Made with ripe bananas, browned butter, and a thick cream cheese filling, this cream cheese banana bread bakes up moist with a rich cheesecake swirl in the center. The batter comes together with simple pantry ingredients, while Greek yogurt keeps the loaf tender and pecans add a little crunch on top. Baked in a loaf pan until just set, it slices best once cooled.
Preheat oven to 350º. Spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
In a small saucepan over medium high heat, cook the butter. Remove as soon as it starts to turn brown and pour into a glass bowl to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, add egg, sugars, browned butter, yogurt and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add the bananas and combine.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, soda and salt and fold into banana mixture until just combined, do not over mix.
In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese filling ingredients and beat with a hand mixer until smooth.
Pour two-thirds of the banana batter into the prepared pan. Add cream cheese filling to the top spreading evenly. Top with remaining batter, smoothing the top. Add pecans to the top.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the top is golden brown and is set when jiggled. A toothpick will come out wet because of the cream cheese filling so is not a reliable indicator of when it is done.
Let cool for about 15 minutes and then remove from the pan and let cool on a wire rack.
Barbara's Notes + Tips
While hard to resist, this really needs to cool before slicing.