Streusel banana bread

This recipe is from Martha—it was featured in a collection about “Morning Stars”—great breakfast baked goods, and it was described as a marvelous cross between banana bread and coffee cake. I mostly saved the recipe because the pictures were so beautiful (the link should work to see them).

https://www.marthastewart.com/1537880/streusel-banana-bread

Ingredients

Streusel

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
• 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cake

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed until smooth (1 cup)

Directions

Streusel

• Step 1
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees with a rack in lower third. Butter a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan; line with parchment, leaving a 1-inch overhang on long sides. In a bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in butter and pecans until small clumps form and mixture is evenly moistened. (Streusel can be made ahead and refrigerated, covered, up to 3 

  Cake

  • Step 1
    In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together butter, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk; stir in bananas. Make a well in flour mixture and pour banana mixture in. Stir together until just combined (do not overmix). Spoon half of batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle half of streusel evenly over batter. Add remaining batter, then sprinkle remaining streusel evenly over top.
  • Step 2
    Bake until golden brown and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour, 20 minutes. (If top is browning too quickly, tent with foil.) Let cool in pan 20 minutes, then transfer using parchment to a wire rack. Let cool completely before serving.

My pictures and thoughts:

My thoughts:

1. I used very sour kefir in the place of buttermilk. I used large eggs, I measured everything out by volume. I used two frozen bananas (that were superripe when I froze them) that I defrosted and mashed and one not frozen banana. I immersion blended the bananas to get rid of all the lumps. I had leftover streusel from the ginger cookies recipe (which I haven’t yet posted, whoops) and even though it was different-ish (spelt flour, turbinado sugar) I just added some unsalted butter and chopped pecans into it and used it anyway. I actually really like the subtle crunch imparted by the turbinado sugar in the streusel and would consider repeating that. Because I used leftover streusel, there wasn’t a ton so I skimped on the middle layer so that the top would be covered—which was a shame because the internal layer that was there was delicious. 

2. Probably because my streusel was not made with a recipe, it sort of sank into the cake and flattened, but it was still fabulous. The cake itself is plush and yummy. 

3. In my oven at 350, it was done after about an hour (I took it out at an hour and six minutes just to be safe.
4. I would totally make again, as it is still pretty good four days later. I would consider trying to replace some flour with whole wheat, but certainly not all.