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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Just out of the oven!
Because of the dark psn I baked for 30 minutes.
Thank goodness I did.
It looks and smells awesome!
I added chocolate chips.
Can’t wait to eat some.
Keeper!
Thank you for sharing your recipe. 💞
Hiya Jenn. This banana bread recipes phenomenal. I’m in my seventies and I’ve been making banana bread for over 50 years, and I really love the way this one turned out. I had three large very ripe bananas that I mashed and I ended up with one and a half cups of mashed banana. Which is one and a half times the amount the recipe calls for. So I added one and a half times every ingredient. Then to bake the banana bread I used my Pampered Chef stoneware mini loaf pan, which makes four small loaves all at once. I baked them at 350° for 33-35 minutes. Thank you so much. I will definitely make this again and the next time I think I’ll add some crushed walnuts. I love banana and walnut together.
I will be using a mini loaf pan (from King Arthur). Did you fill the pans halfway up as the large pan seems to be? Thanks for the cooking times.
Except for using gluten free flour (Cup 4 Cup), I followed the recipe exactly as written. The bread rose beautifully and tastes so flavorful! This recipe is a keeper!
Hi Jenn,
I print so many of your recipes rather than check to see if they are published in one of your cookbooks (which I have both). Is there a way you could mention that the posted recipe is in one of your books? My husband and I LOVE your recipes – I can honestly say I make one to two of your recipes every week…….Thank you in advance for more recipes to follow! BTW, I have purchased your cookbooks as gifts for my “foodie friends” and they love the book!
Hi Cindy, Thanks for your nice words about the recipes and support of the cookbooks! I actually have a “stamp” in the bottom left corner of the main picture for any blog recipe that is also in one of the cookbooks. See the Peruvian Chicken as an example. Hope that helps and keeps you from printing anything unnecessarily! 😊
Well…I’ve been making the same banana bread recipe for 38 years, have tried others, however my husband always prefers the old recipe. Made yours today…he agreed your recipe …is now replacing the old recipe! I’ve been following you for roughly 8 years, and always my go to…you never disappoint! THANK YOU !
My loaf pan is 8×4. Would you suggest adjusting both the time and temperature? If yes, by how much? Thank you!
Hi Jeanne, an 8 x 4 is not large enough for the batter. You’d actually need to use two of them for this (believe it or not, a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan holds double the amount of batter compared to an 8 x 4.)
Jenn
This is a super easy fast delicious
Banana bread recipe the lemon
Is the icing to this recipe made
Three Loaves all the same times
We’re what recipe said
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Five stars
Your recipes are awesome
Easy delicious thank you so very much for sharing
This was an excellent banana bread. Having made a few that were less than good, I was quite happy with it! But I did have to cook it longer than 45 minutes – it sunk in the middle my first try. I did use 3 bananas. Also, I used every Pumpkin pie like spice in my drawer with abandon – nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, allspice – the lot. I liked it, I’m sure everyone has their own opinion on such things. My sons finished it off in one hour.
First time ive made a Banana Bread…..whole loaf was consumed within the same day by the family….now I have to bake another 😋
The recipe has become a staple in our house for using up old bananas. I actually make these as cupcakes and bake at 350 for 18 minutes. I few substitutions I’ve done to make these vegan and use unprocessed sugar: sub flax meal for eggs (1 Tbsp meal + 3 Tbsp water per egg) and vegan butter (1:1 sub with regular butter), and sub 1/2 cup of agave nectar for the sugar. Yum!
Hi Jenn, getting ready to make the banana bread and wanted to add pecan, how much can I add to the batter without messing up the recipe. Thanks in advance.
Hi Arlene, I think I’d go with about 1 cup.
Thanks for the reply Jenn. The banana bread was awesome as all your recipes.