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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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I had 3 squishy bananas sitting on the counter that needed to be used…and this recipe turned them into 12 delicious muffins! I followed the recipe exactly, except for adding a tiny sprinkling of sanding sugar on top of each muffin before baking. It gave them a delightful crunch…..this recipe is over the top!!! (P.S. I used cupcake liners in the muffin pan for easy cleanup.)
Wonderful Banana Bread recipe, Jenn! I love how easy it was to put together. Didn’t get out the mixer, just whisked by hand and it turned out great.
Best ever…yum
Excellent recipe, who knew bananas go so well with lemon. It came out perfect. We loved it. Anyone who had problems should check their oven settings. Jenn’s recipe works great, no adjustments needed. Thanks Jenn
THE best banana bread ever. So moist and full of flavor, absolutely perfect. I used three bananas and added 1/4 cup chopped walnuts to the mix and it was a perfect addition. My husband says he doesn’t think I ever made anything better in my life lol. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with Jenn’s recipes, they turn amazeballs every time!
Delicious! Very easy to follow recipe instructions. This is my third time making it and it comes out great every time!
poorly written recipe
tried this recipe once, it was great! just have one question: does the “1-3/4 cup of flour” refer to one AND three quarters or one TO three quarters? Same goes with the vanilla extract.
Hi, Glad you liked it! Those measurements refer to 1 cup plus 3/4 cup of flour (and the same format for the vanilla). For some reason, the back end of my system makes me include that hyphen. Sorry for any confusion!
What an excellent recipe! I deviated slightly from the recipe in that I took Julia Childs advice and used jumbo eggs. Sugar reduced to 1/3 cup. I’m not a sweet fan, plenty of sugar in the bananas. Flour was spooned and leveled in measure, bananas were cooked for 8 min in a non-stick skillet to reduce the moisture, 3/4 cup pecan pieces added. Bread pulled at 200 deg F on an instant thermometer. P E R F E C T !
Yes, I gave this a shot. Tried to make banana bread about 20 years ago during the dot-com crash when I went from high-paid engineer to Mr. Mom. Not so good. Rephrase. Horrible. About a month ago, my wife and I tried another recipe. OK, but not great. Today, I tried yours. Far superior to my last efforts. Thank you, m’lady.
This really is the best banana bread EVER! I think I could eat the entire loaf myself. This is like my only banana bread recipe now
Excelent recipe!I have made it as is many times and it’s always eaten and enjoyed by all. I have a gluten free family member and have now made this recipe 3 times using Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF flour–each time a success! For the GF flour, I have found I need to increase baking time. Otherwise, I followed the recipe as is and it’s great.
I’ve also added chocolate chips to the recipe and that’s a kid favorite.
We love this recipe in our home. I’m wondering how I could convert it to a muffin or mini muffin recipe..?
Glad you like it, Beth! It should work nicely for muffins. I’d keep the oven temp the same and start checking them for doneness at about 18 minutes for standard muffins and about 12 minutes for minis. Hope that helps!
Can you make this with gluten-free flour, and if so what brand/kind do you recommend? Thank you!
Hi Martha, I haven’t made a gluten-free version of this but other readers have and have been happy with the results. A lot of people have good luck with this King Arthur brand. Please let me know how it turns out if you make it!
I didn’t use Jenn’s actual recipe because I had a lot of bananas to use up and needed one that could absorb at least 4 but I did follow her instructions since all recipes pretty much start the same. The step-by-step photos are so helpful, thank you Jenn! I’m new to baking and had no idea what ‘cream until light and fluffy’ should look like until I read your post. I also panicked initially when adding the banana and it looked curdled, so also appreciate your extra note there. Thanks again!
This banana bread is incredible and one of my favourite things to bake. It’s so easy to throw together and so delicious. I find it’s great to share too, loaves are always easier to cut than rounds, and it’s always very popular whenever I take it anywhere. I like my banana bread loaded with goodies so I add chocolate chips and/or chopped walnuts and/or raisins, whatever I’m in the mood for, about a cup total. I’ve cooked this in at least 4 different ovens in 2 different countries and I always have to add 5-10 mins to the cooking time (usually 50-55 mins for me), but it comes out perfectly every time. Thanks for this winner, Jenn. I’d give it more than 5 stars, if I could!
This recipe is a keeper. Added some cinnamon and baked for only 50 minutes in glass dish.
Why don’t you use sour cream in this recipe when you do in the others?
Thanks, love all your recipes!
Edie
Hi Edie, I developed this recipe a long time ago so I don’t remember the reason I didn’t use sour cream in this one but I promise it works. 🙂
Moist and can really taste it’s banana as many recipies only use one banana . Will def add to our favourites!
This is my new favorite banana bread mother recipe. I doubled this recipe using the kitchen scale measures, subbing flavorful coconut oil for the butter for a lactose-intolerant friend. I also couldn’t resist subbing most of the volume (not weight) of the sugar for maple syrup, as I wanted a slightly more wholesome version. I even substituted 100g almond flour for the regular flour. The mixture was more liquid, thanks to the maple syrup, but the loaf was a wonderful texture, springy and light instead of dense and muffin-like. It is really a banana-bread, not muffin, recipe, much lighter and more delicate than the more stodgy (yet satisfying!) banana muffins I am used to making. When you use the batter in the muffin tins they don’t dome like muffins (that might also be because of the more liquid dough I used), but they make nice short mini cakes that kids like holding. Oh and of course I added chocolate chips—for the kids (that is my excuse, anyways!).
I’ve made this recipe twice. Both times it is raw in the middle even though the tester came out clean. The end slice was dry. If I bake it longer, the bread will be very dry around the edges. Any insight on what might be wrong? The oven thermometer said the temp was ok. Thanks.
Sorry you’ve had a problem with this (twice)! Are you using a glass pan? Are you making any adjustments to the recipe?
The best banana bread recipe for me, tried it out 3 times already and worked very well every time! I cut up a small banana and put in on top of the batter for extra ”banananess” before baking.
Love this recipe because it’s buttery! It’s simple and doesn’t have diet ingredients like apple sauce. When I want low-cal, I’ll go elsewhere lol I too have trouble with the top being completely baked through because I use a glass pan, but I read on another recipe here to lower temperature and bake longer. I baked at 325 for an hour.
My search for THEE Banana Bread recipe is over! Lemon juice is the secret in this one! For those having problems with under done-ness with baking: add-ins(I do walnuts & chocolate chips, myself) will stretch your batter. You’ll end doing two loaves. Fill your pan ONLY HALF WAY up (I noticed in her photo & after my last loaf was a hard shell on the outside & doughy in the middle) Then the 40 min bake time works perfectly. I tried going towards 45 mins because i didn’t preheat & both loaves ended up a little dry.
Loved it!!
I just made this. It’s so yummy. I added a few more bananas and a tiny bit more flour.
Turned out excellent!!
Thanks for your recipe!
🙂
Gave it a whirl and it seemed to come out fine. I skewer tested it and everything and the skewer came out clean. While cooling on the rack though the top caved in and when I checked inside I found the inside was still not cooked. Not sure why the skewer test came out clean when it was still not fully cooked in the center but sadly there was no fixing it at that point.
Pretty much every other recipe I’ve looked at or used had at least 50 minutes, usually 55 minutes, for a cooking time at 350 degrees. I guess it doesn’t surprise me that this one did not cook after 45 in the oven as that cooking time just seems too low. For anyone trying this recipe I would definitely make doubly sure it’s done before you pull it out.
I am not usually a fan of banana bread but had some that were going in the trash if I didn’t use them, so happy I did. This is a simple recipe and I have to admit I was surprised at the lack of seasonings. I think I figured out why I don’t normally like banana bread. Most recipes have too much added seasonings that just take away from the simplicity of the banana. Thank you for another keeper!
This is everyone’s favorite banana bread recipe in my family. It is different from the stodgy, heavy, sugary banana bread recipes I’ve tried (and liked!) before. This recipe gives a really nice, not too heavy loaf, with a nice crumb and good moisture. The banana flavor and aroma are there but not overpowering, which was a favorite for our adult crowd. I could see it being successful even with a little less sugar. Nuts could be a great addition but I’d pass on chocolate because it might distract from the bread’s delicious flavor. Overall, this is a hit! My favorite part is the crispy crust—can’t get enough of it with coffee or tea!
This cake was very easy to make and I added a handful of hazelnuts to the mix . I adjusted the baking time so that the cake was in the oven a bit longer – 4 m ins or so.
The texture is lovely and moist and its a good sized loaf but I have to be honest it was not my best tasting banana bread as there just wasn’t enough banana – I used exactly what the recipe states I weighted it out – all blackened . It just tasted like a nice cake not banana bread . But toasting it did bring out the flavour a bit more . Question- could I increase the amount of banana – say a third large banana – without messing up the balance of the cake ? That would fix it .
Hi Louise, I wouldn’t add another banana as it would make the bread too moist. You could maybe add a little additional banana but would not add a whole one. Hope that helps!
Recipe was nice and simple to follow. My bread was not done in the middle, as my oven bakes uneven, so it appears darker but not a burnt flavor. I measured out the banana puree to 1 cup, but wished I had added extra. I added walnuts as well. Overall, very pleased!
Excellent recipe! Made double batch today and it is just about gone. Love the the subtle sweetness of it, other recipes usually turn out too sweet. Added some nuts to it too and didnt have vanilla, or lemon juice and it still turned out fabulous!
Perfect recipe! This is the second time I’ve made it because my family loves it so much!
This is the only banana bread I will make. It turns out perfectly every single time.Everyone who I take it to loves it!!
Another winner from Jenn! Take her word for it that this bread gets even better the next day and is out of this world toasted – yummy!