Banana Cheesecake Bread: Another Way to Use Up Overripe Bananas

What happens when you have too many bananas left over to simply make a banana bread? Then you crack out the big guns and make banana cheesecake bread! 

I bought an entire bunch of bananas, and completely forgot about them: they sat in my fruit bowl until they went brown and spotty. Now, I like spotty bananas, but even for me these went too far: they had got to the powdery stage of ripeness. 

So, I didn’t really want to make a load of banana bread because a) I’m not really banana bread’s biggest fan, and b) I already have a problem with baking more than can be eaten at home. But, I do have a friend who adores cheesecake in all its manifestations! I thought I’d make him a nice treat. 

This is an extremely banana-y dessert that’s sickly sweet, so I heartily recommend that it’s served with a dark chocolate, or mocha, sauce, or dusted liberally with a good quality deep, rich cocoa powder. The bitterness is key to mellowing out the sweetness. Alternatively, you can go all-out sugar-fest and eat with a delicious caramel sauce and some chopped pecans. 

The trick is to add one large mashed banana for every 225g (8 ounces) of cream cheese to your favourite cheesecake recipe. Mine is thick and crumbly, like a European baked cheesecake, but even if you use a more custardy style, like a New York cheesecake, bananas have a good setting quality like eggs when used in baking, so don’t worry about the recipe being too soft or soupy. 

Next time I make this, I'll make a round one; but, because I had so many bananas, I made two loaves. One went to my friend, and the other went to college with my fiancé.