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.
Hi Jenn, if I wanted to lower the fat content could I substitute applesauce for the butter?
Hi Christine, If you’d like, you can replace half the amount of butter in the recipe with applesauce. Just keep in mind that the bread will be more moist and dense. I’d love to hear how it comes out if you try it!
The texture is beautiful, but it has no flavor.
I followed the recipe but, because I first zested the lemon before squeezing it for the juice called for, tossed in the zest (figured why not) and also added some finely chopped pecans. Delicious, very light, moist and is now the only banana bread recipe I’ll ever use.
Your recipes, and this website, brings me so much pleasure Jenn; I love to cook and bake and you help make me a super-star with family and friends!
LOVED THIS! Was feeling like making some to start the week and I don’t know if it’s supposed to be light instead of dense but I love it no matter what! I will use this recipe forever now (like most of your recipes!!).
temp?
Hi Anna, the bread gets baked at 350°F/175°C.
Second time I made this and both times the ends cooked middle was raw. Any idea why?
Hi Rebecca, So sorry you had trouble! What type of pan are you using?
This happens to me as well every time I make this recipe! I use a pan with the measurements suggested in the recipe. I never have problems with any other recipes on this site and bake often, so I guess I’m just cursed when it comes to this particular recipe. I think from now on I’ll just stick with the chocolate banana bread recipe and give up on this one.
This also happened to me. The bread was way undercooked. I’ve made several other recipes from this site that have turned out well but this and the choc chip muffins were complete disasters.
I really must thank you for this wonderful recipe with detailed instructions! I made it with (sifted) white spelt flour, and following the rest of the recipe to the letter (metric quantities), after 42 minutes in the new mini oven it came out perfectly! The texture is really light and soft, and the flavour is beautiful. I may try adding some chopped walnuts or pecans next time as well.
Made a vegan version by using a 50/50 mixture of flavourless coconut oil and light olive oil instead of butter, and 2 tablespoons of ground golden linseeds/flaxseeds soaked in 5 tablespoons of water instead of the eggs.
I added 75g of chopped pecans as well (about 3/4 cup, measured before chopping), and again used white spelt flour.
I sprinkled a tiny bit of sugar over the top before baking, to add a little crunch.
Because of the added nuts, I decided to bake it for 45 minutes this time, and though it ended up with a very slight dip in the centre, the cake was fully done and again beautifully moist.
Each version of this recipe has been utterly delicious, and I will definitely be making it again!!!
Best banana bread ever! And I have tried a lot of different recipes. I think the secret is the lemon juice!
This truly is the best recipe, I have made it several times and it never disappoints. I do recommend to use the grams measurements if you have a scale so it comes out perfect!
Silly question but can you do this without an electric mixer? I added this to my daughters first apartment cook book recipes and she does not have one
Hi Nicole, that’s nice that you’re making that for her! It will take a little elbow grease, but it’s doable without a mixer. Here’s some guidance that may be helpful.
I didn’t use an electric mixer – I used a manual egg beater and it came out great!
This is my new favorite banana bread recipe. It replaces my old one, which was almost identical but used vegetable oil instead of butter and did not include lemon juice. I swapped out brown sugar for white sugar and added butterscotch chips, and it was delicious.
This recipe is the best I’ve tried. I like this banana bread because it’s so light in texture. This will be my go-to recipe forever.