Banana Streussel CoffeeCake

I heard late in the month a snippet about it containing National Banana Bread day. Sure enough we missed it folks it was the 23rd.

Never the less a girls' gotta have a go two banana bread recipe in her reportage right?

My favorite straight forward recipe calls for 5 bananas. There was an incident once in my kitchen with one of those banana hooks you can hang from a cabinet in your kitchen, a microwave settled at a 45 degree angle and gravity.

Where that frugal savvy girl is I would like to know because the idea of throwing them away never entered my head. It probably helped that there were no bugs and no mold to deal with.

I hit the web for a recipe that would use them all up at once and found a hearty one. With nuts if you please.

For more of a specialty especially if I am going to an event, or when I just have 2/3rds a cup of mashed bananas on hand:

First you make the streussel. You must work the dough part of this with your hands not a mixer or utensils etc.

1/2 Cup Butter softened
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 3/4 Cup Flour

Set aside 1/4th of the sugar. Cream the butter with the rest of the sugar. When fully mixed add 3/4 a cup of the flour. Now use your hands to mix that all in.

When you wash your hands to get ready to prepare this recipe I recommend you clean out under neath your finger nails. I do at least. Just a friendly tip. This is messy but rewarding.

Set aside a 1/2 cup of this new mixture or dough.

To the remainder add the sugar you saved out from when you measured.

1 Teaspoon Vanilla
2 Large Eggs

Beat to smooth. Now sift together the flour remaining from your measurements with:

1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoons Cinnamon

Combine:

2/3 Cup mashed banana
1/3 Cup Buttermilk or soured milk

Then combine this mixture with the egg mixture alternating with the dry mix.

When all items are incorporated you are ready to pour into a prepared pan.

10in buttered pie pan recommended. I use glass trays or sometimes loaf pans. A nice squared pie pan is good. Whatever you have will work.
When the mixture is in the pan again with your hands take the sugar butter mix and crumble it over the pan. Depending on temperature and other issues it might be very coarse and dry. Most of the time for me it is more moist than a play dough.

Odd shaped droplets of it fall from my hands and fingers creating design on the top of the cake.

Bake at 375 for around 30-40 minutes. The cake will test done.

Streussel is not crumb topping. It cooks up more like moist cookie dough. It gives the finished product a two toned effect both to the eye and the pallet.


I hope the directions were not too complicated. Even if so this dessert is very much with a little bit of hassle. Serve with coffee or tea and find a Scrabble partner. Yum!