Monkey Around

The last few days in Seattle has been sunny and amazingly gorgeous. All the flowers are blooming, and our bulbs are starting to come up. We planted some trees; asian pear, rainier and bing cherries, and a honeycrisp apple, and they too, are looking like they're going to make it. After all that rain, we celebrated by using the much neglected grill.

But today, it is again overcast and rainy. I didn't want to be dismayed by the quirky weather, so I took advantage of the situation and turned on the oven to warm up the place, and it gave me an excuse to make banana bread.

Now, this is no ordinary banana bread. It's very delicious, crispy on the top, and chewy in the middle. This bread is a cross between banana bread and coffee cake. Maybe it's because of the addition of honey and cinnamon in the cake and also on the topping. It can probably be a forgiving recipe, although I haven't experimented much and kept to the original recipe by Bakesale Betty's Alison Barakat.
I think the topping is the best part of the bread. When I mixed the topping ingredients, I thought for sure there was too much for one loaf, but it made a beautiful crust and tasted even better. The picture below doesn't look that great, but it is fabulous. This is a foolproof recipe, so what are you waiting for? Go bananas!

Banana Bread with Cinnamon Crumble Topping

Recipe from Bakesale Betty

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 to 3 medium)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 9x5x3-inch metal baking pan. Whisk 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl. Whisk next 5 ingredients in large bowl until smooth. Add dry ingredients; stir to blend. Transfer batter to pan. Mix 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and brown sugar; sprinkle over batter.

Bake bread until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool bread in pan 30 minutes. Turn pan on its side; slide out bread, being careful not to dislodge topping. Turn bread right side up and cool completely.