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.
Hello Jenn,
I cannot take butter/margarine because of my health issues. Can I substitute butter with oil? If yes will olive oil work and how much should I use it?
Thanks
Hi Fari, I do think oil (1/2 cup or 120 ml) will work in this recipe since the butter is melted.
The recipe says butter softened but in your reply to Fari February 19 you said oil would work since butter is melted! Am I missing something?? Also, your recipes are the best and we’ve enjoyed so much!! Thank you 😊
Mary 10/10/18
Just out of oven & is deeeeelicious!!
Sorry for the confusion, Mary – I recently changed the recipe. 🙂
Can I do this without any sugar? Thanks
Hi J, You can cut the sugar back by 1/4 to 1/2 cup but I definitely wouldn’t omit it – sorry!
This is my second time in less than a week making this bread. My children always request it. They find it so delicious. They also help mash the bananas.
We add about 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips to it. Great recipe! Easy to make.
This is a great recipe. Simple, not too sweet, and I love the crispy edges. I live at 4,800 ft above sea level. Since there was quite a bit of leavening in this recipe, I kept the full amount of baking soda but decreased the baking power to 1/2 t. and the rise was perfect.
I was just wondering if adding cinnamon and other spices would alter the taste? And if not, was there a reason you didn’t add it?
Thanks!
I don’t use them in this recipe so you can really taste the banana, but it’s perfectly fine to add cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. Hope you enjoy!
This was then best banana bread recipe I’ve ever baked (& I’ve baked a lot). I used 1 cup ap flour and 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. It’s so simple I didn’t think it would be special but it is! Just the right amount of sweetness, moist & the top and edges have a slight crunch. I had to cover the loaf for the last 15 minutes because my oven runs hot and the top was already nice and brown.
Simple and accurate. Thanks!
I combined this recipe with the directions of the Coconut Pecan Banana Bread:
https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/banana-bread-with-coconut-and-pecans.html
I liked the simplicity of this recipe’s ingredients (I only had the basics). I also added leftover dried cranberries, walnuts, and juice/pulp of a clementine instead of lemon juice. I did not over stir the large ingredients and did not fall to the bottom 🙂 It tasted great!
My husband said that this may be the best banana bread he’s ever had! I used 3 overripe bananas and the flavor was delicious!
This is a good recipe, less sugar than most banana breads that use 1 cup of sugar. But, I use 1/2 cup and it is just fine (of course, I also add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips!). I also use 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat flour.
My family loves this recipe! My very pick son said “mom, your banana bread is good!” I add 1/2 cup choc chips. Recipe comes out great with Earth Balance butter sticks if anyone needs dairy free.