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.
Your banana bread sounds delicious and I would like to make it. At what speed do you use the electric beater, high, medium to beat the sugar and butter? At what speed (low, medium, high) do you use to beat the eggs, and how long do you beat for each egg, 30 seconds? Thank you for the recipe. I have made several of your recipes and they were really good !!!
Hi Helen, I’d beat the butter and sugar on medium/medium-high and the eggs on medium for about 30 seconds. Hope you enjoy! 🙂
This turned out to be a delicious classic. It’s moist and dense but still light and airy. I’m dairy-free so I used dairy-free butter. I didn’t have unsalted butter so I omitted the salt. I also added dairy-free chocolate chips to the top before baking. I meant to fold them in before but forgot. Will be making again!
Jenn, you never steer me wrong! This recipe is absolutely delicious. I followed the recipe almost to a T with the exception of adding chocolate chips and decreasing sugar to 2/3 cup to offset sweetness of chocolate chips. So so good and a perfect snow storm recipe… we are looking at two feet here!
Delicious, added choco chips and came out beautifully
Felt I should comment, as this is my favourite banana bread recipe. It is the only recipe that turns out great every time I make it. I have had little luck finding a healthier banana bread recipe – would love it if you had a recipe for a healthier version!
Glad you like it, Gem — you may want to give this one a try. Hope you enjoy if you make it!
I love this recipe! But when I tried doubling the recipe and making two loaves, one of them came out uncooked in the middle but very brown on the outside. Any tips on how much time to bake?
Hi Jean, I’m sorry to hear you had a problem doubling this! Were the two loaf pans the same size? Was one of them glass or darker metal?
How would you recommend doubling this recipe?
Hi Sasha, I would double all of the ingredients; if you bake 2 loaves at the same time, they will take a bit longer to cook.
Needs to include What temperature?
Hi James, the bread should be baked at 350°F/175°C. Hope you enjoy!
Soooooooooo gooood. Doing it every day though I wish it was a little crunchier.
This is the best recipe for Banana Bread I have ever used. The addition of lemon and vanilla makes all the difference.
I’ve made this numerous times – perfect.
However, I would now like to make in those mini tinfoil 4.5 x 8.6 pans.
Does anyone know how long to bake? And do you keep the oven temp the same?
Glad you like it! Because the recipe calls for a 9 x 5“ loaf pan, the ones that you’re describing aren’t much smaller. You could divide the batter into two of those pans and it will make two flatter loaves. I’d keep the oven temp the same, but It will also take less time so keep a close eye on them. If you want to make two fuller loaves, I’d suggest making one and a half times the recipe. Hope that helps!
I know you like an update:
Just took out of the oven at 37 min using your recipe divided in half for each mini loaf.
Good to know — thanks for reporting back!