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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Baking isnt my thing but I had a go at this one. It was easy to follow and I must say it wasnt too bad actually quite a big hit in the house! Will definitely be making another one….might have to invest in a mixer…a handheld one at least 🙂
A very lovely banana bread, gorgeous spread with a bit of butter with morning cuppa. I also freeze slices for my boyfriend to take to work in his packed lunches 👍🏼
One of the best banana bread recipes I’ve ever made! Thank you!
I made this delicious banana bread yesterday afternoon. More than half is already gone and there are only 2 of us. So light and airy! Before I juiced the lemon, I added some of the lemon zest, couldn’t resist. Loving this with our coffee this morning. Perfect Directions! Thank you!!
Just made this recipe and it turned out amazing!!!! I would definitely recommend. Thanks for sharing this. My son & husband loved it!
My family loved this recipe for banana bread! My husband is diabetic so I made the recipe for banana bread on the Splenda artificial sweetener bag. Of course this didn’t even come close to your recipe. Is there an artificial sweetener that would work for diabetics in this recipe? Otherwise, the family will need to eat the entire loaf before he gets home from work, lol!
Glad it was a hit! While I’ve never made this with a sugar substitute, I have read plenty of comments from readers who have said they’ve replaced some or all of the sugar in baked goods with a substitute like Stevia or Splenda and have had good results.) Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!
Jenn, I wanted to let you know that the substitution of Splenda for the sugar in the original recipe turned out well. However, next time I will substitute only half of the sugar with Splenda because we like more of a crust on the bread. I think the use of Splenda made the crust softer. Thank you for providing the information so quickly!
Good to know, Jan — thanks for taking the time to follow up!
Monk fruit sugar, it’s diabetic friendly and helps to regulate blood sugar. It’s a little expensive but worth it as it doesn’t compromise on taste.
I made this into muffins using a 12 tin. 350 for 22 minutes since I filled them up quite a bit. I also made them gluten free using Bobs Red Mill baking flour. They were amazing! Still moist today. They remind me of the ones I used to eat as a kid and I’ve been trying to find that same taste with other recipes with no luck. Thanks Jenn! Will definitely be making again.
Hello, Banana Bread looks good. I will add the lemon juice to Banana Bread. Will taste to see the difference or better taste.
Thanks for suggestion..
Hi Alice, it doesn’t give the bread a lemony flavor. The acidity in the lemon juice reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise and give it a nice golden color. Hope you enjoy if you make it!
What will happen if I make muffins with this recipe? Do I need to alter it in any way? Love your recipes!
Glad you like the recipes! 🙂
This should work nicely for muffins. I’d keep the oven temp the same and start checking them for doneness at about 18 minutes.
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve made this recipe, it’s always a winner!
Today I didn’t have any lemons so I subbed 2 tsp of distilled white vinegar. (Recipe calls for 2 tbsps of lemon juice and usually I’d sub half of vinegar but I was worried about it tasting vinegary so I cut back a bit…. I probably could have done 1 tbsp of vinegar and it would have been fine!) Anyway, it worked a treat, I couldn’t taste the vinegar but the banana bread still came out light and moist. Leaving this note here in case it’s useful to anyone else!
Your instinct is correct. I make this banana bread a lot, and multiple times, I’ve used 1 Tbsp white vinegar in place of 2 Tbsp lemon juice. I’ve never tasted any vinegar; the banana bread is as delicious as if I used lemon juice. (Might also have something to do with the chocolate chips that I add, but I’m sure plain is just as good)