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What do you do when you want to take plain old banana bread up a notch? Add fresh cherries and chocolate and then pour a sweet glaze all over the top, that’s what. Cherry Banana Bread is good enough to be dessert!
Behold.
I have made what is quite possibly the BEST banana bread ever.
It’s definitely the best banana bread I’ve ever made. It’s rustic, moist, sweet and stuffed full of sweet, delicious Rainier cherries. Oh, and chocolate chips. You can’t have cherries without chocolate. It’s a rule somewhere, I’m sure. But the glaze….oh, the sweet cherry almond glaze will keep you coming back for more and make you lick the plate when you’re done. Seriously. I’ve achieved banana bread Nirvana with this one, folks.
Aren’t they beautiful? This type of cherry is a cross between a Bing and a Van and was developed in the 50’s at Washington State University. They were named after the beautiful Mt. Rainier. They can cost up to $7 a pound because 1/3 of the crop is lost to birds and weather every year, so when someone offers you a free bag or two, you take them! They taste sweet and mild and I just couldn’t let the last pound I had go to waste.
I decided to bake them into a banana bread and then create a glaze for the top that would tie it all together. I used my good old Better Homes and Garden cookbook (yes, a real ink-on-pages BOOK) as the basis for the banana bread recipe.
Cherry Banana Bread
Ingredients
Bread
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1 egg
- 2 medium bananas mashed
- 1 cup Rainier cherries roughly chopped
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¼ cup cooking oil
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Glaze
- 1 cup Rainier cherries roughly chopped
- About 1 cup powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp almond extract
Instructions
- Grease the bottom and sides of a loaf pan with butter or cooking spray. Sprinkle with a sugar and cinnamon mix if you'd like. (This really adds a nice sweet crunch to the outside of the bread!)
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and set aside.
- In another bowl, combine the egg, bananas, cherries, sugar and cooking oil. Add the wet mixture all at once to the dry. Stir just until moistened and then gently stir in the chocolate chips. The batter will be lumpy.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Your nose will tell you when it's done. 🙂
- Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, remove from the pan and pour the glaze (see below for the glaze instructions) over the warm bread. Technically, you're supposed to continue to let it cool and wait to slice it, but who can really resist warm, sweet banana bread?!?
Glaze
- Take your chopped cherries and pulse them in the blender until they are mostly liquid and most lumps are gone. Add the almond extract. Add the powdered sugar until the consistency reaches what you'd prefer. I have to apologize here, because I did not keep good track of how much sugar I was using. I just kept adding until I was happy with how it tasted and felt. If you add too much sugar, and it starts to get more like frosting than glaze, you can always add a couple teaspoons of milk.
- Slice this up, serve it on a plate (your fingers will be a mess thanks to that delicious glaze) and pour a nice tall glass of milk to go with it. The best part is, you can have this for breakfast without too much guilt, since it IS banana bread! 😉
Nutrition
If you like this Cherry Banana Bread, I think you’ll really like these other posts starring bananas!
This post originally appeared as a guest post on The Love Nerds
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Joey Tureau says
what makes my breads taste bitter and not rise. This happens too often. I’m certain its something with my ingredients or my methods. I’m sure this recipe is delicious.
Nicole Burkholder says
The bitter taste can be coming from bad/old baking powder. That would also explain why it’s not rising, since that is the rising agent. Baking soda is the same. I would be sure to double check the freshness of your pantry ingredients before baking. Good luck!
Azalea Boehm says
Can you substitute Stemmed Maraschino Cherries (jar) instead of Rainier cherries?
Nicole Burkholder says
Maraschino cherries are much sweeter than fresh cherries. I wouldn’t use them for the glaze on top, or it would be SO overly sweet. But I think they would be OK cut up inside the bread.
Carly says
Just made this today with my youngest child. We had some cherries that were on their way out and needing to be used. They weren’t Rainiers, so they were darker and possibly less tart. But it came out great! I doubled the recipe and made two loaves. We skipped the glaze and the bread was still delicious.
Nicole Burkholder says
I’m glad you loved it! And yes, it’s still very good even without the glaze on top.
Jeanie says
I want to make mini bread loves how long would you suggest for that?
Thanks!
Nicole Burkholder says
It really depends on how small your mini loaves are 🙂 I do 20-25 minutes for the smaller loaves that are about half the size of a regular loaf pan. The really small ones that have several mini loaves in a pan would probably be closer to 10-15 minutes. Start with the lower time and then check every 3-5 minutes to make sure you’re not drying it out.
Lisa says
Best banana ever! I made it exact, except I was hulling all the cherry seeds from all the cherries I had left and while the bread was baking, I, not thinking ate all the cherries after I got all the seeds out, ugh! But bread it’s so fabulous ny husband is in love with it!
Eunah Hunter says
Expectantly waiting for the yummy cherry topped banana muffins with glaze. I made an adjustment: cherry on top, egg/brown sugar/cinnamon glaze, mini muffins. I put the remainder in a rectangular pan and topped it with sliced banana and strawberries. It looks beautiful.
Nicole Burkholder says
Sounds delicious!
Sarah says
Bread recipe 100%!!! I used Bing cherries. Please note, the glaze did NOT turn out… it was beautifully flavored however it was thin and WAAAAAY too sweet as I had to at least double the amount of powdered sugar called for and it was stilly runny, more like a Cherry Syrup. I suggest leave off the glaze, this bread was delicious exactly by itself. Bread recipe is a KEEPER. Made 1 loaf (please note do NOT put this is a huge loaf pan, meant for a medium size to give you the height) DEFINITELY do the cinnamon sugar pan coating – it was lovely.
Nicole Burkholder says
I’m glad to hear you liked it! Yes, the glaze is quite thin-it soaks up into the bread but I liked the extra punch of cherry flavor it provided. However it’s certainly fine to leave it off!
rikki says
Hmmmmm didn’t turn out like yours… so sad. Next time I will add my cherries with the chocolate chips, so that the cake still looks light in color, and I don’t know about the glaze. It didn’t turn out clear like yours appears. Any suggestions?
Nicole Burkholder says
The glaze gets whiter when you add more powdered sugar, so mine may have had less powdered sugar than yours. It’s a kind of mix and add as you go thing until you get the consistency you prefer. Did you use Ranier cherries, or another kind? That might make a slight difference as well.
Susan Mannion-Proksa says
Nicile, This sounds so amazing. Worthy of turning on the oven even when it’s 107°!
I was just given a large bag of Bing cherries. Will they work in this recipe?
Nicole Burkholder says
Yes! Any kind of cherry should be fine-the tart/sweet flavor may just be a bit different. Add the powdered sugar slowly to the glaze so you can taste as you go and not get too sweet. 🙂
Juggling Real Food (@JugglngRealFood) says
Nicole this looks so good! I want mine with a big smear of butter too. So good!
Nicole Burkholder says
Yum! Butter makes everything better 🙂