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
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.
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How long would i need to bake mini metal loaf pans of your delicious banana bread? i want to make some and send it to my college-aged daughter ! also, would i need to freeze the banana bread before sending in mail ( 2 day air). many thanks again for an amazing recipe, and i can’t wait to take your next cooking class!
I’d start checking mini loaves at 35 – 40 minutes (and you don’t need to freeze them before mailing). Hope your daughter enjoys! 🙂
This banana bread is phenomenal! I just made it and it’s mostly gone!
Quick question…everything I’ve made from your site has been 5 stars but all the baked goods seem to bake up with a flat top. It’s never as domed as yours. Why could that be? I live in Ontario Canada. Could that be why?
Thanks Jen for another great recipe.
Hi Jennifer, Hmmm, I’m not sure – are you at high altitude? What brand of flour are you using?
Not sure if this is the reason, but American AP flour tends to have a protein content of around 10.5% and Canadian AP flour is around 12.5%. So if we use the AP flour available to us up here, we get more gluten development. I’ve heard some people use a mix of pastry flour (protein content of 8.5%) and Canadian AP flour when they use recipes developed down in the states to combat this protein difference.
Again, I don’t know if this would help in this case, this is just an interesting fact I recently discovered about the protein differences in AP flour. Hope you figure it out!
This is a very nice recipe! Thanks for another winner. I stirred in 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts at the end, and it took the full 45 minutes to fully bake. Very moist and tender, thanks again.
P.S. Actually I found a large raw area dead center when we got to the middle of the loaf. My toothpick test was clean, but maybe I needed a long cake tester. I had baked it for 45 minutes but will increase the time to more like 50 next time. Perhaps it was the addition of walnuts? Many quick bread recipes do bake for closer to an hour.
Hi Sandy, the walnuts shouldn’t have any notable impact on baking time. Is there any chance you may have mis-measured something?
No, good thought but I measure very carefully and sift my flour after measuring. I did think some more about it, and remembered I used extra large eggs. Normally I don’t have a problem with that. I need to use a longer tester next time and probably large sized eggs. 🙂
I hope you have better luck if you try this again! Also, you may want to keep it in the oven for 2 to 3 minutes longer to ensure it’s fully baked in the center (if the top is getting too browned, you can gently lay a piece of foil over the pan for the remainder of the baking time).
Hi Sandy,
I actually had the same thing happen when I baked my banana bread! The center was still extremely jiggly after 40 minutes so I kept adding intervals of 5 minutes until it was firm. The only thing I could think of is maybe it’s because I actually used an 8×5 pan instead of the 9×5 like Jenn used.
Jenn, do you think that could be the culprit? I love your recipes by the way!
Hi Mel, I definitely think the smaller pan is the issue. Hope you enjoyed it!
question: If I am out of sugar, can I substitute brown sugar? Should I make any other changes?
Hi Mary Ellen, All types of sugar behave a bit differently, so for the best results, I’d stick with granulated sugar. That said, it may turn out OK, I just can’t guarantee it. 🙂 Please LMK how it turns out if you do try it.
This is the best, my favorite banana bread..so moist and flavorful. I’ve never found a banana bread recipe that uses lemon juice, so I had to try it …so happy I did. I added a 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Sooo yummy, you’ll want a second piece!!
Thank you Jenn!!
I’m going to make your Pumpkin bread for a gathering so thought I’d try your Banana bread as well since it’s very similar to my grandmothers recipe that I’ve used for years and all have loved. My question is I usually use fresh ripe bananas but all I have are frozen. Do you need to make any adjustments using frozen opposed to fresh? If so, what alternations need to be made? Thank you in advance.
Frozen bananas are perfectly fine (in fact, that’s what I almost always use). Just thaw them so they are soft enough to incorporate into the batter. Hope you enjoy!
thank you for the recipe! the banana bread is light and moist, took 45 mins in the oven. i did 90 grams of sugar as i prefer things less sweet. its a beautiful and easy recipe, the only thing i would want is to have a stronger banana taste – next time will add 1 or 2 more bananas in it! and you really can’t taste the lemon juice!
Just made this banana bread last night and used a gluten flour mix and added walnuts. I was surprised by how well it worked GF! Really lovely texture albeit different from the usual denser banana bread I’ve made in the past. Great recipe and just a tip if overripe bananas are not at hand – pop them in the microwave for a minute or so (skin on and pricked with a fork).
I used this recipe to make 4 mini loaves to add to my bake table at our local craft fair next week. I put three in the freezer for the event, but had to try one as I had never put lemon juice in my banana bread. Incredible! I had two workers here and offered them slices while warm. They said “OMG! This is the best banana bread I have ever tasted”. Certainly not to my credit…..all yours! Thank you for sharing all your wonderful talent and recipes with us!
Do I need to increase bake time if I double the recipe to make 2 loaves? Love your recipes! Thanks!
Yes, I’m guessing you’ll need an additional 10 minutes but definitely keep an eye on it. Enjoy!
Dear Jenn, I have never in my life enjoyed banana bread. I’ve made it from time to time, always trying different recipes, as family members enjoy it. Then came your recipe…as soon as I saw the light and fluffy batter I was hopeful….Then when I ate it warm from the oven, wow! Loved it! Your recipes never disappoint! Thank you! My kids now ask at almost every dinner,”is this from that lady’s site?” Because they love everything I’ve made from here!! 🙂
LOL– I Love that your kids ask for “that lady’s” recipes 🙂 (And so glad you enjoyed the banana bread!)