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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Delish!
With 3 kids, I’ve been doing so much cooking for the past couple of years that I’d lost the will to bake. Lol. Besides, my girls have morphed into much better bakers than me. But, now that the kids are older and I’ve developed the stamina to chop/slice/dice and cook for hours because I’m not out running errands every other minute due to the current health crisis, I decided to take two large bananas and turn them into bread.
I get frustrated with recipes that clearly were never made by the author, so I always know I can trust Jenn’s recipes. I know they will turn out, and if they don’t, then it’s user error. This bread was fantastic. It had just the right amount of sweetness and the bread itself was light. Sometimes banana bread can be very heavy but the recipe for this bread was just perfect.
Thanks for getting me baking again!
The perfect banana bread! Seriously is the best!!!
I made this – delicious! Best cake I’ve ever made and better than Starbucks’ banana bread (oops! Sorry Starbucks!). I used coconut sugar (4oz/1/2 cup) and 2 medium ripe bananas and it looks just like your picture. I was looking at it in the oven from 35 minutes and it was wet and shook in loaf pan when tapped; to solid and didn’t shake at 40 minutes. I took it out even though there was a moist area along a slight crack in the middle. I tested it with a skewer which was clean in outer regions. Glad I did as it was so moist and not overcooked and dry. Well impressed and will be trying the blueberry/lemon loaf next as I have a lemon tree with fruit. Thank you.
I have made this recipe twice now, the second time being a demand by the family as it was an absolute hit the first time! Finally a banana bread recipe which is fantastic! It is really important not to overmix the flour in the last stage, as this as made my banana bread a whole different thing. Oh, and yes, DO TOAST IT THE NEXT DAY. It tastes even better!! Thank you for this amazing recipe!!
This has become the only banana bread recipe I use. I like to make it in 3 small (5-3/4″x3″) pans and it bakes for 28 minutes. Today I folded in 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips right after adding the dry ingredients. It turned out really well! Thank you for this recipe (you had me at lemon).
I made this a couple of days ago. I’ve been making banana bread for decades, and usually use a baking mix like Bisquick or Jiffy. But I didn’t have either in the house, and with two very ripe bananas on the counter just begging to be used, I decided to make one from scratch. I used the basic recipe, but added some additional spices for extra flavor — cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and vanilla. I’ve been adding these to my banana breads for years and they always turn out very flavorful.
I didn’t use the lemon juice — couldn’t see the need for it. I assume it’s to keep the bananas from turning brown, but since they’re baked into the bread, what’s the point ? I also thought the lemon flavor might overwhelm the banana. I’ve never put lemon juice in any banana bread I’ve ever made, and there have been many, many over the years. Seems like a weird ingredient to me. The additional spices preclude the need for anything else to create flavor.
I also didn’t mix the wet and dry separately — I just threw everything into one bowl and mixed it up just until it was blended. That’s how I typically make this bread and have never had a problem with it coming out badly. I baked it at the recommended 350 for about 40 minutes or so. I tend not to time things either, I simply rely on rise and color. A clean toothpick stuck into various parts of the bread told me it was done. Came out great !!
Gee, no wonder you only gave this banana bread recipe four stars. You changed it so much by adding more spices, omitting the lemon juice, and dumping all the ingredients in at once, you
created an entirely different recipe! Sorry my fellow baker, that’s not fair to Jenn, or the rest of the testers.
I used your recipe yesterday and the loaf cane out great! Have you used this recipe for muffins? If so, how many did the mix make and for what temperature/length of baking? Thanks!
Hi Jana, Glad you liked this! The recipe would also work nicely for muffins. It should yield 12 muffins. I’d keep the oven temp the same and start checking them for doneness at about 18 minutes. Hope you enjoy!
Hi, when making banana bread I sometimes bookmark recipes I see, or tear out of a magazine. About two weeks ago I made banana bread from a magazine recipe. Yesterday, I wanted to make this bread again, but could not find the recipe. I googled “Easy Banana Bread” and I chose your recipe. The recipe I made two weeks prior called for brown sugar, nutmeg, etc. I preferred my previous recipe, because it was a stronger taste. Your recipe was fine, but I think I should have added the brown sugar and nutmeg to improve the taste.
I don’t know whether mine is good or not, but we love it, i reduced the amount of baking powder into half since the last time i baked it tastes a little bit bitter, and i add 1/2 cup choco chips in batter. In another muffin recipe i don’t have any sour cream or Greek yogurt, can i substitute it with just a plain yogurt and lemon juice? Please let me know, my bananas got ripened so fast, i am out of ideas how to use them
Hi Dwi, Glad you liked this! Without looking at the muffin recipe you’re referring to, it’s hard to say for sure, but you should be able to substitute the Greek yogurt it calls for with plain yogurt (and no need to add lemon juice). Hope that helps!
Hi can i ask for the measurements in grams please, does anyone know? Also do you use plain flour? This recipe looks amazing so i can’t wait to bake this with my six children!! Thank you 🙂
Hi Sarah, This recipe actually has conversions to grams. To view them, scroll down to the recipe and immediately under the recipe title on the right side, you’ll see a little toggle. If you move it from “cup measures” to metric, you’ll see measurements that will work for you. (And yes, plain flour is correct — it’s the same thing as all-purpose flour.) Hope you enjoy!
Hi Jenn,
Is it possible to use lemon juice from the bottle instead of fresh lemons.
Thank you
Sure, Lin, you can get away with that. Enjoy!