Most bakers, even the occasional ones, have most likely made banana bread at least once. It’s a simple thing to whip up, it’s delicious, and it’s a good use of very ripe bananas. The problem, at least to me, is that I get a little bored with it. I am always looking for variations to make it a tad different and more interesting.
This recipe, from my beloved Southern Living, offers a definite twist on the traditional. It’s banana bread without the bread. All the good parts of banana bread are put in a baking dish, topped with oat-y/pecan-y goodness and baked into a bubbly, warm, yummy creation. Top it with some ice cream, and suddenly banana bread is a beautiful dish suitable not just for snacking, but for serving after a meal as dessert.
Some of the comments on the on-line recipe suggested the addition of coconut on top of the bananas. That’s definitely an intriguing idea I must try some time.
One of the best things about this cobbler is how amazingly easy it is to make. Measure a few things, slice a few bananas, stir a couple of times, and it’s ready for the oven. For the work that goes into it, you get an incredibly good return on your time/effort investment.
And, of course, being at least distantly related to banana bread, this dessert has the benefit of being completely appropriate for breakfast. Well, maybe minus the ice cream.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup self-rising flour
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup uncooked regular oats
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 4 medium bananas, sliced
Instructions
To make the streusel:
Stir together brown sugar, flour, and butter until crumbly. Stir in oats and pecans. Set aside.
To make the filling:
Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly grease an 11″x 7″dish.
Whisk flour, sugar, and milk just until blended. Whisk in melted butter. Pour into prepared pan. Top with banana slices and streusel topping. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until brown and bubbly.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Southern Living.
March 31st, 2010 at 7:53 am
I always have extra bananas lying around. Great recipe. Thanks!
March 31st, 2010 at 8:04 am
I was hoping we would hear from you now that you’ve regained your day off. I’ll look to hear from you on Wednesdays. I don’t like banana bread because I don’t like the taste of ripe bananas. However, I love texture so the topping on this is tempting enough for me to try it with fresh bananas.
March 31st, 2010 at 8:17 am
oh good another recipe for bananas….i cannot get enough of them these days (and coconut)
March 31st, 2010 at 8:36 am
goodness this looks deliciouuuuuussssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love banana anything!
March 31st, 2010 at 9:02 am
This looks delicious! I love bananas, but unfortunately my boyfriend hates them. I doubt I could eat the whole thing myself. Does it still taste good the next day? Say if I wanted to bring leftovers to work?
March 31st, 2010 at 9:13 am
Yum!
March 31st, 2010 at 11:17 am
This sounds like an absolute dream.
March 31st, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Yum! I love everything banana! What a great idea.
March 31st, 2010 at 12:17 pm
This looks fabulous, glad to see a post from you.
March 31st, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Where was this last week, when I was buried in overripe bananas?
Kidding. I love this! I froze aforementioned bananas, so now I shall make this dish with them!
March 31st, 2010 at 4:28 pm
This looks epic! And so unique–I’m a huge fan of banana bread, but changing things up once in a while certainly can’t hurt.
March 31st, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Jessie, it reheats wonderfully. We enjoyed it for a couple of days after I made it.
March 31st, 2010 at 8:35 pm
I like “Banana without the Bread” for it gets right to the point just like peeling a banana and just eatting it. No extra work. I think the general public would understand that. It could be a subtopic for banana bread also.
Can you use various forms of bread to keep the bread in banana bread? Can you use banana peelings yellow and/or yellow and dark? I think the time is RIPE for it to keep the bread in banana bread. Lets call it [B]BC and have a tv bake off on the Hallmark… . A good way to channel all the forms of… .
HANLEY WOOD JONES
Hanley Wood, LLC
CEO Stephen Jones
Washington, DC
March 31st, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Never seen this before! That looks like it’s begging for a bit of vanilla ice cream…
April 1st, 2010 at 8:49 am
This is such a great variation!! Bookmarked!
April 1st, 2010 at 11:27 am
Wow it really does look easy. That’s kind of a surprise. Taking up this recipe this coming weekend. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the post.
April 1st, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Ahhh if I only saw this 2 weeks ago. I was searching everywhere to find a decent banana crisp, but none were very good, this looks great!
April 1st, 2010 at 6:54 pm
OOOH, I am deifnitely loving this non-banana bread banana bread! Sometimes banana bread, while delicious, just lacks that little somethin’somethin’ so this is right up my alley! Dressed to the nines banana bread!
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:22 am
I got hungry just looking at it. Ok, it’s not hunger, it’s a craving, but still going to make this cobbler. With some ice cream, of course. And maybe even some chocolate sauce.
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:11 am
Looks great! thumbs up!
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:50 am
I’ve made banana bread before. It was okay, but I’m not a huge fan of the smell of bananas. This could be a recipe to try though.
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Oooh wow this would be perfect for leftover bananas..which i always seem to have! Looks delicious!
April 3rd, 2010 at 7:55 pm
You called this a cobbler but I think it’s really a crisp.
I actually made one last year and it was a HUGE hit with the family. Either way, whatever name it’s called it’s wonderful! We adore bananas! Thanks for the reminder that it’s been awhile.
~ingrid
April 5th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
I made this from Southern Living and my husband LOVED it. It was soo easy and tasted great with some ice cream. Its been added to my recipe collection for those days when I just have to get rid of the bananas on the counter.
April 5th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
I made your banana cobbler! It was amazing!! It is one of the best desserts I have ever had. I did change s few things though. Wonderful recipe.
April 5th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Can you use all-purpose flour instead of self-rising flour that it calls for in the recipe? It looks delicious!
April 7th, 2010 at 5:49 am
I really liked it…thanks..just wondering, is it possible not to use a dish but a normal cake tin?? cheers
April 7th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Angela I used all purpose white flour when I made it, and it turned out very well.
April 8th, 2010 at 10:33 am
This recipe is amazing. I’ll never make another loaf of banana bread again. By the way, self-rising flour is really easy to make — 1 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt per cup of AP flour.
April 10th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
This looks absolutely divine, and warm and gooey. I love old style baked banana pudding. This looks just as good.
April 11th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Thanks for sharing this. I just happen to have some bananas I could use for this recipe! It looks really good.
April 12th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Yes. OMG Yes. Will be making it tomorrow! Thanks!
April 14th, 2010 at 5:00 am
Bananas are such a good flavor star of a dish–this looks fabulous!
April 14th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Vicky, I think a cake tin would be fine. Most anything roughly the same size the recipe suggests should work.
April 14th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Angela, Jeff beat me to telling you how to substitute all-purpose flour for self-rising. Or, take Angela’s advice and just interchange them without the addition of baking soda and salt. For something like this, I think either way is fine. Enjoy!
April 21st, 2010 at 9:27 pm
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April 22nd, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Another great recipe for those ripe bananas. I’m always on the lookout for something other than banana bread. This looks delicious.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:15 pm
I made it last week. Best dessert ever. My husband said it might even nudge creme brulee from the top of his list – you have no idea how ground-breaking that is…
April 24th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
I love this blog. It has so many authentic homey recipes!
April 24th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Love bananas, great recipe!
April 28th, 2010 at 1:04 am
This is sinful! I might just have to whip it up, park my fanny in front of the tube and go to town!
May 4th, 2010 at 8:11 am
I LOve this blog!!! I will spend hours drooling over these recipes! OH MY GOODNESS!
So glad I found you!
I would love for you to post up some recipes on Midchix!!!
I am a fellow blogger! I have linked up on Midchix.com and have had so much fun sharing my recipes! It is like Facebook but for women only! It is free and I am able to link back to my blog with my recipes! I have met some great bloggers and enjoy swapping recipes too! Check it out and join the flock named “Mama Can Cook” we need more recipes!!! Especially recipes like these!!! I will add your link to the Blog Roll today!
Mama Holli
May 7th, 2010 at 7:17 am
Oh this sounds divine! I love cobbler and LOVE LOVE banana bread. I can’t wait to try this recipe.. With some homemade vanilla ice cream on top I bet it is divine. The pictures look greaT!
-Sylvia
May 17th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Im making this tomorrow!!
June 21st, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Is the sugar really necessary? Bananas have natural sugar and when cooked, they just get sweeter. I might try this ‘au naturel.’
July 5th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Made it last night. Loved it. Very good and very easy to make. Thanks for the recipe!
August 14th, 2010 at 8:11 am
this looks yummy!!
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:05 am
This looks supper yummy!!! I think i’ll try it this weekend
September 1st, 2010 at 2:18 pm
I love that I could have dessert for breakfast. Looks delish!
September 21st, 2010 at 6:15 pm
It is so true that banana bread gets boring this looks like a yummy recipe that I’ll be making next time I have ripe bananas. Thanks.
September 26th, 2010 at 1:14 am
This looks phenomenal! I want to preheat the over right now, except it’s the middle of the night.
Does anyone have any suggestions on adapting this for gluten free? I could try substituting gluten free all purpose flour. But I’m not sure what’s meant by “self rising flour”. Is that different that regular flour? Would the conversion be different than 1 to 1 for gluten free all purpose? Or should I substitute something different like tapioca flour?
Thanks,
Matt
September 30th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
I made this yesterday morning and thought it was pretty good. I cut the sugar by 1/2 in the “bread” part, but next time I would cut it out completely…it was very sweet for my taste. This recipe is even better the next day
November 10th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
This was fabulous – thank you! I’m a preschool teacher and we were trying to figure out this morning what to do with all the overripe bananas in our snack cache. We decided to do a last minute baking project with the kids but had no eggs – and were so happy when we found this recipe! We had no oats and not enough butter for the topping, so used extra flour and cream cheese. It was easy and fun for the kids to make, and very tasty!
January 19th, 2012 at 1:29 pm
Would it work the same if I used quick oats?
January 19th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Kelly, the only problem is that quick oats cook faster than regular oats. They can taste a bit different and have a different texture, too. If it were me, I would use quick oats if I didn’t have regular. In this recipe, it probably won’t make that much difference.
January 19th, 2012 at 9:51 pm
The 5 bananas in my kitchen are screaming! Excited to try this!