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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This was great! I actually had three really brown bananas. I read a few reviews and tried mashing the bananas first and popping them in the freezer and later using them. That really released all of the sugars making this a really good banana bread, however it makes your banana bread SLIGHTLY darker in color. I also didn’t have lemon juice so I used 5% acidity distilled white vinegar. Turned out well!
can i use cake flour?
Hi Jackie, This banana bread is so light as is, that I wouldn’t really recommend it. If that’s all you have though, you could use it but I would increase the amount of flour by a few tablespoons.
Just made it! I had two bananas on my counter. I halved the recipe. To make my banana bread, I always mash my bananas first, pop them in the freezer in the morning and when I go to use them I just defrost them by putting a hot bowl of water underneath the banana bowl. Makes the bananas much better. This recipe was delicious; finished the same night.
Thanks Jenn!
Does it have to have lemon juice? I don’t usually have that on hand, but want to make this… Like now. LOL. I love your pumpkin bread and pumpkin corn muffins… Which I’ve made in the past week.
Melissa, You won’t taste the lemon juice; it just reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise. You can try baking the bread without it, but it may be a little heavier/flatter.
This banana bread is easy, moist, flavorful and fantastic. I’m making it (2 loaves) for the second time today. I add more walnuts but that’s the only change. It’s perfect as is but we love walnuts.
Every recipe I have tried has been excellent. Banana Bread no exception. Best resource yet.
First, I love your site and your recipes! I’ve made the pumpkin bread multiple times to rave reviews. I’m an experienced baker, and I’ve double checked all the ingredients and amounts I used (made exactly as written) but within 10 minutes of being in the oven its overflowed the 9×4 pan (at least 1/2 c of batter) and collapsed in the middle. I feel like it rose too quickly but I don’t know why. Any thoughts? I’m definitely willing to try again based on my success with your other recipes. Thanks!
Hi Amy, So sorry you had trouble with the bread. The recipe calls for a 9×5 pan. You mentioned your pan is 9×4, which might explain the problem — although, that is an odd size for a loaf pan. Did you mean to write 8×4? If you used an 8×4, which is a typical size, the batter would definitely overflow.
Thank you, Jenn! My pan was a 9×5 (sorry for the typo). I also forgot to mention I live in Denver (one mile above sea level), so I wonder if my leavening agents don’t need quite as much boost (things tend to rise and fall more quickly here). It was moist and delicious regardless of how it looked; I’ll just have try it again!! 🙂
Ahh, yes — Denver is likely the problem 🙂
I love your recipes and really want to try this banana bread but I’m getting confused with how many grams are actually in a cup. I’ve searched the net but the answer varies wildly. Could you possibly give the recipe with grams as well as cups please for your UK fans. Also, would it work if I used half whole wheat flour? Thank you!
Hi Shirley, I added metric units to the recipe for you. In the top right corner of the recipe, there is a button that allows you to choose cup or metric measures. Hope that helps. I have recently started adding metric measurements to my recipes but am still going back through the archives and updating older recipes. If you come across any others that you’d like to try, let me know and I’ll bump them to the top of my list 🙂
Oh, and I think half whole wheat flour would work, but it won’t be nearly as delicate — maybe try it as is first, then experiment?
I tried the recipe today (exactly as you wrote it) and just WOW!!
So light and moist, a real keeper! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, you are so kind to spare the time to do that. Yes we have lots of banana bread recipes in the UK I could have used but with the amazing reviews this one has how could I not try it! 🙂
This bread was amaaazzing. So light and moist and banana-eeeee! It really doesn’t need anything added to it but I wanted a little bit of crunch on top. I had no nuts so i added a generous sprinkling of hemp hearts on top. It turned out great!! Highly recommend trying this bread if you are looking for a keeper! 🙂
I am officially in awe of Jenn Segal. 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. I will be keeping this recipe forever! Can’t wait to try all the other recipes on this site!