Banana Bread
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Say hello to your new favorite banana bread. This easy recipe bakes up with a tender crumb, rich flavor, and an irresistibly crisp crust. It’s a keeper.
On the hunt for the perfect banana bread recipe? Look no further—this is the one. Moist, fragrant, and just the right amount of sweet, it’s phenomenal fresh out of the oven and just as good toasted for breakfast the next day. My family loves it plain, but you can easily add nuts (I’m partial to walnuts) or chocolate chips if that’s your thing.
If you’re in the mood to mix it up, I’ve got plenty of options: marbled banana bread, chocolate banana bread, banana coconut bread, chai-spiced banana bread—and don’t forget banana nut muffins and banana chocolate chip muffins. After all, you can never have too many banana bread recipes!
“Best banana bread I’ve ever made! But it’s dangerous—I steal a slice each time I’m in the kitchen! Next up is Jenn’s pumpkin bread.”
What You’ll Need To Make Banana Bread
- All-purpose flour, baking soda & baking powder: These dry ingredients give the bread structure and lift. For best results with the flour, scoop it into your measuring cup with a spoon and level it off with a knife.
- Unsalted butter, sugar & large eggs: This trio brings richness, sweetness, and structure. The butter should be close to room temperature so that it’s soft enough to blend with the sugar. The eggs help bind everything together.
- Ripe bananas: Provide moisture, natural sweetness, and big banana flavor—the riper, the better. They should be dark yellow with lots of brown spots, or even fully brown. (Pro Tip: To ripen quickly, bake bananas in their peels at 250°F for 15 to 20 minutes until soft and blackened. Extra-ripe bananas freeze well too—just peel and store in a freezer bag until you’re ready to thaw and mash.)
- Lemon & vanilla extract: Lemon juice brightens things up and helps with lift, and vanilla adds a warm finishing note.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine. It’s important to whisk thoroughly; this distributes the leaveners evenly, so the loaf rises uniformly.
Step 2: Cream butter and sugar. In the bowl of an electric hand mixer (or a stand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Creaming incorporates air into the batter, which helps the bread bake up light instead of dense.
Step 3: Beat in the eggs. Add the eggs one at a time and beat the mixture well after each addition.
Step 4: Add the bananas and flavorings. Mix in the mashed bananas, lemon juice, and vanilla extract.
Step 5: Mix in the dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Don’t over mix. (Overmixing develops the gluten and can make the bread tough instead of tender.)
Step 6: Bake. Pour the batter from the mixing bowl into the prepared loaf pan, using a rubber spatula to get everything out of the bowl. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Step 7: Cool and store. Let the bread cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Banana bread will stay fresh for 2 to 3 days; freeze for longer storage.
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.
Comments
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I’ve been on a banana bread kick lately and this recipe is perfect as is (and doubles well). I sometimes add 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts to the batter but the recipe is tasty as is. Another one out of the park (just in time for baseball season lol) Thanks Jenn!
What’s the purpose of the lemon juice? There’s no milk (for buttermilk) in the recipe.
Hi Regina, It doesn’t give the bread a lemony flavor; its acidity interacts with the baking soda, helping the bread rise. Hope that clarifies and that you enjoy if you make it!
Wonderful recipe, thank you for sharing it.
Hi Jenn, do you think the cinnamon/walnut/honey topping mixture you use for the muffins would work on this??
Thanks!!
Sure!
This was quick, easy and delicious! Looking forward to another slice tomorrow morning with coffee.
I made it again with 1/3 cup of chopped black walnuts folded in just before putting the dough in the pan. The taste test rating went up from a 5 star recipe to a 6 star recipe!
We made a non-dairy version and this is our new favorite banana bread recipe! We used one stick of Crock Plant Based Butter and did NOT add salt to the recipe b/c the butter substitute is salty already. For a fun variation we finished with a lemon glaze (powder sugar lemon juice and a couple drops of vanilla).
You know….it’s delicious and I love it, but it’s not pretty. Because I like to display my baked goods in a glass dome, I like them to be pretty. This loaf caves in or comes out flat every time. I even increased the baking powder by a little hoping it would help. I’ll still make it because it tastes good, but I’ll hide it because it’s ugly……lol. Anyone else having this issue?
No, mine domed nicely.
Same exact thing happend to me.
Hi Stephanie, you can try adding 1/4 cup more flour to achieve the dome. Keep in mind though that the cake won’t be quite as moist.
I substituted the 1/2 cup of butter with 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup Oikos Triple Zero Vanilla Greek Yogurt (which is sweetened with stevia), and 2 tbsp milk, and added 1 tbsp cinnamon and a lot of choc chips. Had to bake it about 10 min longer so top would harden a little. Texture and rise was great and fluffy and tasted great even without butter, although I’m sure with butter it would have been even better. I am also a lazy baker, so I blended all the wet ingredients first and added it to the mixed dry ones and the end result was fine despite that. Thank you so much for your excellent recipe that tolerated my substitutions and laziness very well. Everyone loved it.
This banana bread recipe is amazing! I used a beehive-mold cake pan so it was more like a banana cake, which reduced baking time to 25-30 minutes. I added cinnamon to the flour mixture, folded in chopped walnuts and dates, and spooned a cinnamon honey syrup on top of the finished cake. It was delicious and got rave reviews. Thank you so much!
I’ve tried at least 30 of the recipes and they are all hits and fantastic. Unfortunately this one fell short. I usually bake banana bread with almond flour and coconut oil but decided to indulge a bit with this recipe. I followed it to a tee and the ends were dry, overall the bread was a bit dry and lacking banana flavor. I’m sticking to my previous recipe now.