Here is an easy cinnamon banana bread recipe with a crumb top. It is simple to make and delicious (especially if you are a cinnamon lover)! This great tasting banana bread is made out of basic ingredients such as RIPE bananas, brown sugar and of course cinnamon. In addition, this banana bread has a wonderful crumb top (sort of like the topping on an apple crisp or coffee cake). Your kids will love this crunchy sweet topping.
Cinnamon banana bread makes a great dessert or nice “cinnamony” breakfast snack. So if you have a couple of cinnamon addicted family members, they will really enjoy your homemade crumb top cinnamon banana bread.
Delicious Cinnamon Banana Bread with Sugary Crumb Top

This banana bread recipe is easy & quick to make. It should take you only roughly 10-15 minutes to prepare and clean up. Please be aware that this is an oven-baked banana bread recipe. It is not made with a bread machine. For more banana bread ideas, please visit our main section on Banana Bread Variations. You will also find a printable and “pin-able” recipe at the bottom of this page.
Ingredients – Cinnamon Banana Bread Recipe
- 8 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (softened)
- 2 – Large Eggs
- 3 – Bananas (ripe & large sized) – roughly 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas
- 2 Cups – Flour (all purpose flour)
- 1/2 Cup – White Granulated Sugar
- 1/2 Cup – Brown Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon – Ground Cinnamon
- 1 Teaspoon – Vanilla Extract
- 1 Teaspoon – Baking Soda
- 1 Teaspoon – Baking Powder (aluminum free)
- 1/2 Teaspoon – Salt
Ingredients – Crumb Top
- 6 Tablespoons – Butter (thinly sliced or shaved)
- 1/3 Cup – Brown Sugar
- 1/3 Cup – Flour (all-purpose)
- 1/2 Teaspoon – Ground Cinnamon
Servings – Roughly 12 slices
Equipment – Measuring cup & spoons, mixing bowl, long wooden spoon, 9 by 5 bread pan, oven mitts, oven, silicon spatula & cooling rack.
Sliced Cinnamon Banana Bread with Crumb Top
Instructions – Cinnamon Banana Bread Recipe
- Mix the crumble top ingredients together in a separate bowl. For the best results, you should use your fingers to rub & squeeze the butter into the cinnamon, brown sugar & flour until the mix resembles a batch of large breadcrumbs. In addition, you should slice the butter very thinly or use a grater.
- Set aside the crumble top to be added later on top of the completed banana bread batter.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Prepare the banana bread batter by first mashing the bananas with a fork.
- Soften butter in a microwave.
- Stir eggs, bananas and butter together.
- Mix in remaining banana bread ingredients. Stir until fully mixed.
- Pour batter into a nonstick bread pan.
- Sprinkle the crumble top mix evenly across the top of batter in the bread pan.
- Bake in the oven for 70 minutes.
- Take out of oven and let the banana bread cool down in the bread pan for 10 minutes. Do not remove the banana bread from the bread pan during this 10 minute cool down period. Use oven mitts as the bread pan will be very hot coming out of the oven.
- After 10 minutes, remove the banana bread from the bread pan. Place the banana bread on a cooling rack in order to completely cool. This cool down may take 1-2 hours. Gently slide a silicon spatula between the banana bread and the bread pan walls if the banana bread is stuck in the pan.
- Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully & to avoid common banana bread problems.
If you like this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. It is ALWAYS great to hear from someone who has enjoyed our recipes!
Tips – Cinnamon Banana Bread Recipe
- The tips below are designed to help banana bread “novices” and/or people with limited baking experience.
- If you want to print out this recipe, please scroll down the page to our recipe widget “box”. You will find a “print recipe” button located right under the product image photo in this box. Click on that button in order to print out the basic recipe instructions.
- Use RIPE bananas for the best taste. Ripe bananas are soft and usually yellow with small black spots. Hard yellow/green(ish) bananas are too starchy and have less banana flavor.
- For better results when making the crumb top, you should slice the butter very thinly or use a grater. These smaller & thinner slices will allow you to more effectively rub the butter into the brown sugar & flour mix. In turn, this will result in more buttery & sweet “crumbs” and less of the plain sugar/flour powder mix. Your family will love this crumb top banana bread.
- Rubbing the butter into the brown sugar & flour with your fingers results in an improved & faster combination of the ingredients. Just stirring the crumb top banana bread ingredients with a spoon or fork doesn’t usually combine as well and you are likely to have more “leftover” plain sugar/flour mix. With either method, you will have some leftover plain sugar/flour mix. Just sprinkle the leftover mix (with the crumbs) on top of the batter before you place the bread pan in the oven. Be aware that some cooks prefer to use a pastry cutter in order to cut, blend & “mash” the butter & other ingredients together.
- I like to use regular “bottled” cinnamon powder for this recipe because it is very easy to use & acquire. However, be aware that some people like to make their own “fresher” cinnamon powder by grinding up cinnamon sticks in a spice grinder.
- Make sure to use 3 large bananas (not 3 medium bananas). Otherwise, the banana bread might turn out to be a little dry.
- In case, you like to use cups versus banana “sizes”… 3 medium-sized bananas equal roughly 1 to 1 1/4 cups of mashed bananas (not sliced bananas). 3 large-sized bananas equal roughly 1 1/3 to 1 2/3 cups of mashed bananas (not sliced bananas). Of course, banana sizes can vary greatly… and my version of medium and large-sized bananas may differ from yours!
- This doesn’t happen often but if the top of the banana bread looks too moist or under cooked, you should try the “toothpick test”. Gently push a toothpick into the top of the bread and see if any batter sticks to the toothpick. If batter is sticking to the toothpick then it hasn’t completely cooked. Place the bread pan back into the still hot oven for another 2 or 3 minutes. Make sure to wear oven gloves because the bread pan will be very hot. After the 2 or 3 minutes, remove the bread pan and test the banana bread again with a tooth pick.
- Please use the suggested 9 x 5 bread pan to make this recipe. If you start using different sized pans, there is a greater potential for bread top collapses (potentially less bread pan “wall” support for the quick bread as it rises), different interior batter to exterior bread ratios (thus the need for different baking lengths), smaller pans are more likely to overflow, etc.
- If you have a problem with a banana bread recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (i.e. using the correct oven temperature), using the correct amounts of ingredients (i.e. don’t eyeball measurements versus using a measuring cup or accidentally add a tablespoon when a teaspoon is called for), using the correct ingredients (i.e. baking soda/powder versus yeast or all purpose flour versus bread flour), etc. Please don’t “wing” things with recipes.
- In addition, you should always try to use relatively fresh baking soda & powder for the best results. For example, using baking soda from an open container (that has been deodorizing your refrigerator for months) may lead to subpar results. Old & hard baking soda/powder may lead to rising problems and/or leave small bitter clumps in your banana bread.
- For more easy banana bread recipes (i.e. blueberry, cranberry, chocolate chip, vegan, oatmeal, etc.), please visit Bread Dad’s main Banana Bread Recipes section. Or try some of our Banana Bread Muffins Recipes.
If you like this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. Beginning bakers learn a lot from your comments, tips & recipe variations.
Reference Sources
- Wikipedia, Banana Bread
- Wikipedia, Cinnamon
Questions
What is cinnamon?
Cinnamon is a spice that comes from the bark of trees grown mainly in Asia (i.e. Indonesia, China & Vietnam). It is used in many snacks, cereals, desserts, etc.
Cinnamon Banana Bread Recipe (Sugary Crumb Topping)
Ingredients
Ingredients for Cinnamon Banana Bread
- 8 Tablespoons Butter (softened)
- 2 Eggs (large)
- 3 Bananas (ripe & large sized)
- 2 Cups Flour (all purpose flour)
- 1/2 Cup White Granulated Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder (aluminum free)
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
Ingredients for Crumble Top
- 6 Tablespoons Butter (thinly sliced or shaved)
- 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1/3 Cup Flour (all purpose flour)
- 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
Instructions
- Mix the crumble top ingredients together in a separate bowl. For the best results, you should use your fingers to rub & squeeze the butter into the cinnamon, brown sugar & flour until the mix resembles a batch of large breadcrumbs. In addition, you should slice the butter very thinly or use a grater.
- Set aside the crumble top to be added later on top of the completed banana bread batter.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Prepare the banana bread batter by first mashing the bananas with a fork.
- Soften butter in a microwave.
- Stir eggs, bananas and butter together.
- Mix in remaining banana bread ingredients. Stir until fully mixed.
- Pour batter into a nonstick bread pan.
- Sprinkle the crumble top mix evenly across the top of batter in the bread pan.
- Bake in the oven for 70 minutes.
- Take out of oven and let the banana bread cool down in the bread pan for 10 minutes. Do not remove the banana bread from the bread pan during this 10 minute cool down period. Use oven mitts as the bread pan will be very hot coming out of the oven.
- After 10 minutes, remove the banana bread from the bread pan. Place the banana bread on a cooling rack in order to completely cool. This cool down may take 1-2 hours. Gently slide a silicon spatula between the banana bread and the bread pan walls if the banana bread is stuck in the pan.
Notes
Nutrition
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. Beginning bakers learn a lot from your comments, tips & recipe variations. Moreover, it is ALWAYS great to hear from someone who has enjoyed our recipes!!!
Related Recipes
- Bread Machine – Banana Bread
- Bread Machine – Cinnamon Bread (with chocolate chips)
- Bread Machine – Cinnamon Raisin Bread
- Cranberry Banana Bread (oven baked)
- Chocolate Banana Bread (oven baked)
- No Butter Banana Bread (oven baked)
- Vegan Banana Bread (oven baked)
Please leave a comment in the comment box below