Best Banana Bread
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With its tender crumb, rich banana flavor, and irresistible crisp crust, this is the ultimate banana bread!
Are you on the hunt for the perfect banana bread recipe? Look no further — this is the one you’ve been searching for! Tender with a crisp crust, it’s absolutely phenomenal fresh out of the oven, and equally delicious when toasted up for breakfast the next day. You may be surprised to see an unusual ingredient in the recipe: lemon juice. Don’t worry, it doesn’t give the bread a lemony flavor. Like sour cream or buttermilk, the acidity in the lemon juice reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise and give it a beautiful golden color, toasty flavor, and light, fluffy texture.
My family loves this banana bread plain, but you can easily add nuts or chocolate chips to give it some extra oomph. If you’re looking for more variations — because you can never have too many banana bread recipes! — I’ve got you covered with an array of options, including marbled, a chocolate, chai-spiced, whole wheat, and coconut-pecan banana breads. With so many delicious options, you’re sure to find a favorite!
What You’ll Need To Make Banana Bread
For a really moist, banana-y banana bread, use very ripe bananas. The bananas should at least be dark yellow with plenty of brown spots, and it’s okay if the skin has turned completely brown.
If you’d like to make banana bread and your bananas are not quite ripe enough, you have a few options:
- 24-Hour Method: Put the bananas (still attached at the stem) in a loosely sealed brown paper bag and let sit on the counter. The bananas give off ethylene gas which causes ripening, and trapping the gas in a bag speeds up this process.
- Quick Oven Ripening: Place the bananas in their peels on a parchment or foil-lined baking sheet (for easy clean-up in case they leak) and bake at 250˚F for 15 to 20 minutes or as long as it takes them to reach a deep brown color.
If you have overripe bananas and you’re not ready to bake, don’t let them go to waste – freeze them! I typically freeze them in bags of 2 or 3, as when mashed, they usually come out to about 1 cup (which is what most banana bread recipes call for). Simply peel the bananas and put them in an airtight container or freezer bag; when ready to use, thaw them in the bag and then mash.
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 hand mixer (or a stand 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 dry ingredients.
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.
HOW TO STORE BANANA BREAD
Banana bread is best served fresh out of the oven, but it will keep for a few days, wrapped in foil and stored at room temperature. It can also be frozen for up to 3 months. After it is completely cooled, wrap it securely in aluminum foil or freezer wrap, or place it in a freezer bag. Thaw overnight on the countertop before serving.
Video Tutorial
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Best Banana Bread
With its tender crumb, rich banana flavor, and irresistible crisp crust, this is the ultimate banana bread!
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas, from 2-3 large bananas
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, from 1 lemon
- 1½ 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 on the countertop 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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My family loved this recipe for banana bread! My husband is diabetic so I made the recipe for banana bread on the Splenda artificial sweetener bag. Of course this didn’t even come close to your recipe. Is there an artificial sweetener that would work for diabetics in this recipe? Otherwise, the family will need to eat the entire loaf before he gets home from work, lol!
Glad it was a hit! While I’ve never made this with a sugar substitute, I have read plenty of comments from readers who have said they’ve replaced some or all of the sugar in baked goods with a substitute like Stevia or Splenda and have had good results.) Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!
I made this into muffins using a 12 tin. 350 for 22 minutes since I filled them up quite a bit. I also made them gluten free using Bobs Red Mill baking flour. They were amazing! Still moist today. They remind me of the ones I used to eat as a kid and I’ve been trying to find that same taste with other recipes with no luck. Thanks Jenn! Will definitely be making again.
Hello, Banana Bread looks good. I will add the lemon juice to Banana Bread. Will taste to see the difference or better taste.
Thanks for suggestion..
Hi Alice, it doesn’t give the bread a lemony flavor. The acidity in the lemon juice reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise and give it a nice golden color. Hope you enjoy if you make it!
What will happen if I make muffins with this recipe? Do I need to alter it in any way? Love your recipes!
Glad you like the recipes! 🙂
This should work nicely for muffins. I’d keep the oven temp the same and start checking them for doneness at about 18 minutes.
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve made this recipe, it’s always a winner!
Today I didn’t have any lemons so I subbed 2 tsp of distilled white vinegar. (Recipe calls for 2 tbsps of lemon juice and usually I’d sub half of vinegar but I was worried about it tasting vinegary so I cut back a bit…. I probably could have done 1 tbsp of vinegar and it would have been fine!) Anyway, it worked a treat, I couldn’t taste the vinegar but the banana bread still came out light and moist. Leaving this note here in case it’s useful to anyone else!
Just out of the oven!
Because of the dark psn I baked for 30 minutes.
Thank goodness I did.
It looks and smells awesome!
I added chocolate chips.
Can’t wait to eat some.
Keeper!
Thank you for sharing your recipe. 💞
Hiya Jenn. This banana bread recipes phenomenal. I’m in my seventies and I’ve been making banana bread for over 50 years, and I really love the way this one turned out. I had three large very ripe bananas that I mashed and I ended up with one and a half cups of mashed banana. Which is one and a half times the amount the recipe calls for. So I added one and a half times every ingredient. Then to bake the banana bread I used my Pampered Chef stoneware mini loaf pan, which makes four small loaves all at once. I baked them at 350° for 33-35 minutes. Thank you so much. I will definitely make this again and the next time I think I’ll add some crushed walnuts. I love banana and walnut together.
I will be using a mini loaf pan (from King Arthur). Did you fill the pans halfway up as the large pan seems to be? Thanks for the cooking times.
Except for using gluten free flour (Cup 4 Cup), I followed the recipe exactly as written. The bread rose beautifully and tastes so flavorful! This recipe is a keeper!
Hi Jenn,
I print so many of your recipes rather than check to see if they are published in one of your cookbooks (which I have both). Is there a way you could mention that the posted recipe is in one of your books? My husband and I LOVE your recipes – I can honestly say I make one to two of your recipes every week…….Thank you in advance for more recipes to follow! BTW, I have purchased your cookbooks as gifts for my “foodie friends” and they love the book!
Hi Cindy, Thanks for your nice words about the recipes and support of the cookbooks! I actually have a “stamp” in the bottom left corner of the main picture for any blog recipe that is also in one of the cookbooks. See the Peruvian Chicken as an example. Hope that helps and keeps you from printing anything unnecessarily! 😊
Well…I’ve been making the same banana bread recipe for 38 years, have tried others, however my husband always prefers the old recipe. Made yours today…he agreed your recipe …is now replacing the old recipe! I’ve been following you for roughly 8 years, and always my go to…you never disappoint! THANK YOU !
My loaf pan is 8×4. Would you suggest adjusting both the time and temperature? If yes, by how much? Thank you!
Hi Jeanne, an 8 x 4 is not large enough for the batter. You’d actually need to use two of them for this (believe it or not, a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan holds double the amount of batter compared to an 8 x 4.)
Jenn
This is a super easy fast delicious
Banana bread recipe the lemon
Is the icing to this recipe made
Three Loaves all the same times
We’re what recipe said
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Five stars
Your recipes are awesome
Easy delicious thank you so very much for sharing
This was an excellent banana bread. Having made a few that were less than good, I was quite happy with it! But I did have to cook it longer than 45 minutes – it sunk in the middle my first try. I did use 3 bananas. Also, I used every Pumpkin pie like spice in my drawer with abandon – nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, allspice – the lot. I liked it, I’m sure everyone has their own opinion on such things. My sons finished it off in one hour.
First time ive made a Banana Bread…..whole loaf was consumed within the same day by the family….now I have to bake another 😋
The recipe has become a staple in our house for using up old bananas. I actually make these as cupcakes and bake at 350 for 18 minutes. I few substitutions I’ve done to make these vegan and use unprocessed sugar: sub flax meal for eggs (1 Tbsp meal + 3 Tbsp water per egg) and vegan butter (1:1 sub with regular butter), and sub 1/2 cup of agave nectar for the sugar. Yum!
Hi Jenn, getting ready to make the banana bread and wanted to add pecan, how much can I add to the batter without messing up the recipe. Thanks in advance.
Hi Arlene, I think I’d go with about 1 cup.
Thanks for the reply Jenn. The banana bread was awesome as all your recipes.