Banana Walnut Bread with Crumb Topping

Grease a standard bread pan, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bread:

3 ripe bananas, mashed

¾ cup sugar

1 egg

4 tablespoon butter, melted

1 cup unbleached flour

½ cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp cinnamon

½ cup roughly chopped walnuts

Mash bananas, beat in sugar, then egg and butter. Combine dry ingredients and stir into banana mixture just until moistened, fold in nuts. Pour into prepared bread pan, sprinkle with crumb topping (recipe below, you may not need all of the topping).

Crumb Topping:

1 ¼ cups flour

3/2 cup sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Dash of nutmeg

½ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp almond extract

1 stick butter, melted

Combine all dry ingredients, stir in melted butter with a fork until combined and crumbly. I often make a double batch of crumb topping and keep some in the freezer, then it’s ready to add to anything, like muffins.

Bake bread at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let sit on a rack and cool in the pan slightly, then turn out and let cool completely before slicing. I found that a straight edge knife rather than a serrated bread knife worked better on this bread and kept the topping in place.