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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Excellent recipe so good and quick another great one from jen.highly recommend.
This would be great bread for my son’s breakfast menu
Yet another incredible recipe from Jenn. Like others, banana bread has always been elusive for me–either underdone, overdone, too sweet, too bland. Finally, we have a recipe that everyone loves, and like all of the recipes on OUAC, it’s foolproof.
I had a few very ripe bananas that I wanted to put to use so I gave this recipe a try. I was a bit unsure of the lemon juice, but it adds just the perfect amount of acid to make this bread outstanding–delicious without being too sweet. Thanks for yet another winner!
This is the very BEST Banana Bread recipe I’ve ever used, no brown sugar, moist, decadent and easy to slice. Has never failed. I sprinkle sugar/cinnamon mix on top while cooling. Thanks!
I love Jenn’s recipes and had 3 leftover bananas on counter. Wonderful, simple & quick basic banana bread recipe. I lined loaf pan with parchment and was tempted to add chocolate chips/nuts but decided to go plain. Perfection, not too sweet or heavy and all ingredients in the pantry. Another winner!
Another delicious recipe from OUAC! I have struggled to find good banana bread recipes and have tried dozens (no lie!). This one met approval from everyone in my family, especially my picky husband! Thanks Jenn!!
Hello, I was wondering, what can I use to replace butter in this recipe for banana bread? I’m trying to keep a healthy lifestyle diet but I’ve been craving something sweet, so I decided I could just make a home made banana bread rather than buying cupcakes. Could you recommend me a healthy yet low calorie, if possible, substitute for butter? (: Thank you very much for reading and I will also be making your chocolate chip granola bars, they look incredibly scrumptious~
Hi Chelsea, I wish I could be more helpful but I’ve never tried this recipe with a butter substitute. You could always try replacing some (not all) of the butter with more bananas.
Unsweetened applesauce or more bananas. ☺
yummm I love banana bread! Have you ever tried sour cream in the recipe? Makes for a very moist bread! Thanks for sharing!
Could these be made into muffins too?
Hi Teri, I love sour cream banana breads (see my chocolate banana bread and chai spiced versions). These can be made as muffins, although they will be very flat.
Every recipe I have made of yours has turned out perfectly, including this banana bread! You and Ina Garten have the best recipes. They are always delicious!
I made two loaves at once: one with the all-purpose flour the recipe calls for, and one with self-rising flour after I ran out of the all purpose. I preferred the self-rising flour loaf, and added chocolate chips. Excellent recipe, very easy to make!