Peanut Butter Is The Creamy Addition Your Banana Bread Deserves

Bananas are the gift that keeps on giving; even when they're past their prime, overripe sweetness and mushiness become the perfect foundation for a moist loaf of banana bread. While there are many ingredients to improve a simple banana bread recipe, peanut butter is the creamy, rich addition you should try with your next batch.

Peanut butter and banana are as classic a pairing as peanut butter and jelly, commonly featured in sandwiches, smoothies, and breakfast toasts; most of us have delighted in adding a spoonful of peanut butter to each bite of a banana for a satisfying snack. Peanut butter is a cheap household staple that you're likely to have in the pantry, making it a convenient ingredient to use on the fly.

Adding to its convenience is the ease with which you incorporate peanut butter into banana bread. You can add it to the batter by placing dollops of peanut butter spaced half an inch apart in the loaf pan, then taking a spoon or knife to gently swirl or streak the peanut butter through the batter. This will give each bite of dense banana bread a decadent marbling of peanut butter.

You can also mix peanut butter with milk and powdered sugar to create a glaze that you can pour over hot banana bread, fresh out of the oven. Even if you don't use peanut butter in your banana bread recipe, you can still spread some over a slice of banana bread for an easy upgrade.

Whether your banana bread has luscious peanut butter swirls or a peanut butter glaze topping, you don't have to stop there. Peanut butter and banana taste delicious with a long list of other dessert ingredients. Both ingredients pair well with chocolate; you can intersperse dollops of melted chocolate chips and peanut butter for a chocolate peanut butter swirl. For a take on Reese's pieces, you could add peanut butter and chocolate chips to the banana bread batter instead of plain peanut butter.

No-stir, creamy peanut butter will give you a smooth, cohesive consistency, but crunchy peanut butter will provide pleasant bits of peanuts to contrast the soft, dense bread. You could also top peanut butter banana bread with a mixture of coarse-grain sugar and roughly chopped peanuts for a delicious double dose of sweet peanut flavor.

As an ode to Elvis' favorite sandwich, you can top peanut butter banana bread with a mixture of crispy bacon and honey. For fluffernutter fans, you can swirl peanut butter and marshmallow cream into the batter. For a pop of fresh fruit, blueberries, cranberries, and raspberries would create a jelly-like complement to peanut butter's nutty richness. If peanut butter isn't your favorite nut butter, almond, cashew, sunflower, or hazelnut butter would all make delicious substitutes.