Banana Bread
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.
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
More Quick Bread Recipes you’ll Love
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.
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
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!