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
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.
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The only banana bread recipe I use, and the only one I eat.
Go to Recipe!
Delicious recipe!!!.. my go to for sure!
Hi Jenn! I used to make your banana bread recipe and have loved it (fam included)! Thank you so much for sharing it 🙂
I was wondering if you’d have any advice on using an air fryer instead of conventional oven in terms of temp and time? Also, if I only have one banana, would it make sense to just adjust the recipe proportionately to grams of banana?
Glad your family has enjoyed this! I don’t have an air fryer (or any experience with one), so I can’t give you guidance on temperature or time – I’m sorry! And while you may be able to adjust the recipe proportionately to the weight of the banana you have, for the best results, I probably just wait until you have one or two more overripe bananas.
I added a cup of blueberries, great loaf
I made this last week, it was gone in under an hour!
I am planning on making this again this weekend, but a single batch simply won’t do. Would doubling the ingredients and baking it in a bundt cake work? I don’t have 2 loaf pans.
Sounds like it was a hit! This will work in a Bundt pan, but I think you’ll only need to make 1.5 times the recipe. Just make sure to grease the pan very thoroughly so it doesn’t stick. The bake time should be an hour or so, but keep a close eye on it!
Help!!! Your beautiful banana bread is delicious! Whenever I make this bread, or any banana bread, there’s always a dark patch across the bottom – doesn’t taste bad, but I’d love to eliminate it! Usually, I slice off about a 1″ area from the bottom. Works, but I hate to waste. Any suggestions?
Hmmm… does it appear that that area is overbaked? If so, are you using a glass or dark metal loaf pan?
Hi, Am wondering if you’d consider giving some of your measurements in grams as well because of the differences in measurements between the US and countries. (You are popular and have a global audience!) For example, an American recipe sometimes assumes 120 grams per cup of all-purpose flour, and sometimes 125 grams and it would be helpful to know which you use. As well, butter sold in sticks costs $2 more per pound here (ridiculous, I know) so I have to keep reminding myself how to convert the stick into a usable measurement.
I am about to make your banana bread recipe and am sure it will be as good as your other recipes! Thanks for considering.
Hi, The great majority of my recipes (including this one) include conversions to metric/weight measurements. To view them, scroll down to the recipe and immediately below the recipe title on the right side, you’ll see a small toggle. If you switch it from US customary to metric, you’ll see measurements that will work for you. Hope that helps and that you enjoy the banana bread!
Hi,
I am going to make banana muffins and would like to add oatmeal to the recipe.
About 1 cup?
Thanks,
KH
Hi Kathryn, I’ve never used oats in this recipe, so I can’t say from experience, but I suspect it will work (though the muffins will definitely be a bit drier and more dense). I’d replace the flour with an equivalent amount of oats (and I’d suggest keeping the oats to no more than 1/2 cup).
I had frozen bananas in a vacuum bag that I could not separate so I decided to thaw them and turn into bread. I doubled the recipe and added nuts to one loaf. They are delicious. I wasn’t sure about the lemon juice but it definitely added a good extra! Jennifer has been one of our go to chefs, so when we tasted the bread we simply stated “of course it was Jennifer’s”!