Crumbl Cookies review #81 - Banana Bread

Crumbl Cookies review #81: Banana Bread - visited September 3, 2024 

One of this week's non-cookie offerings at Crumbl is Banana Bread. The other one was "The Afterlife Cake" but it's basically a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting so I passed. I do still need to fit into my clothes after all. Even though this week's menu also has my favorite churro cookie. 

I was a bit skeptical at first about Crumbl doing a banana bread and my liking it. After all, I have a 3-decade+ recipe for banana bread that has not only stood the test of time but has been one of the most requested items I'm always asked to make from both (extended) family and friends. As in, to the point, I'm sick of making it and can make it half asleep with my eyes closed.

My banana bread is very purist in that it's only got bananas. No nuts, no raisins (shudder), no coconut, no pineapple bits, no chocolate chips, no crumb topping. Just banana bread. Crumbl's thankfully also doesn't have add ins inside the bread itself but it does have a brown sugar crumble on top.

Unlike most of the other specialty items, the banana bread has an upcharge of only $0.49 cents above the large single cookie price. Presumably it's also easier to make since there aren't layers and frostings to fuss with, just the mini loaf of bread which fit diagonally in the single cookie pink box and the crumble topping.

This is slightly more dense in texture than my banana bread but to cut to the chase: I loved this banana bread. Not too overwhelmingly banana-y but great texture and flavor. I recommended this to a fellow food bank volunteer when we did a shift yesterday. I told my niece this might be as good or better (gulp) than my banana bread. Yikes. A 30-year+ recipe toppled in one fell blow, lol. 

So yes, this was good. Well worth that upcharge. The streusel topping added a nice sweetness although not much crunch but that was okay too. Although Crumbl's description describes it as a cinnamon streusel, I didn't taste a lot of cinnamon so if you're a cinnamon lover, this might fall short. But again, I thought it was fine as the flavors were nicely balanced. Anyway, with banana bread, I think banana should be the star flavor and not overpowered by any spice.