Dominique Ansel’s Banana Bread with Streusel Crumble

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I’m so thrilled to bake from Chef Dominique Ansel’s new book Everyone Can Bake. His first book, The Secret Recipes, was more advance and I made a few of his bakery signatures like the Cronut, Frozen S’more and Cookie Shot, all fun projects but more technically involved. In his latest book, Chef Dominique offers up his takes on classic bakes like pound cake, banana bread, brownies and more. What I love most about the book is the way it’s structured. There are base, filling and topping recipes, but within each of those recipes, he offers easy tweaks for variation. For the banana bread, there are options for strawberry, zucchini and pumpkin. However, I decided to top mine with streusel crumble. There is a chart that shows you how to combine different recipes into showstopper desserts. This mixing and matching of components is really how I like to think and develop recipes.

The banana bread is delicious on its own but the addition of the streusel crumble makes it sing. The texture and crunch are lovely and the bit of fleur de sel really comes through. The bread is sweetened just right. Nuts or even chocolate chips folded in would complement the bread better. Hope you have fun with this recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Streusel Crumble (1/4 of original recipe)
1/2 cup (63 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (63 g) hazelnut flour*
5 tablespoons (63 g) granulated sugar
3/8 teaspoon (1 1/2 g) fleur de sel
4 1/2 tablespoons (63 g) unsalted butter, room temperature

*If you can’t find hazelnut flour, pulse 3/4 cup (63 g) whole hazelnuts in a food processor or blender until finely ground. You can also substitute almond, pistachio, or walnut flour.

Banana Bread:
2 cups (400 g) granulated sugar
2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3/4 teaspoon (3 g) baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (2 g) ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon (5 g) salt
1 teaspoon (5 g) baking powder
3 (150 g) large eggs
2 cups (400 g) overripe bananas, about 4, peeled and mashed
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks / 200 g) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing

Equipment:
8-inch (20 cm) round cake pan or 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch (21 x 11 cm) loaf pan
Stand mixer with paddle attachment, for streusel (optional)

Directions:

Streusel Crumble:

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a medium bowl using a spatula), combine the all-purpose flour, hazelnut flour, sugar, and fleur de sel. Add the butter and mix to combine. Using your fingers, break up the streusel dough into pieces about the size of marbles. (Alternatively, push the dough through the holes of a wire rack to get pieces of a more uniform size.) Place the bowl in the freezer while preparing the banana bread.

You will have a bit of extra streusel. I put notes for baking it at the bottom of the recipe. You can use as a topping over yogurt or roasted fruit with ice cream.

Banana Bread:

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter the bottom, sides, and edges of a cake or loaf pan. Pour in some flour and shake it around until the pan is evenly coated, then tap out any excess flour. If you’re using a loaf pan, you can line the bottom and sides with parchment paper instead of buttering and flouring it. (This makes cleanup a little easier.)

Combine the sugar, flour, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.

Whisk the eggs in a separate large bowl. Mix in the mashed bananas. Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients and whisk until well combined. Stir in the melted butter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, filling it to 2 inches from the top. You will have extra batter that you can bake in a muffin tin. Sprinkle streusel to cover the surface of the batter entirely. Bake until the cake is golden brown, about 1 hour.

There are three ways to check if it’s done:
› Jiggle it: The cake should wiggle a little in the middle. If it wiggles a lot, it’s not ready.
› Nudge it: Press the top gently; it should bounce back to your touch.
› Poke it: Stick a toothpick or paring knife into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes. While the cake is still warm, turn it out of the pan. Let cool completely if using it to build a layer cake. Otherwise, slice and eat while still warm.

Storage:
The banana bread can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap or placed in an airtight container and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days. For longer storage, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, place in an airtight container, and freeze for up to 3 weeks. To use the frozen banana bread, remove it from the airtight container and transfer it to the refrigerator (still in the plastic wrap) to thaw for at least 3 hours or up to overnight, until the banana bread is soft again.

For the extra streusel:
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Spread the streusel over the prepared pan and bake until golden, 10 to 12 minutes. The edges should be crunchy and the inside still soft. Let cool completely.

Recipe re-printed and adapted with permission from Dominque Ansel’s Everyone Can Bake: Simple Recipes to Master and Mix (Simon and Schuster, 2020).

If you make it, I’d love to see! Share with me on Instagram @pastrywithjenn.