Boxed Banana Bread Gets An Instant Upgrade When You Add One Easy Topping

There's no denying the fact that banana bread is naturally sweet and satisfying. However, you can easily upgrade the taste and texture of this ubiquitous baked good with one extra special topping. Besides enhancing your batter with a few banana bread mix-ins like chocolate chips and chopped fruit, top this sweet treat with a simple streusel mixture before baking. Your boxed banana bread (or even a bakery-worthy banana bread made from scratch) deserves a buttery, streusel topping to make it all the more delicious.

A classic streusel topping contains just a few simple ingredients: melted butter, flour, brown sugar, white sugar, and salt. When combined, these ingredients adhere to your batter and through cooking give soft, freshly baked banana bread additional texture and an extra dose of sweet and savory goodness. To upgrade your next loaf of banana bread with this tender and crisp mixture, first mix and pour your banana bread batter into a designated pan. Then melt some butter and wait until it's cool before mixing in the flour, sugars, and salt. Combine everything together using a fork or your hands to achieve a coarse and crumbly consistency. Since streusel adds texture to banana bread, avoid over-mixing which can melt the sugar and cause the streusel to become flat and greasy. Once you have a decent blend of large and soft crumbs, simply add the streusel to the banana bread and bake.

To impart even more texture to banana bread, add some oats to the streusel mixture. Thanks to the melted butter, they turn soft in the oven and give banana bread a chewy bite. That said, another creative way to make boxed banana bread extra delicious is to add nuts to your streusel topping. Simply chop up your favorite variety like walnuts, pecans, or almonds, and add them into the usual mix of butter, flour, oats, and sugar. 

Better yet, get creative with your selection of ingredients and feel free to also incorporate one or two additional spices. For instance, consider topping your banana bread with the streusel mixture featured in Chowhound's old-fashioned blueberry crumb cake recipe. This particular streusel offers a good balance of both texture and flavor, featuring ingredients like oats, walnuts, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Alternatively, you can use the topping from our rhubarb and cardamon oat muffins recipe which features quick oats for a more uniform texture and cardamon for a distinct flavor.

Once you bake your streusel-topped banana bread, consider adding one more ingredient to give this snack a sophisticated coffee-shop quality. When the banana bread is sufficiently cool to the touch, top it with a creamy glaze made of milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Together, crunchy, buttery streusel and a sweet milky glaze give boxed banana bread more high-quality appeal.