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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I had extra lemons and overripe bananas and was looking for a recipe where I could use both things. I followed one of your comments/suggestions and used enough ingredients for 1 and 1/2 times the recipe and made it in a bundt pan. We really didn’t taste the lemon, but my husband, son, and I all agreed it was the best banana bread (or bundt cake) I’ve ever made…and I’ve made lots of banana breads over the years. Thanks for the recipe!! 🙂
Following the complete instructions it came fabulous. I like that I can place it in the freezer.
Thanks Jenn for this recipe.
Well…..how good is it? My two year old granddaughter is snorting like a piggy and saying, “Bite, Bite!” It has the perfect sweetness and the banana flavor is not overwhelming. Crunchy outside and moist inside. Excellent!
Thank you, Jenn.
LOL — Glad it was a hit! 🙂
Thanks to this wonderful recipe, my first banana bread was a success! It was moist and crusted well. Just a minor issue I’ve noted was the slight metallic taste in some of the bites. Likely, this is baking soda. I do remember mixing it well into the dry ingredients. How could I prevent this in my future banana breads? Thank you!
Glad you liked this! Yes, I suspect the metallic taste was a result of the baking soda. If you feel confident you thoroughly combined the dry ingredients you may just be very sensitive to the taste. I’d suggest trying an aluminum-free brand of baking soda like Bob’s Red Mill or Rumford. Hope that helps!
Hi Jenn,
This banana bread is a winner and definitely a keeper! Love the lemon juice addition, it adds a layer of flavor and smells heavenly. I used olive oil instead of butter to make it dairy free – came out great. Thanks for another great recipe!
Hi Jenn,
We made this delicious banana bread last week. It was great. Everyone enjoyed it at home.
Can you please tell me why it’s not soft in the middle? At the bottom of the bread and in the middle, it was hard otherwise it was perfect. Is it because I added too much butter? Thank you for your recipe.
That’s strange Raji – did you make any changes to the recipe? Any chance that it was underbaked?
Hi Jenn,
I baked it at 325F for about an hour. I have a convection Oven. It baked well. Thanks!
I have searched for several years after my Grandmother passed for a banana bread recipe with lemon juice that matched hers. Most people thought I was crazy when I said she added lemon juice. I will say that this was an easy to follow recipe and pretty much spot on from my grandmother’s recipe. Thank you for sharing ❤ my grandchildren will now be able to enjoy a delicious bread that I grew to love.
So glad you found what you were looking for – I hope it brings back great memories. ❤️
Have you ever substituted sugar for coconut sugar? Trying to be a little health conscious and I know coconut sugar does not rase your glycemic index like refined sugar. Also, I love your cookbook. I preordered before it was released. Good job!!! 🙂
Thank you
Thanks for your support with the cookbook – so glad you like it! 🙂 And I don’t have any experience with sugar substitutes so I can’t say how it will impact the recipe – sorry!
I made it with refined sugar, enjoying a slice with my morning cup of tea 🙂 It’s a winner!!! I will let you know how it turns out when i make it with coconut sugar.
👍
Hi! All I have is bread flour and some really ripe bananas. Will it work for this recipe? Thanks much!
Hi Happy, Bread flour isn’t optimal here but in a pinch, it should work (just keep in mind that the texture of the bread won’t be as tender). The batter may be a little thicker; if it appears to be too thick, add 1 to 2 tsp. of water per cup of flour. Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!
Hi Jenn! I used 1 1/2 cups of bread flour and 1/4 cup cornstarch. And 1 1/4 cups of mashed bananas. Unbelievably, the bread was tender and moist and tasted heavenly thank God! Your recipes are so awesome that even my lack of basic ingredients didn’t mess it up lol. Thanks much ❤️
So glad it came out nicely – thanks for reporting back! 🙂
Hi Jenn, I use bean flour instead of regular flour and add a 1/2 teaspoon of Xantghan gum.
Bet you can’t tell the difference!!
Hi Jenn, I don’t have a bread pan, do you think I can use a round-hole pan instead?
Thank you! Mapi.
Hi Mapi, I’m not familiar with a round-hole pan, but you can bake this in an 8-inch pyrex or square cake pan (bake time would be 35 min).
This is about perfect. The problem was saving enough for the next day to then fry in a pan with butter. Fried banana bread is so good. This version was lighter and fluffier than my own recipe. I guess I have a new one now. Made a load without walnuts for grandmama since she’s allergic and she wouldn’t share LOL.
Hi Jenn, I don’t have a 9×5 loaf pan. All I could find in stores were the aluminum 8×3.75. Nothing on Amazon Prime either. I read through all the reviews, and I see that one person used the smaller loaf pans and it was fine, but another person had the batter overflow. I also have a glass 8×8 pan. What do you think I should use, and should I change the temp & cooking time? I’m not a confident cook so I don’t want to put it all together and just guess…plus, if it doesn’t turn out, I’ll have some disappointed family members.
Thank you! I really enjoy your cookbook and getting your weekly emails. I’ve had great success with your blueberry muffins and baked ziti with sausage.
Hi Melinda, you can bake this in an 8 x 8-inch pan at 350°F for about 35 minutes. (And glad you like the recipes!) 🙂