Cheesecake banana bread is so luscious you won’t be able to stop eating it

Banana bread is such a simple, homey treat. But there might be a way to make this traditional, feel-good quick bread even better — by adding cream cheese.

Over at Averie Cooks, Averie creates a rich, decadent layer of cream cheese in her banana bread by filling her bread loaf pan just 2/3 of the way. Then she spreads on her cream cheese filling and tops it with the rest of the banana bread batter. The result? A layered banana bread that will look (and taste!) like something from an upscale bakery.

Meanwhile, Delish keeps things extra creamy by using buttermilk in their batter. Buttermilk is excellent for baking because it helps to break down the gluten in the flour, which means that your baked goods will be light and airy rather than dense and soggy.

Taste of Home also reports that using buttermilk in your baked goods will help your quick bread rise. (Don’t you hate it when your quick bread don’t plump up properly?)

Over at Cookies and Cups, they take a similar approach with their “Cheesecake Stuffed Banana Bread.”However, they add a bit of vanilla to the filling, which enhances that bakery-like quality.

If you want to bring in the flavors of the season, you might consider adding in spices like cloves, nutmeg or even pumpkin pie spice. Similarly, if you’re running low on ripe bananas, you can substitute with a cup of pumpkin puree. It will bump up the flavor and keep your batter from being too dry.

In this recipe for Pumpkin Banana Bread by Well Plated, Erin uses 1 cup of mashed banana and 1 cup of pumpkin puree, but you can really play around here. Maybe you would rather use 1.5 cups of pumpkin and just .5 cup of banana, or maybe even use applesauce in place of the pumpkin.

The options are endless. But most importantly, don’t forget the best part of all: that scrumptious cream cheese filling!