Add the cold cubed butter to it and cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or just use the tip of your fingers to press the butter into flat pieces. The streusel should resemble wet sand. Toss in the chopped pecans and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Brown the butter: Heat unsalted butter in a light colored saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter melts, it will become foamy. When the foam subsides, you will see clear bubbles, start whisking continuously at this point to keep the milk solids from burning. When the butter is caramel in color and smells nutty, turn off the heat and set aside to cool. This will take approximately 8 minutes and 30 seconds.
- Make the banana bread: Mash the banana with a potato masher in a large mixing bowl. Add sour cream, brown butter, vanilla and eggs, whisk together to combine. Add brown sugar and beat until smooth.
- Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a small mixing bowl. Stir in the kosher salt. Add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture and fold until just combined.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F while the batter rests.
- Brush a loaf pan generously with melted butter, line it with a longer piece of parchment paper leaving the excess hanging over the sides.
- Spoon half of the batter into the prepared pan, spread about 1 cup of streusel over it. Spoon the rest of the batter on top of the streusel and spread the rest of the streusel over the top.
- Bake for 60 - 62 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean with just a few crumbs attached.
- Remove from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool. To remove the banana loaf from the pan, simply lift it out using the excess parchment paper as handles.
Notes
- You can use one, one and a half, or two bananas in this recipe, depending on what you have. Simply combine the mashed banana and sour cream to measure 1 ⅓ cup or weigh everything to measure 320 grams.
- Always use overripe bananas for the most banana flavor.
- You can use frozen bananas. When thawing frozen bananas, you’ll see liquid come out, just mash the bananas with the liquid all together.
- You can substitute other nuts in the streusel: walnuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts are all great in banana bread.
Nutrition
Serving: 140g | Calories: 482kcal
