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
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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 have a question, what is the baking time if I want to make the same recipe but with mini loaf pans 5.75 x 3 in?
Hi Giselle, I’d start checking them at about 35 minutes. Enjoy!
Hi Jenn – thank you for all your wonderful recipes.
I have made this banana bread twice now and both times it did not rise in the middle like your picture. The top was flat. What am I doing wrong?
Annie
Hi Annie, I don’t think you did anything wrong – this particular banana bread doesn’t dome much in the middle, if at all. It has a tender, cake-like texture and bakes up more like a cake than a traditional bread. But if you want to get more rise in the center, you can increase the flour to 2 cups; the bread will just be a bit denser.
Not only is This Recipe and every recipe I’ve tried here wonderfully delicious, but cooking with you is such a joy, your presentations are just my happy place, thank you!!!
💗
Hi Jenn! Your cookbook and website are my go-tos whenever I’m looking for a recipe or menu inspiration. Thank you for years of delicious meals! I’ve made this bread dozens of times, but wondering if you have suggestions for making it healthier? For example, oatmeal or oat flour as sub for white flour? Thank you!
Hi Tess, Thanks for your kind words — so glad you like them! If you’d like to use a healthier flour, I’d suggest white whole wheat. White whole wheat flour is lighter and milder tasting than regular whole wheat flour (yet just as nutritious). Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!
Great recipe, I have now made these several times. I do them as muffins. Instead of making it as bread I cook them as muffins to eat and freeze for later. Recipe yields 18 muffins, 350° for 25 min, rest in pan for 10 just like bread then transition to a cooling rack.
Thank you for an easy recipe that tastes great. I also add cranberries and crushed walnuts in mine.
truly the best banana bread. the lemon, as an ingredient was surprising, added another layer. I also microwave my bananas, peel them and set them over a sieve, and press to remove the liquid, if the liquid is thick I fold the bananas back in, if the liquid to thin I will reduce the liquid to thicker constancy, cool and then fold back into the bananas, for me, helps deepen the flavor. I have tried several of your recipes, this is the first baking recipe. loved it!!
I usually love the taste of lemon but not too fond of it in this recipe. Otherwise very good and easy to make once all ingredients are set out.
It’s a keeper ☺️
Hi Jen,
Can I cover the top with foil to prevent the sides from getting too brown or can I put those strips that u wet around the pan?
Thank you
Lin
Hi Lin, I wouldn’t keep it covered the whole time but if you find that the top is browning more than you’d like, you can loosely lay a piece of foil on top of the loaf pan.
Love this recipe! I do lightly tent mine after the allotted baking time is up and I still feel it made need a few more minutes. Comes out great!!
Same here. I usually bake the banana bread for about an hour, but I tent it loosely with a foil by the 45-minute mark, sometimes earlier. Bread is done but still moist, and the top is nicely brown, not burnt
Hi Jen,
I’ve made this recipe a couple of times now, and love it each time! Sometimes I also change it up by adding in 1 tsp of cinnamon and a cup of crushed almonds/walnuts for extra flavour and texture.
A friend of mine can’t have butter. So I would like to ask if I am able to change up the butter in the recipe to a neutral oil like Canola oil? So for example, rather than creaming the butter and sugar, I will be whisking the eggs and sugar until it is light and fluffy, before adding in the other wet/dry ingredients in. And if so, should I replace the butter and oil in a 1:1 ratio? Thank you again!
Hi Patrick, so glad you like this! If you need a replacement for butter, I’d suggest (solidified) coconut oil. You really need to cream the sugar and the fat and solidified coconut oil will do the trick. And you should use the same amount, so ½ cup. Hope that helps!
Hi Jenn,
Can I use lemon juice in a bottle in place of fresh lemons.
Thank you
Lin
Sure, Lin, that will work. Enjoy!
When I use lemon juice in the bottle, do I use 2 tablespoons of the bottled lemon juice?
Thank you
Lin
Yes, you’d use the same amount.