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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I have made banana breads in the past using the store bought readymixes and it would turn out good. But this recipe turned out so much better !! The bread was nice and moist.
This is such an easy recipe plus the overripe bananas for which there are no takers get used up. Moreover, the extra preservatives in the ready mixes are not worth consuming from a healthy well being point of view.
I added two more ripe bananas in addition to the 1 cup measure that the recipe calls for, since I did not want the overripe bananas to be lying around and rotting. I think the additional bananas added more moisture the bread and my family enjoyed it !
Light, tender and tasty, with a thin delicate crust. It is somewhat cakelike, as described in the recipe. Tender as it was, it came out of the pan easily and stayed intact as a loaf. I will definitely make it again.
Best banana bread recipe. i make them as mini muffins for my kids and they are such a hit. Great to add to their lunches too.
Thanks for sharing. Love all of your recipes.
I tried this and maybe I did something wrong. It turned out very dense.
Hi Donna, I suggest trying it again; perhaps you mismeasured something? It’s a very light and fluffy banana bread — not dense at all.
I also suggest trying it again because this woman knows how to put together an unbreakable recipe. I mean it, if anyone could ruin a baking recipe it’s me… And her recipes are THE BEST I’ve found!
This is the best banana bread recipe EVER! It was hard keeping track of the bananas because my boys love to eat them all. This was a hit in my household. Thank-you so much for sharing.
Excellent recipe, great results! Thanks for posting this. I added coconut flakes to give it a slight tropical twist.
My wife has made numerous loaves of banana bread over the years to use up over ripe bananas. I saw 6 of them sitting on the counter today, and whipped this up before the kids got home from school. OMG! Everyone agreed that I make the best banana bread ever now! Thanks as always for such an awesome recipe!
Can I double this recipe?
This was my first successful attempt at making banana bread, and it’s inspired me to write my first recipe review ever. I can’t recommend this recipe enough. It’s the perfect balance — not too sweet, not too dense, etc. etc. Lastly, as someone living in Germany, I also want to say THANK YOU for including a metric converter on your website! It makes prepping so much easier.
Really love this recipe. It turned out perfectly. Wouldn’t change a thing.
This is my new go-to banana bread recipe. It always turns out moist and is idiot-proof – just baked it this past weekend and forgot it in the oven while tending to some yard work and it still turned out delicious even though I’m sure it was baking longer than it should have been…..