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.
Add a Comment
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Jenn,
Can I use a glass loaf pan to bake this? If so, what temp and for how long? I find when I use glass the baking times very dramatically and the outside tends to get overdone while the inside is still raw.
Hi Heather, Baked goods tend to brown more on the outside when baked in glass pans because glass pans retain heat longer better than metal, causing the exterior to cook faster. If you’re using a glass pan and you often have this problem, you can start out by reducing the oven temperature by 25°F, or lower the temperature partway through baking if you notice the outside browning too quickly.
Hi! Would it work out without the lemon juice? Or is there something else I could use in its place? I don’t have any lemons. Thanks!
Hi Jordan, the lemon juice reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise. You can make it without it, but the bread may be a little flatter. Other readers commented they didn’t have lemon juice and used orange juice or apple cider vinegar successfully.
Thank you Jenn for this amazing recipe. It’s the best one I have ever used. I had a quick look at your other recipes and they look amazing, too. Can’t wait to try making them.
My daughter’s evaluation of the recipe was “life changing”. We love the crust on top and the light, flaky inside is terrific. I’m a fan of raisins, so I gently folded in 1/2 cup of raisins before pouring into the loaf pans.
I’ve tried a lot of banana bread recipes over the years and this is my favourite, I like a lot of recipes from this page. I was worried there would be a lemon flavour to the bread considering the 2 tbsp of lemon juice but there is not
Can you make muffins with this recipe and if so at what temperature and what time pls.
Cheers
Maggie Walker
Hi Maggie, It should work nicely for muffins. I’d keep the oven temp the same and check them for doneness at about 18 minutes.
Seriously the best banana bread recipe. This is the only recipe I ever make now and iv been making it for over a year now. People ALWAYS ask me for the recipe.
Thanks for such a good banana bread recipe , it is truly appreciated
I made this yesterday and it was very good. I did add a half a cup of chopped walnuts. I will say, though that it was even better today. Yesterday it seemed a touch, dry but overnight and a big Ziploc bag increase the moisture and made it even better. my crust developed a nice dome, but never was crisp. That’s OK.
Aaaaaamazing! I had a whole bunch of bananas and I made this recipe and your marble banana bread this evening. Both are delish but your classic banana bread is insanely amazing! I’ve made oodles of banana breads in the past, but this one is hands down the best (hence the title). Thanks for another gem Jenn!
Hi Jenn, can I substitute canola oil for some or all of the butter?
Hi Jill, Unfortunately, canola oil won’t work here as you need something solid to cream with the butter. If you’d like to use oil, you could try (solidified) coconut oil. Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!
I made this delicious banana bread & I reduced the sugar to 1/4 cup & added more mashed banana , 3 mashed bananas (2 large bananas made one cup & I used a medium size banana for the additional). It is very delicious & not overly sweet.
Susie of Montreal