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Banana Bread
This banana bread is phenomenal right out of the oven and even better toasted the next day.
If you’re anything like me, you need a few good banana bread recipes. I’ve never been able to accurately predict my family’s banana consumption: one week we go through ‘em all; the next, they sit untouched, browning in the bowl. This tender and foolproof banana bread with a crisp crust is my go-to recipe. It’s phenomenal right out of the oven and delicious all over again when you toast it for breakfast the next day. My family prefers it plain, but feel free to add nuts or chocolate chips, if you like.
What You’ll Need To Make Banana Bread
STEP-BY-STEP Instructions
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Whisk to combine.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time.
Beat well after each addition.
Add the mashed bananas, lemon juice and vanilla extract.
Mix well. It will look a little curdled at this point; that’s okay.
Add the flour mixture.
Beat on low speed until just incorporated. Do not over mix.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes.
Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.
Then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
This quick bread is best served fresh, but it will keep for a few days, wrapped in foil and stored at room temperature. The bread can also be frozen for up to 3 months. After it is completely cooled, wrap it securely in aluminum foil, freezer wrap or place in a freezer bag. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
You may also Like
- Chocolate Banana Bread
- Marbled Banana Bread
- Banana Nut Muffins
- Sticky Toffee Banana Cake
- Ovenly’s Whole Wheat Banana Bread
Banana Bread
This banana bread is phenomenal right out of the oven and even better toasted the next day.
Ingredients
- 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas, from 2-3 large bananas
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 9x5-inch metal loaf pan.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the mashed bananas, lemon juice and vanilla extract and mix well. It will look a little curdled at this point; that's okay.
- Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Do not over mix. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The bread can be frozen for up to 3 months. After it is completely cooled, wrap it securely in aluminum foil, freezer wrap or place in a freezer bag. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (12 servings)
- Serving size: 1 slice
- Calories: 208
- Fat: 9 g
- Saturated fat: 5 g
- Carbohydrates: 30 g
- Sugar: 14 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Sodium: 394 mg
- Cholesterol: 51 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Reviews & Comments
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Hi Jenn. I haven’t made this recipe yet, but have a question about using frozen bananas. After they’re thawed, they tend to be quite liquidy. I always wonder if I should drain the liquid off and just add the solids or throw it all in the bowl. What do you think? Thanks for your help! You’re always my go-to gal for recipe advice!
Hi Alanna, I usually drain them if there’s a lot of liquid. Hope you enjoy! 🙂
Hello: I make this banana bread all the time and love your recipe. I am wondering if I can substitute whole wheat flour for the all purpose?
Hi Deirdre, Glad you like this! I’d suggest starting by using half whole wheat and half all-purpose to make sure you like the texture. If you do like it, the next time you make this, you can up the ratio of whole wheat to white a bit more. Also, you may want to consider white whole wheat as it’s lighter and milder tasting than regular whole wheat flour (yet just as nutritious). I’d love to hear how it turns out!
Off the chain delicious. Moist, flavourful, and perfect! I added walnuts to the recipe and it was just awesome! Thank you for sharing!
I made this bread tonight and it is so good! I was nervous adding lemon juice at first but followed the recipe and my bread came out great!
Hi, can I use cake flour for this recipe?
I don’t recommend it, Velle. Sorry!
this is a wonderful recipe. everyone loved it. also made your pumpkin bread, so delicious
Love, love, love! I added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and used brown sugar as a personal preference. Perfect! Thank you! God bless!
What a fantastic recipe, just love it and can’t stop making it and it always works . What a treat.
Our family loves this recipe! Whenever I make it, my 5 and 2-year-olds gobble it up. I’ve started adding lemon zest in addition to the lemon juice for an extra lemony flavor, and I cook for about 36-37 minutes instead of the 40-45 min. It’s super moist and a perfect way to use up our over ripe bananas!
Absolutely love this banana bread! So yummy. It’s also very forgiving if you add too many bananas…
I would like to try adding oatmeal to this – do you have any tips?
Hi Krysten, I’ve never put oatmeal in a quick bread, so I can’t say from experience, but I suspect it will work (though the bread will definitely be a bit drier and more dense). I’d replace the flour with an equivalent amount of oats (and I’d suggest keeping the oats to no more than 1/2 cup). Hope that helps — I’d love to hear how it turns out if you make it this way!
Favorite banana bread recipe !!!
What temperature for the oven?
350°F/175°C. Hope you enjoy!
Just put 2 more loaves in the oven. This is a great basic banana bread recipe that comes out perfect every time. The only thing i do different is double the recipe and use half white and half brown sugar. I stop using the mixer when i add the flour and mix by hand to keep the air bubbles out. At the end i fold in a cup of chopped walnuts. Love your recipes and have tried so many. They all come out great. You make me look like i actually know what I’m doing. Thank you
Love this easy recipe. It is moist and tasty. I am not accurate with measuring so I’m surprised it turned out so good. I always add my own touch like raisins and or nuts or some other fruit. It all works out great. Thank you for this great easy recipes
Delicious banana bread that is moist and not too sweet. I added 3/4 cup of toasted walnuts and loved it so much that we ate the entire loaf in less than 2 days. We have loved all of the recipes that we made in your fabulous cookbook! Some of our favorites are Thai Chicken Soup with Rice Noodles, Peruvian Roast Chicken with Green Sauce, Baja Fish Tacos and French Apple Cake. Recently, our friends devoured the Peruvian Chicken meal with your suggested sides and thought it was so good that they ordered your cookbook that very night.
Jenn, thanks for providing such wonderful recipes that are easy to follow, can always be counted on to taste delicious and make us shine. Please publish another!
So glad you like the recipes, Catherine!! I actually am working on another cookbook – you can read more about it here. 💓
Hi Jenn, made this and it was the best banana bread I have ever made. Soft and light but still moist. Can I replace butter with canola oil and if so do I need to reduce portion ?
Thank you
So glad you liked it! Canola oil won’t work here, but a few readers have commented that they’ve successfully used coconut oil with good results. Hope that helps!
I haven’t made banana bread in years, but I found myself with a bunch of overripe bananas. I let them go for several more days, knowing the riper the better, and then tried to decide which of many recipes to use. Then I thought of this website since I’ve never been disappointed with a recipe from Jennifer. This one was no exception. The bread was moist and flavorful–my husband said the best banana bread he has ever eaten. I have enough bananas for another loaf and had planned to try a different recipe for comparison, but why fool around with perfection? The only change I made was to add 1/2 cup of chopped toasted walnuts as I like a little crunch in my banana bread. I cooked it in a convection oven at 325 degrees and ended up taking it out after about 33 minutes as it was nicely browned and a toothpick came out clean. Thanks once again, Jennifer!
I have been making this banana bread for a few years now it is an excellent recipe that’s works every time not too sweet lovely with a strong coffee at any time of the day ….thank you so much for sharing ….
Great recipe as always. Made as directed and added chocolate chips.
Delish!
With 3 kids, I’ve been doing so much cooking for the past couple of years that I’d lost the will to bake. Lol. Besides, my girls have morphed into much better bakers than me. But, now that the kids are older and I’ve developed the stamina to chop/slice/dice and cook for hours because I’m not out running errands every other minute due to the current health crisis, I decided to take two large bananas and turn them into bread.
I get frustrated with recipes that clearly were never made by the author, so I always know I can trust Jenn’s recipes. I know they will turn out, and if they don’t, then it’s user error. This bread was fantastic. It had just the right amount of sweetness and the bread itself was light. Sometimes banana bread can be very heavy but the recipe for this bread was just perfect.
Thanks for getting me baking again!
The perfect banana bread! Seriously is the best!!!
I made this – delicious! Best cake I’ve ever made and better than Starbucks’ banana bread (oops! Sorry Starbucks!). I used coconut sugar (4oz/1/2 cup) and 2 medium ripe bananas and it looks just like your picture. I was looking at it in the oven from 35 minutes and it was wet and shook in loaf pan when tapped; to solid and didn’t shake at 40 minutes. I took it out even though there was a moist area along a slight crack in the middle. I tested it with a skewer which was clean in outer regions. Glad I did as it was so moist and not overcooked and dry. Well impressed and will be trying the blueberry/lemon loaf next as I have a lemon tree with fruit. Thank you.
I have made this recipe twice now, the second time being a demand by the family as it was an absolute hit the first time! Finally a banana bread recipe which is fantastic! It is really important not to overmix the flour in the last stage, as this as made my banana bread a whole different thing. Oh, and yes, DO TOAST IT THE NEXT DAY. It tastes even better!! Thank you for this amazing recipe!!
This has become the only banana bread recipe I use. I like to make it in 3 small (5-3/4″x3″) pans and it bakes for 28 minutes. Today I folded in 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips right after adding the dry ingredients. It turned out really well! Thank you for this recipe (you had me at lemon).
I made this a couple of days ago. I’ve been making banana bread for decades, and usually use a baking mix like Bisquick or Jiffy. But I didn’t have either in the house, and with two very ripe bananas on the counter just begging to be used, I decided to make one from scratch. I used the basic recipe, but added some additional spices for extra flavor — cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and vanilla. I’ve been adding these to my banana breads for years and they always turn out very flavorful.
I didn’t use the lemon juice — couldn’t see the need for it. I assume it’s to keep the bananas from turning brown, but since they’re baked into the bread, what’s the point ? I also thought the lemon flavor might overwhelm the banana. I’ve never put lemon juice in any banana bread I’ve ever made, and there have been many, many over the years. Seems like a weird ingredient to me. The additional spices preclude the need for anything else to create flavor.
I also didn’t mix the wet and dry separately — I just threw everything into one bowl and mixed it up just until it was blended. That’s how I typically make this bread and have never had a problem with it coming out badly. I baked it at the recommended 350 for about 40 minutes or so. I tend not to time things either, I simply rely on rise and color. A clean toothpick stuck into various parts of the bread told me it was done. Came out great !!
I used your recipe yesterday and the loaf cane out great! Have you used this recipe for muffins? If so, how many did the mix make and for what temperature/length of baking? Thanks!
Hi Jana, Glad you liked this! The recipe would also work nicely for muffins. It should yield 12 muffins. I’d keep the oven temp the same and start checking them for doneness at about 18 minutes. Hope you enjoy!
Hi, when making banana bread I sometimes bookmark recipes I see, or tear out of a magazine. About two weeks ago I made banana bread from a magazine recipe. Yesterday, I wanted to make this bread again, but could not find the recipe. I googled “Easy Banana Bread” and I chose your recipe. The recipe I made two weeks prior called for brown sugar, nutmeg, etc. I preferred my previous recipe, because it was a stronger taste. Your recipe was fine, but I think I should have added the brown sugar and nutmeg to improve the taste.
I don’t know whether mine is good or not, but we love it, i reduced the amount of baking powder into half since the last time i baked it tastes a little bit bitter, and i add 1/2 cup choco chips in batter. In another muffin recipe i don’t have any sour cream or Greek yogurt, can i substitute it with just a plain yogurt and lemon juice? Please let me know, my bananas got ripened so fast, i am out of ideas how to use them
Hi Dwi, Glad you liked this! Without looking at the muffin recipe you’re referring to, it’s hard to say for sure, but you should be able to substitute the Greek yogurt it calls for with plain yogurt (and no need to add lemon juice). Hope that helps!
Hi can i ask for the measurements in grams please, does anyone know? Also do you use plain flour? This recipe looks amazing so i can’t wait to bake this with my six children!! Thank you 🙂
Hi Sarah, This recipe actually has conversions to grams. To view them, scroll down to the recipe and immediately under the recipe title on the right side, you’ll see a little toggle. If you move it from “cup measures” to metric, you’ll see measurements that will work for you. (And yes, plain flour is correct — it’s the same thing as all-purpose flour.) Hope you enjoy!