Banana Bread
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Say hello to your new favorite banana bread. This easy recipe bakes up with a tender crumb, rich flavor, and an irresistibly crisp crust. It’s a keeper.
On the hunt for the perfect banana bread recipe? Look no further—this is the one. Moist, fragrant, and just the right amount of sweet, it’s phenomenal fresh out of the oven and just as good toasted for breakfast the next day. My family loves it plain, but you can easily add nuts (I’m partial to walnuts) or chocolate chips if that’s your thing.
If you’re in the mood to mix it up, I’ve got plenty of options: marbled banana bread, chocolate banana bread, banana coconut bread, chai-spiced banana bread—and don’t forget banana nut muffins and banana chocolate chip muffins. After all, you can never have too many banana bread recipes!
“Best banana bread I’ve ever made! But it’s dangerous—I steal a slice each time I’m in the kitchen! Next up is Jenn’s pumpkin bread.”
What You’ll Need To Make Banana Bread
- All-purpose flour, baking soda & baking powder: These dry ingredients give the bread structure and lift. For best results with the flour, scoop it into your measuring cup with a spoon and level it off with a knife.
- Unsalted butter, sugar & large eggs: This trio brings richness, sweetness, and structure. The butter should be close to room temperature so that it’s soft enough to blend with the sugar. The eggs help bind everything together.
- Ripe bananas: Provide moisture, natural sweetness, and big banana flavor—the riper, the better. They should be dark yellow with lots of brown spots, or even fully brown. (Pro Tip: To ripen quickly, bake bananas in their peels at 250°F for 15 to 20 minutes until soft and blackened. Extra-ripe bananas freeze well too—just peel and store in a freezer bag until you’re ready to thaw and mash.)
- Lemon & vanilla extract: Lemon juice brightens things up and helps with lift, and vanilla adds a warm finishing note.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine. It’s important to whisk thoroughly; this distributes the leaveners evenly, so the loaf rises uniformly.
Step 2: Cream butter and sugar. In the bowl of an electric hand mixer (or a stand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Creaming incorporates air into the batter, which helps the bread bake up light instead of dense.
Step 3: Beat in the eggs. Add the eggs one at a time and beat the mixture well after each addition.
Step 4: Add the bananas and flavorings. Mix in the mashed bananas, lemon juice, and vanilla extract.
Step 5: Mix in the dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Don’t over mix. (Overmixing develops the gluten and can make the bread tough instead of tender.)
Step 6: Bake. Pour the batter from the mixing bowl into the prepared loaf pan, using a rubber spatula to get everything out of the bowl. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Step 7: Cool and store. Let the bread cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Banana bread will stay fresh for 2 to 3 days; freeze for longer storage.
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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I haven’t made this yet but I like the fact that you put the cup amount in not just the amount of bananas. I take my ripe bananas and blend them together and freeze them in 1 and 2 cup freezer bags. That way I don’t have frozen bananas laying everywhere in my freezer with no date on them as to how long they have been sitting there.
Good idea about freezing the bananas!
Banana bread is my favorite quick bread to make. Thank you for my new favorite recipe! The lemon juice does make a significant difference. I no longer have a metal loaf pan but do have a Le Creuset loaf pan with ceramic coating. Should I change temp or bake time for this pan? Thanks!
Hi Lisa, I think the bake time and temp would be the same. So glad you like the recipe!
Thank you for a great recipe. I’m baking in an 8×8 at 325 degrees for 18-20 minutes. My guess is you won’t see this before I opo it in 😉 but are there any changes you would make to that? Thanks much!
Nicolette
Hi Nicolette, Sorry if I’m responding too late– my guess is that you’ve already baked this. My suggestion for temp and bake time would be a bit different, though. I’d stick to the 350 degrees in the recipe and suspect it would take about 35 minutes.
Also, do we need to sift the flour? I always do it but am never if we are always supposed to do that for all recipes 🙂 Can i refrigerate the batter and bake it the next day or two days’ time? TQ!
Hi Mariyah, Flour no longer needs to be sifted so that’s one less thing you have to do :). However, the batter does need to be baked right after mixing or it won’t rise properly. Enjoy!
Hi Jenn,
I love this recipe so much! I usually don’t have lemon on hand. Would it alter the bread much without it? What other substitutes could I use?
Also, how long can we keep a banana peeled and refridgerated? If it is soft, browned and soupy is it still good?
Thank you! -Mariyah
Hi Mariyah, the lemon juice reacts with the baking soda in the recipe to help the bread rise. You can make it without it, but the bread may be a little flatter/heavier. Some other readers that didn’t have lemon juice mentioned they used orange juice or apple cider vinegar with success. And, yes, the banana is fine to use. Enjoy!
I would like to make this in cupcake portions. How long shouldn’t I bake for?
Hi Kathleen, if it’s a standard-sized cupcake/muffin pan, I’d start checking them at about 18 minutes.
Thank you so much! Turned out beautifully! Couldn’t eat just one!
Absolutely love this recipe. Made it exactly as written. My daughters (8 and 10) can easily follow the recipe and do everything on their own. They make it and one likes it just as is, the other takes half and adds some chocolate chips into it. Thanks for a great recipe.
Great recipe. It came out a tad dry for me. I followed the steps exactly except used 2/3 of the sugar. The sweetness was perfect. Baked for 45 mins. Any pointers would be appreciated 🙂
Thank you!
Hi Raghida, this bread is typically quite moist. Perhaps it was a tiny bit overbaked. I’d try removing it from oven 2 – 3 minutes earlier next time.
Sugar is considered a wet ingredient (because it melts into a liquid). That may account for the dry texture.
This was super delicious and easy!! I didn’t have enough all purpose flour, so I used self-rising instead (Gold Medal brand) and just left out the baking powder and the salt. Turned out perfect! Thank goodness I found a way to use up some of that flour!
Oh my this is good! So beautifully moist. I added half a cup each of semi-sweet chocolate chips and chopped walnuts to mine and it tastes great. I also reduced the sugar to 1/3 of the recipe because of the chocolate, but I was possibly overcautious– I don’t like banana bread to be overly sweet but it could stand to be a little sweeter than I made this time. I’ll use more sugar next time. And there’ll definitely be a next time!