Banana Bread
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This banana bread recipe bakes up light and tender, with rich banana flavor and a crisp, golden crust.
If you prefer your banana bread light and tender rather than heavy and dense, this banana bread recipe is for you. Creaming the butter and sugar gives the loaf an almost cake-like crumb, while very ripe bananas provide plenty of banana flavor and moisture. The outside bakes up beautifully golden with a crisp crust that’s especially good against the soft interior.
You can add walnuts or pecans or chocolate chips if you like—see the recipe card notes for the details. And if your bananas aren’t quite ripe enough, I’ve included an easy trick for getting them ready to bake with. If you have leftovers, try a slice lightly toasted; it’s one of my favorite ways to eat it, and it brings that crisp crust right back.
“I feel like I’ve tried every banana bread recipe on the internet and none even comes CLOSE to this one. Usually banana bread is too dense or too sweet for me, and this one is just right.”
What You’ll Need To Make Banana Bread
- All-purpose flour: Spoon it into the measuring cup and level it off rather than scooping directly from the bag; too much flour can make the bread dry and heavy.
- Baking soda and baking powder: Work together to give the banana bread plenty of lift and a light, tender crumb.
- Unsalted butter: Make sure it’s softened so it creams properly with the sugar, incorporating air into the batter and helping create that light texture.
- Very ripe bananas: Provide moisture, natural sweetness, and plenty of banana flavor—the riper, the better. Look for bananas that are heavily spotted or even fully brown. If yours aren’t quite ripe enough, bake them in their peels at 300°F for 15 to 20 minutes, until soft and blackened. Extra-ripe bananas also freeze well; see my post how to freeze bananas for baking for details on freezing and thawing.)
- Fresh lemon juice: Provides acidity to react with the baking soda and help the bread rise; you won’t taste lemon in the finished loaf.
- Vanilla extract: Rounds out and enhances the banana flavor.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
How To Make Banana Bread
Mix the dry ingredients: Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. This distributes the leaveners evenly, so the loaf rises uniformly.
Cream the butter and sugar: Beat the softened butter and sugar until noticeably lighter in color and fluffy. This step incorporates air into the batter and helps give the banana bread its light, tender crumb.
Add the eggs and bananas: Beat in the eggs, followed by the mashed bananas, lemon juice, and vanilla. The mixture may look a little curdled or separated at this point—don’t worry; that’s normal.
Finish the batter: Add the dry ingredients and mix just until no streaks of flour remain. Avoid overmixing, which can make the bread heavier and tougher. If you’re adding nuts or chocolate chips, gently fold them in now.
Bake: Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. The bread is done when it’s nicely golden and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let it cool briefly in the pan, then turn it out onto a rack to cool completely.
Variations
If you’re in the mood to mix it up, try marbled banana bread, chocolate banana bread, banana coconut bread, or chai-spiced banana bread.
Video Tutorial
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Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas, from 2 to 3 large bananas
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, from 1 lemon
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter and flour a 9 x 5-inch (23 x 13-cm) 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.
Notes
Nutrition Information
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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Hi Jenn! I have so many blueberries on hand and would like to add some to this recipe, probably 1 cup. How do you think that would turn out? And how would this affect baking time? Thanks!!
Hi Renee, I haven’t tried this with berries, but I think it should work. I would suggest tossing them with 1 – 2 tsp. of flour so they don’t sink to the bottom of the loaf. The baking time should be about the same. I’d love to hear how they turn out!
Thank you so much, Jenn, for sharing this Banana Bread recipe – it’s the best I have ever baked – Delicious and easy to make!!!
Christina L
Best banana bread ever! I used just four tablespoons of butter and it still turned out delicious!! So looking forward to your cook book! Do you have an estimated release date?
Glad you enjoyed the banana bread! Yes, the cookbook will be released in the Spring of 2018. Still a ways off, but I think it will be worth the wait :).
Hello,
Can you substitute whole wheat for all purpose?
Love your recipes.
thank you,
Jodi
Hi Jodi, Glad you’re enjoying the recipes! If you want to use whole wheat flour,I would suggest using 1/2 whole wheat and half all purpose. I’d love to know how it turns out!
hi Jenn,
I used 1 cup all purpose and 3/4 cup ww pastry flour. It came out perfect and is being devoured as I type.
thanks! Jodi
Hi Jenn! Great recipe! I love the addition of lemon juice which really brightens it up. I was wondering though, would you happen to have the nutritional facts for this recipe, specifically the carb count? Thanks!
Hi Renee, glad you like the bread! I’ve just added the nutritional information to the recipe, and each slice has 30 grams of carbs.
I make this banana bread today in my bread machine. I follow your recipe except no lemon juice- I used apple cider vinegar instead. The bread turns out just like in your picture. It tastes so good, don’t have a chance to take some photos to show you.
Your recipe is very good. For those that don’t have really ripe bananas, you can put them in the oven on a cookie sheet skin on, at 350 for about 10 minutes. Bananas will turn black. Let cool, peel, and they will release a full banana flavor.
Jenn, I am so happy you have a banana bread recipe. I’ve always used the same recipe but since I absolutely love every recipe I’ve tried of yours, I decided to give this one a shot. Your recipe has less sugar and flour then the recipe I use so that got me really excited. I knew it was going to be a hit when I tasted the batter. We love it! Thank you! Now I can’t wait to try it with coconut.
Hi! I’d like to make these as mini muffins; how long should I bake them?
Hi Renee, I’d start checking around 12 minutes.
I made this recipe a couple of times before I became really brave, now I’m adding pecans and cocoa powder, and having to guard it so I get 1 slice! It tastes just like the banana bread I grew up with, and I love it!