My husband is not one to get excited about food. I know. I don’t know what I was thinking when I married him. I mean, IT’S FOOD. What’s not to get excited about, right?
There are three foods that I have heard him talk about with any sort of excitement. Number one is the steak we had on our wedding night. It was a filet mignon and it had a big blob of butter on top. He loved that steak. He still dreams about it. Number two is sausage egg rolls. He loves those things. They are a pain in the butt to make though, so he doesn’t get them often. Number three is a cheeseball. He likes cheeseballs. He’s a simple man.
The other day I made this scrumptious banana coffee cake with chocolate chip streusel and do you know what my husband said about it? HE TOLD ME I SHOULD SELL THE STUFF. Sell it. For money. Because it’s just that good. This is quite possibly the nicest thing my husband has ever said about my food before.
I’m certainly not going to start selling the stuff though, so why don’t you make your own and tell me what you think?
The first thing we need to do is preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
And then butter an 8×8 baking dish. And don’t worry. I won’t start carrying on about my love of butter.
For the streusel topping, we’re going to get a small bowl and dump in 1 cup of chocolate chips, 2/3 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.
Stir it all up and then spend a couple seconds picking out chunks of brown sugar and eating them. I like chunks of brown sugar.
Set your streusel topping aside before you eat all the brown sugar.
At this point the recipe says you should sift together 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda, 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. But, me? I don’t DO sifting. I dump everything in the bowl and then I stir it. That’s good enough, right?
Take a fork and mash your bananas. I only had two bananas. The recipe called for three. I’m sure this would be tastier with three bananas but I didn’t let it ruin my day.
Next, beat together 1 stick of softened butter, 3/4 cup of sugar and 1 large egg until the mixture is nice and creamy. Take a lick. Go ahead. I dare you.
Add in your mashed bananas and either 3 tablespoons of buttermilk OR 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt. (I ended up using 5 tablespoons yogurt to make up for the missing banana.)
Slowly add in your flour mixture and blend well.
Spread half of this mixture into your 8×8 baking dish and sprinkle half of the streusel topping on top. Lather, rinse, and repeat with the remaining batter and streusel. Er, maybe just repeat.
(I forgot to take a picture of the layering process. Please forgive me.)
If you have a short person nearby, let her poke at the topping and listen attentively while she whines about her tummy grumbling. Tell her that if she doesn’t quit whining you’ll toss her in the oven along with the coffee cake.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let this cool for just as long as you can stand it.
Don’t be like me and get impatient. Don’t take a bite right out of the whole cake. It’s not polite. It’s rude. You’ll regret it.
Oh, who am I kidding? You won’t regret it.
Oh, yum.
Ingredients
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/3 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 large)
- 3 tablespoons buttermilk or plain yogurt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and an 8x8 inch baking dish.
- Stir chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon in small bowl until well blended; set streusel aside.
- Sift together (or just STIR TOGETHER) all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter, and egg in a large bowl until fluffy. Mix in mashed bananas and buttermilk or yogurt. Add flour mixture and blend well.
- Spread half of batter in prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with half of streusel. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel. Bake coffee cake until toothipick inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes and serve.
I LOVE chunks of brown sugar. Especially when they are sitting in melted butter. Can’t wait to try out this recipe! If my kids eat it I can count it as a fruit, right?
I wish this were in my house right now! I heart bananas and chocolate. Thank you for this recipe.
whoa. this just blew my mind. i am making this TONIGHT.
I know someone who would LOVE this. He is also a man and I’m pretty sure this will make him very, very happy!
It looks incredible!
I make this for Christmas morning every year. This year it was a blog post too!
http://mignardise.blogspot.com/2008/11/going-bananas.html
Great, I just went to the grocery today, now I have to go back this weekend for walnuts
I think I gained weight just reading the recipe.
Oh, yummy!
wow! this looks amazing! i belive i’ll be attempting this recipe over the weekend, i love your cute little notes throughout
OMG this looks awesome! Just when I thought I’d start eating healthy
THanks for your comment on my blog – I’m so happy to discover yours in the process! 
Yummm. The streusel topping looks delicious!
Yum. I’m not a big banana fan, but this is going in my file.
I just wanted to say what a lovely time I had reading your recipe. You are having so much fun with it and your descriptives are so funny and colorful it almost makes me feel like we’re friends and I’m hanging out in your kitchen on a Sunday morning.
You’re absolutely refreshing. Maybe your hubby is right. With your personality you could probably sell anything!
Bravo.
oh i love to eat bananas raw. i also love foods and recipes with banana in it. they taste very very good
LOVED the entertaining step-by-step – you’re a woman after my own heart!! The cake is in the oven – can’t wait!! ;-o
I came across your receipe this afternoon and I love the way you described everything…it’s as if we were making this together like kindred kitchen friends! Very entertaining! I just pulled the cake out of the oven an hour ago and cut two hearty pieces for my landlords across the street(recently broke my back, I live alone,they have been good to me) to go along with this months rent. They now expect something insanely delicious EVERY month!! Your hubby is right, so good you could sell it and have addicts hounding you forever! Thanks so much!
This is such an AWESOME recipe! I made it and first of all it makes your house smell wonderful. Thank you so much my family LOVED it! I will be keeping this one in my favorites.
just wondering – where is the coffee?
I was wondering the same thing.. where does the coffee come in?… I think maybe on the side?
Rach and Laurie,
Yep, on the side!
I had to google “is there supposed to be coffee in coffee cake?” Turns out, no! You can still consider it coffee cake if you serve it with coffee.
At least, that’s what wikipedia tells me.
Karly
Sounds delish! (Love it when recipes turn out so well!!) I linked to this on my weekly roundup, post is under my name. Thanks!
Thanks for the recipe! I reduced the sugar, and we still loved it!!
I love your banana recipies! I have so many bananas in my freezer just waiting to be used. This looks delish, I will have to make it soon!
I just made this recipe for guests at our bed and breakfast, Petit Soleil. I doubled the redipe and made it is a tube pan. It looks delish! Thanks for the recipe!
ok, this is the best coffee cake ever!!! i made this today and it blew me away. I could sit there and eat the whole thing! thanks so much for this great recipe!
WOW, if you like banana bread this is ten times better. Thanks!!!
I made this to have with coffee this morning. It was yummy. And my husband, who doesn’t like to try new things, loved it also. I’ll be sending the rest with him to work tomorrow so I don’t eat it all! Good recipe!
This recipe is the best ever!!! I made it according to the directions and my husband brought it to work, everyone loved it! However, I decided to try and make it again, but I changed up the strussel topping, and added the same amount of flour as the sugar and added butter, it turned out even better, the brown sugar wasn’t as crunchy a little more soft and supple. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe it is going in my cook book as a keeper!~!!!!
I came across your recipe while i was looking for Starbuck’s reduced fat banana chocolate chip coffee cake recipe. Couldn’t find it, but this recipe looked great! i thought about making these in a bread pan and give them out to relatives at christmas. Does this need to be refrigerated? also, any tips on cooking times with it in a thicker bread pan? i can’t wait to try it!!!
Lindsay,
I think this would be fine baked in loaf pans and no need to refrigerate! Depending on the size of your pan (say an 8-9 loaf pan?) it will probably need an additional 10 to 20 minutes of bake time. I’d just keep an eye on it after the 45 minute mark and pull it out when it seems ready.
Enjoy!
I made this on Tuesday evening and it was gone by Thursday. I’m making it agin for a party on Sunday. I didn’t have buttermilk or yogurt, so I mad my own buttermilk with milk and white vinegar and it still came out wonderfully!
Had make this many times, so delicious, making them into muffins tonight. back time, around 20 minutes
This is the BEST banana coffee cake recipe!! I think we’ve used your recipe over a dozen times now. Thank you!
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Found your blog when I googled banana bread coffee cake. This is an amazing recipe and I love your play by play of the recipes you do. Thanks!
First of all … I thoroughly enjoy the way you write. It made me laugh on a dreary day, and I also have a great new recipe to try. My hubby loves nearly everything I make and I can already tell that this one is a “for sure”. Keep on with your blog – you’re doing wonderful things!!
Made this tonite for father’s day brunch tomorrow- looks delicious! Didn’t have buttermilk or yogurt so just used regular milk hopefully it works out. Thanks for this recipe!
Made this tonight and LOVED it, with a few changes: My daughter doesn’t like walnuts so we used oats with a tiny bit of melted butter, but didn’t put any in the middle because I wasn’t sure how it would come out. It was delicious!!!
Also, easy vegan changes: Use vanilla almond milk or soy yogurt instead of buttermilk, use an egg replacer (such as ener-g), vegan earth balance butter and ghirardelli vegan chocolate chips.
Loved your recipe and pictures, this was a lot of fun and easy to read along and to make and your husband is right, you would make a killing selling this!
I always have extra bananas and make a lot of banana bread. I think this is next on my list though!
Hi, just tried your recipe out and LOVED it! Added two heaped spoonfuls of oats as well (because my mother thinks oats are healthy and this is one foolproof way to endear her to anything I bake). Also, linked it on my blogpost, hope that’s alright!
Hello! I just found your blog by searching for banana coffee cake recipes! This recipe looks delicious, and hope to try it soon! Now, going to check your other posts!
I made this a few weeks ago and it is sooooooo good. My 8 year old daughter asked for the Banana chocolate chip coffee cake at Starbucks one day and I told her I could make that. Found your recipe and it is much better than the coffee shop variety that inspired us to bake. I just ran across it now when I was searching for Raspberry Coffee cake, so I’m going to make that tonight.
Yummy and super-simple topping! Thanks!
Just made it… it is delicious. My husband does not like walnuts in desserts so I sadly skipped them, but it still turned out great. Thanks!
This is pretty awesome; It’s next to me right now! I madeonly a couple changes…. I added vanilla extract and strong coffee (because I thought it was part of your list of ingredients, oh well) , I also used about 1 1/4 cups of flour and 1/4 cup wheat germ and 1/8 cup ground flax. That’s actually all I changed; and it is so good! I can’t wait to share it with the girls tomorrow, I’m sure they will love it also! Thanks again for this recipe!