Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

A few posts back, I made cinnamon-swirly bread in an attempt to rid my house of any weird pet odors. It worked like a charm, and I had the bonus of having a delicious loaf of quick bread to devour. Well, a couple of days ago, after an unmentionable pet disaster in the living room that inspired a colossal cleaning frenzy, I decided to tweak the recipe a little and once again fill the house with a nice smell.

This version is really my mother-in-law’s brain child. She suggested taking the cinnamon swirl concept and marrying it to banana bread. Genius! Because banana and cinnamon go together like peanut butter and chocolate, or jelly and cream cheese, or a standing rib roast and Yorkshire pudding, or pork and mustard, or… well, you see where I’m going here. Because banana and cinnamon go so well together, the final product was delicious. It was so perfect, in fact, that we ate almost the entire loaf in about half a day.

This recipe is a great basic go-to banana bread recipe, even without the cinnamon swirl. It’s very easy, and it’s extraordinarily moist. Don’t be afraid of the cinnamon swirl, either! I know it seems like a gratuitous amount to be sprinkling around, but it’s delicious, I promise.

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

For the bread:

3-4 over-ripe bananas, smooshed up (I used 4, for extreme moistness)

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar (I think I used more like 3/4 cup)

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

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

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!

In a small dish, mix together the 1/3 cup sugar and 1 Tbs cinnamon.

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.

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!