The ultimate ricotta banana nut bread recipe of all time, upgraded with fluffy creamy ricotta cheese, olive oil and candied walnuts.
Ricotta Banana Bread
Easy and super moist, made with 2 bananas, a smooth extra virgin olive oil, granulated and brown sugars, nutty candied walnuts or pecans and heavenly whole milk ricotta cheese. A riff on this fan favorite cranberry bread, as good as grandma’s and better than any cafes!
Made without a mixer, just 2 bowls and a spatula.
You know I don’t always bake, but when I do it’s probably something with Italian ricotta cheese inside. Because truth is, that is the only way to bake a good thing in my world!
You could even use this recipe to make banana muffins instead of a loaf, just adjust the cooking time to about 20 minutes.
Don’t be stingy with the walnuts!
You want lots of little crunchy nutty bites in this fluffy bread, plus walnuts are super good for our brain. That’s what I tell myself every time I eat 2 bags in one sitting. They make me smarter, so load them up!
Honestly, the only thing that would take this ricotta nut bread over the top would be a generous chocolate glaze pouring off the sides. Or maybe caramel.. or a streusel topping…
Italian Desserts
- Lemon muffins
- Lemon blueberry bread
- Cannoli cream filling.
- Blueberry ricotta muffins
- Authentic Tiramisu.
- Italian wedding cookies
- Lemon olive oil cake.
- Ricotta cookies.
Ricotta Banana Nut Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup organic extra virgin olive oil (or substitute with melted butter or coconut oil)
- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 large organic eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract or the seeds from 1 vanilla bean
- 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 3/4 cup candied walnuts -roughly chopped + a few for garnish
- 2 bananas - diced
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350"F
- In a medium bowl whisk together the olive oil or melted butter and sugars together until creamy.
- Add the vanilla extract, ricotta cheese and heavy cream and whisk until everything is incorporated. Whisk in the eggs until you have a smooth mixture. Add the bananas and walnuts and gently toss to coat.
- In another large bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt. Make a well in the middle and pour the wet mixture inside.
- Using a spatula gently fold all the ingredients together.
- Grease a loaf pan with a dab of butter or oil and pour in the mixture.
- Sprinkle a few walnuts on top for garnish.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wooden cutting boar and allow to cool on a cooling rack.
Notes
- Tip - Make an extra loaf, wrap in plastic and freeze. Thaw for 1 hour on the kitchen counter before ready to use or pop in the toaster oven.
Nutrition
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Yummy! Making this today!! And one day I’ll try and make my own ricotta. Thanks for sharing!!!
I made this into 12 muffins. Very moist and delicious. Dicing the bananas instead of mashing gives this recipe a nice cake like texture. Mashing would have made it gummy. Also the ricotta keeps the muffins moist. Just the right amount of sugar too. Thank you, Florentina.
woo-hoo ! That is awesome ! Isn’t ricotta just the best ? xo’s
Oh Florentina, you’ve done it again. This banana bread looks amazing. I’ll be making up a batch this weekend!!
Lots of great texture in this bread! I think I need to make this soon 🙂
Such a wonderful sweet bread. Love the look of those nuts. Adding the ricotta would make it so moist too!!
OK. I’ll remember to dice the bananas. These look absolutely decadently delish! Thanks.
I would have never thought to add ricotta cheese to banana bread. I must give this a try now!
I made this yesterday and none left today! Everyone loved it! It is the most moist banana bread I have ever made. Soooo good! This is the only banana bread I will ever make again. Thank you so much for this delicious recipe!
Woohoo! I’m so happy to hear, we sure do love it around here as well 🙂 Now you made me wanna go make some hehehe
This recipe is not super sweet however I was looking to make it a dessert so I added chocolate chips to the batter. Mmmm-delsih.
I used coconut Oil the one that is not a liquid and I candied the walnuts with maple syrup. I also made 1 1/2 times the recipe as I have a large loaf pan. It turned out fantastic!!
Delicious! I had some leftover ricotta and exactly two over ripe bananas I needed to use up and I came across this recipe! Light and flavorful, I thought I would miss the butter but I definitely did not – it definitely pays to try different ingredients!