Cream Cheese-Filled Banana Bread — This is the BEST homemade banana bread recipe! The banana bread tastes like it has cheesecake baked in thanks to the luscious cream cheese filling! Soft, fluffy, easy and tastes ahhhh-mazing!!
Table of Contents
This cream cheese banana bread is soft and moist, and the cream cheese filling is like having a layer of cheesecake baked into the moist banana bread. No complaints here!
It’s an easy, no mixer recipe that goes from bowl to oven in minutes.
The big river of cream cheese is a thick, bold, unmistakeable layer. It really makes this bread out of this world.
Love Cream Cheese-Filled Desserts?
If you love this cream cheese-filled banana bread, then you’ll definitely love my Cream Cheese-Filled Pumpkin Bread as well!
I use melted coconut oil so there’s no butter to cream and no mixer to dirty. Oil keeps bread softer and springier than butter, and I prefer the taste.
And a little sour cream (or Greek yogurt) is extra insurance for a soft, springy, bouncy, fluffy loaf. Using sour cream, Greek yogurt, or buttermilk in quick bread and muffin recipe ensures more tender results.
This banana cream cheese bread has been a reader favorite that went viral in 2014 when I first posted this recipe. The recipe and photos have been stolen and copied over the years, but that goes with the territory with viral recipes.
Most importantly, it’s been adored by thousands of people and those are the comments and feedback I love reading!
Ingredients Needed
After taking a bite of this banana bread, you’ll regret to having made a loaf using cream cheese sooner!
For the banana bread:
- Egg
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Coconut oil
- Sour cream
- Vanilla extract
- Ripe bananas
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder and baking soda
- Salt
For the cream cheese filling:
- Egg
- Softened cream cheese
- Granulated sugar
- All-purpose flour
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Cream Cheese Banana Bread
Don’t let the cream cheese filling fool you into thinking this is a tough banana bread recipe to make — it’s not! This is an incredibly easy homemade banana bread recipe.
- Make the batter: Whisk together the egg, sugars, coconut oil, sour cream, and vanilla before stirring in the mashed bananas and the rest of the dry ingredients.
- Turn about two-thirds of the batter into a greased loaf pan and smooth out the top with a spatula or the back of a spoon.
- Make the cream cheese filling: Stir together the ingredients for the filling and carefully pour over the banana bread batter.
- Smooth out the top once more before pouring the remaining banana bread batter over the cream cheese layer.
- Bake the cream cheese banana bread until the top is domed, golden, and the center is set, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Note that the toothpick test isn’t the most accurate because the cream cheese never gets totally solid.
Baking Tip
Once the bread is out of the oven, let it cool completely before slicing and serving. The cream cheese center needs time to set fully, and if you slice it too soon it’ll just ooze out.
Recipe FAQs
For this recipe, you need to use brick-style cream cheese (not the whipped kind in a plastic tub). I used full-fat cream cheese, but lite cream cheese will also work so long as it’s the type that comes in a brick. Set the cream cheese on your counter to soften (this will take about an hour, maybe more). I don’t recommend softening the cream cheese in the microwave, as that can make it too soft.
Coconut oil adds a nearly imperceptible undertone that’s sweeter and more fragrant than canola or vegetable oil, but substitute with them if you’d like or if you’re very sensitive to coconut flavors.
I make this banana bread recipe in a 9×5-inch loaf pan, and this bread is a large loaf. I think an 8×4-inch pan would be too small, and the batter may run over the sides. But you can give it a try if that’s what you have on hand! Just keep in mind that you’ll likely need to bake the bread for longer as well.
No, because the cream cheese filling is baked it’s safe to leave out at room temperature. Bread will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week.
For the best tasting cream cheese banana bread, you’ll want to use really ripe bananas that have plenty of black spots on them.
Tips for Making This Recipe
Measuring the mashed banana: You need to actually measure out the mashed banana to see if it’s 1 cup, because your idea of two “large bananas” may be different than mine, and you want to add the exact right amount of banana to this bread.
Mixing the batter: Once you add the flour to the banana bread batter you should continue mixing the batter until everything is just combined. You do NOT want to over mix the batter, otherwise your homemade banana bread will be a little tough.
Baking times: Tent the pan with a sheet of foil draped over it at the 30 minute-mark if you feel the tops and sides of the cream cheese-filled banana bread will become too browned before the center cooks through.
Baking times will vary based on moisture content of bananas, cream cheese, climate, and oven variances. You need to bake this moist banana bread until done — watch your bread, not the clock.
Storage Instructions
Room temp: Store the banana cream cheese bread in an airtight container for up to 1 week on your counter.
Freezer: Wrap tightly and freeze for up to 3 months. When ready to eat, thaw overnight in the fridge.
Video Tutorial
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Cream Cheese-Filled Banana Bread
Ingredients
Bread
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup liquid-state coconut oil, (canola or vegetable may be substituted)
- ¼ cup cup sour cream, lite is okay (Greek yogurt may be substituted)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas, (about 2 large bananas)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, (optional)
Cream Cheese Filling
- 1 large egg
- 4 ounces brick-style cream cheese, softened (lite is okay)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray one 9×5-inch loaf pan with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
- Make the Banana Bread
- In a large bowl, add the egg, sugars, coconut oil, sour cream, vanilla, and whisk to combine.
- Add the bananas and stir to incorporate.
- Add 1 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda, optional salt, and fold with spatula or stir gently with a spoon until just combined; don’t overmix; set aside.
- Turn about two-thirds of the batter out into the prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula and pushing it into corners and sides as necessary; set aside.
- Make the Cream Cheese Filling
- In a large bowl, add all ingredients and whisk to combine. Alternatively, mix with a hand mixer.
- Evenly pour filling mixture over the bread, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula and pushing it into corners and sides as necessary.
- Top with remaining batter, smoothing the top very lightly with a spatula as to not disturb cream cheese layer and pushing batter into corners and sides as necessary.
- Bake for about 48 to 50 minutes or until the top is domed, golden, and the center is set, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. Note this is tricky because the cream cheese never gets totally solid so the toothpick test isn’t the most accurate.*
- Allow bread to cool in pan for about 15 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Banana Bread Recipes:
ALL OF MY BANANA BREAD RECIPES!
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Cinnamon Sugar Streusel Banana Bread – Super SOFT tender banana bread that’s impossible to resist!! The crispy, crumbly, streusel topping makes a good thing even BETTER!!
Brown Sugar Blueberry Banana Bread – Blueberry coffee cake meets super soft banana bread.
Six-Banana Banana Bread – Six bananas in one loaf of bread means an extremely soft, moist, and richly flavored bread.
Zucchini Banana Bread — This Zucchini Banana Bread is so soft, tender, uber-moist, dense enough to be satisfying, but still light!
The BEST Strawberry Banana Bread — This strawberry bread is packed with fresh, juicy strawberries in every bite! This is an easy, no-mixer quick bread recipe you’re going to love!
Carrot Banana Bread — EASY, no-mixer, super soft banana carrot bread that reminds me of carrot cake but healthier!! Great Easter brunch idea or spring baked good!
I made this thrice already at home and for my co-workers. They absolutely love it! The only thing I added was chia seeds in the cream cheese filling. Thanks for making me look super in my kids’ and co-workers eyes!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you all 3 times! Glad you’re looking like a superstar in everyone’s eyes :)
Not sure where I went wrong but the cream cheese was yellow in color and hard and flavorless – was it overcooked? Want to try again after some tips! Thx
Hard and yellow, yes, pretty good signs that you overbaked. Thanks for trying the recipe and bake for less time next time!
Search all day for recipes for over ripe bananas. Search no more because this recipe wins. Let you know how it turns out and thanks!
Great recipe. Just made it an hour ago and it’s almost gone. Thanks
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! And that it’s gone…within one hour! :)
I made your banana bread with the cream cheese filling, it came out wonderful! Being that it is Fall, I would like to try making it with pumpkin instead of bananas, can this be done?
Yes, here’s the recipe! https://www.averiecooks.com/cream-cheese-filled-pumpkin-bread/
This recipe didn’t work for me. I cooked it for over an hour, it was getting too dark and it thought it was cooked. Bread was not cooked and filling was tough and lacked flavor. Recipe is going in the recycle bin.
In step 9. I indicated that as a Tip you could tent the top of the pan with foil to prevent the loaf from getting overly browned on the outside. In your case I think that would have helped. Climates (and bananas) do vary with how much moisture there is and banana bread is one of those recipes that sometimes you just have to cook it quite awhile for it to cook through and in order to combat the exterior from darkening too much, the foil trick works great. Thanks for trying the recipe.
Hi Averie! I usually have great success with your recipes, but this one didn’t quite work. The cream cheese layer seemed too dense and sunk almost to the bottom of the bread. The top layer didn’t bake through. Maybe I should have beat the cream cheese a bit longer?
Yes I think that beating the cream cheese a bit longer and also maybe baking a bit longer (banana bread can be a ‘fooler’ – you think it’s done and it’s not) could have helped with the overall density situation as well as the top not baking through. Thanks for trying the recipe and glad you’re overall happy with my recipes and have great success!
Hi, I just made this banana bread yesterday, and it turned out very good. One thing I wonder is if the texture of the cream cheese layer is supposed to be fluffy like the banana bread part. If so, do you have any idea to keep it more like dense cream cheese? Thank you!
p.s. Even with the fluffy cream cheese layer, it was delicious. Thank you for the recipe.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad you like it! The cream cheese is fluffier likely because of the egg. You could try keeping the egg out and see what happens. Not sure how it will work or not but that would be my suggestion for a denser layer of cream cheese. The egg also binds it and keeps it from running everywhere so without the egg it could also just run and ‘leak’ into the bread layers more. If you try, LMK how it goes.
I also made the cream cheese banana bread also wish the cream cheese was not like bread could not taste cream cheese,wonder if added more cream cheese and corn starch instead,but the bread was moist and good,thanks.
Glad you enjoyed the bread and I’m sure there is a way to tinker with the ratios of cream cheese, egg, etc. to get the result you’re aiming for. Since I love the recipe I posted it, I am done tinkering personally :)
Made two loafs last week doubling recipe, took one loaf to the office. Followed instructions but seemed not to have enough batter to cover cream cheese so had to mix a third batch. In the end it was okay. I will make again but will add cinnamon or maybe a cinnamon crumb topping as something seemed to be missing.
Thanks for trying the recipe and yes cinnamon or a crumb topping would be wonderful in this bread.
Hi,
I found this recipe and am so excited to try it tonight, my husband loves banana bread. I have pinned and printed, as well as your pumpkin cream cheese bread and Nutella peanut butter recipe. They all look amazing and I can’t wait to try them.
I don’t think I will be back to your website though, all the ads on the site are causing the page to run very slow, and is about to crash my browser (I’m at work with high speed internet and no other issues on any other pages at all-so it’s not that.)
I see that this recipe has driven lots of traffic to your site-pinned almost a million times, congrats! The lag is so slow, I am typing this comment in word and copy and pasted. I don’t know if it is flash that is doing it, but it’s annoying enough to not come back and explore for more recipes
I wanted to let you know, not to be an annoying squeaky wheel, but because I would really love to explore your site. Your recipes look amazing, the pictures and descriptions are fabulous and you make it easy to print them! All great qualities. I would love to become a follower. But it shouldn’t take me 20 minutes to print, pin and comment.
Please get rid of some of these ads/videos! I really want to check out your site!
I’m sorry that you’re experiencing such a lag. The post opened for me in less than 10 seconds (to fully, fully) complete loading every last thing, when I just tested it out a minute ago. Not sure what’s going on, or maybe there was a temporary glitch with my site (no server or host is perfect) during the time you were on it. Enjoy the bread!
Hi Averie,
I made the cream cheese banana bread this afternoon and it is delicious!! The only adjustment I HAD to make was to use gluten free flour. I’m always experimenting with conventional recipes and try to turn them into a gluten free version due to Celiac in the family. Since using GF flours I notice that my mixes tend to be drier so I added a little bit of applesauce (about 2 tbs), to the cream cheese mix. It came out so moist and wonderful. I had to hide it for tomorrow because it’s almost gone!! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
P.S. This is my first time visiting your site and now I’ll be a regular. ?
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Kudos to you for making it GF and yes most GF flour is dryer than conventional AP flour and so the applesauce was a smart call!
Love that you shared this recipe . After making this one time. The ideas became countless and have been baking lots of these breads with cream cheese. No refrigeration needed.I just recommend watching the bread to whoever makes this . Test it. As many times as you need, because I realized I had to cook it way longer Than 50 min( for me was 70 min.)Ovens have minds of their own and it makes you wonder is it done yet or not! Patience is a virtue and off to slice my own!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it has sparked some other cream cheese-filled breads for you!
Ovens have minds of their own and it makes you wonder is it done yet or not! <--- That is totally true!! Since starting my blog I've moved many times and have had about 5 different ovens and they are ALL different and so just baking until it's done, however long that takes, is always the way to go!
Made this with Cup4Cup gluten free flour and wow it came out amazing!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you with Cup4cup!
I’m going to try this recipe, but was wondering if this bread freezes well with the cream cheese filling. When I make this, I’d like to make several. :)
I recommend that you make one, freeze it, and see what you think upon thawing since you’ll be the ultimate judge. That way you know if you’ll be happy!
Hi Averie, I can’t print out your recipe for the CREAM CHEESE BANANA BREAD. Could you please email me the recipe? Thank You Very Much
There is a small icon in the upper right hand corner of the recipe that looks like a printer. Click on that.
Or, just copy and paste the text of the recipe in an email to yourself! :)
I would like to know how much more cream cheese to add to the Banana Bread? It needed more cream cheese taste.
I haven’t made it any other way than as written so can’t say for sure. You’d have to experiment with things.