This banana bread recipe is moist, tender, and packed with rich banana flavor. It’s a great way to use up ripe bananas for breakfast, snacks, or the freezer.
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Holly’s Recipe Highlights
- Flavor: Sweet with brown sugar, cinnamon, and rich banana flavor, baking up soft and tender with a melt-in-your-mouth crumb.
- Budget Tip: This recipe is perfect for using up those overripe bananas so they don’t go to waste.
- Time-Saving Tip: No time to bake and your bananas are turning brown? Unpeel and freeze 4 at a time in a Ziploc bag for easy baking later!
- Freezing: This banana loaf freezes beautifully. Wrap the whole loaf or wrap individual slices for a quick grab-and-go snack.
Banana Basics
- Bananas: Use very ripe bananas with plenty of brown spots for the best sweetness. If using frozen, squeeze out any extra liquid before mixing. How many bananas in a cup? There are about 3 medium bananas in a cup. So for this recipe, you will want about 4 medium ripe bananas.
- Flour: This recipe uses all-purpose flour as the base. You can replace up to ⅔ cup of it with whole wheat flour. Spoon and level the flour for a light, fluffy banana bread.
- Butter: Use unsalted butter in this recipe. If you have salted butter, skip the salt. You can replace some of the butter with oil for an extra moist crumb.
- Sugar: Sugar gives this banana bread its sweet flavor and soft texture, so don’t skip, swap, or reduce it.
Banana Bread Variations
One of the best parts about banana bread is once you’ve got the hang of it there are so many ways to customize it!
- Add nutmeg or swap pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon.
- To make it into a banana nut bread, add toasted nuts such as walnuts or pecans.
- Top the loaf with pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds.
- Add mini chocolate chips, raisins, or shredded coconut.
How to Make Banana Bread
It’s easy to make the best banana bread with just a few simple steps!
- Whisk together dry ingredients (full recipe below).
- Cream butter and sugar. Add bananas, eggs, and vanilla.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Combine.
- Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.
How to Store Banana Bread
- For best results, keep moist banana bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Freeze loaves or slices by tightly wrapping them in plastic wrap or storing them in an airtight container for up to 4 months.
- Warm slices quickly in the microwave or pop them in the toaster for a soft, cozy bite.
Ripe Banana Recipes
Did you enjoy this Banana Bread recipe? Leave us a rating and comment below!
Ingredients
- 1⅓ cups mashed bananas about 4 small bananas
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened, or vegetable oil
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour (or line with parchment paper) a loaf pan.
- Mash the bananas with a fork to make 1 ⅓ cups mashed banana.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
- In a separate medium bowl, add butter, brown sugar, and sugar. Mix with a hand mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla, and mix well. Stir in mashed bananas.
- Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and stir just until combined, do not overmix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
Video
Notes
To ripen bananas quickly: Bake in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes or until the peels turn black. Cool completely before using.
Be sure to measure the flour correctly by spooning it into a measuring cup, not scooping it with the measuring cup.
Do not overbake. Ovens can vary; be sure to check your bread at least 10 minutes early. Remove from the pan to cool completely.
Leftovers will keep at room temperature in an airtight container for 4 days. It will also keep in the refrigerator, but wrap it tightly.
This is also great for freezing. Wrap and keep in freezer for 4 months.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 221 | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 48mg | Sodium: 269mg | Potassium: 104mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 287IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Bread, Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Delish!!
Wonderful and easy recipe to follow. Turned out awesome, kids LOVED it. Thank you!!!!
I don’t bake, but I decided to give this a try. The recipe was easy to follow. I crushed up some dark chocolate to make chips. It’s in the oven now. Say a prayer & cross your fingers! Lol
My fingers are crossed for you Karen, but I doubt you need it! I am sure if going to turn out delicious, especially with those dark chocolate chips. Mmmm!
I’m so in love with this recipe.it so easy.thanks alot .are trying it today.
Made this just as the recipe stated. I chose to use butter instead of vegetable oil. DELICIOUS !! This recipe is definitely a keeper.
This was so easy and delicious, thank you! I made a few adjustments – used four egg whites instead of two whole eggs, left out the white sugar, and included about a quarter cup of chopped walnuts – and it still turned out great!
Such a moist and tender banana bread! I looked at many recipes and decided on this one, despite the comments about it being too dry. I’m definitely making this again!
I’m a good home cook but never learned to bake until I had grandchildren. This is my go-to recipe: moist and not too sweet. I usually add blueberries, and also the peel of one of the bananas. (Roughly chop the peel and put it in a food processor along with the banana pulp.) I read that Zingerman’s bakery started doing this in an attempt to reduce waste, and customers loved it. Adding some of the peel really does enhance the banana flavor.
Interesting, thank you for sharing Marion. So glad you love the banana bread recipe!
I’m so sorry…I wanted to love this. I’ve been using the same banana bread recipe for years and decided I just wanted to try something different. This was not what I would consider moist at all. I found it to be extremely dry when swallowing it…and very salty. My tried and true recipe comes out so moist you can literally hear it “squish” I didn’t like this at all—and my family was able to resist it. With my usual recipe, I’ve had the kids HIDE it so the others can’t get at it and it never lasts more that a day.
Sorry that you didn’t enjoy this banana bread Chandelle, it has been a big hit in my house, as well as with many readers. If you found it dry, my guess would be that there was too much flour added to the batter. Please see this post on how we measure flour. Hope that helps.
If your bananas are frozen do you drain the water out when they thaw?
I would discard the liquid instead of adding it to the recipe. Enjoy Judy!
My daughter accidentally added baking powder with the baking soda and it still turned out amazing! I had to bake it for 1 hour and 10 minutes. I’ll need to bake another one without the baking powder lol. The top was nice and crusty and inside was very moist. This recipe is a keeper!
Made this recipe today. I double it using whole wheat flour and apple sauce instead if butter or oil.
Added chocolate chips to one and the other added pecans pieces and skor toffee bites.
Then I sprinkled white sugar in top before baking for 50 minutes.
They turned out great.
This was wonderful. Super moist and my new go to recipe for banana bread . Thank you so much!
You’re so welcome Bridgette!
This is my go-to site for recipes and this one’s a winner. The bread turned out great. I used vegetable oil instead of butter (just because I think it’s easier to work with) and threw in 2/3 cup of roasted pecans. Just like mom used to make. Thanks, Holly!
You’re very welcome Aaron, and thank you for enjoying the recipes at Spend With Pennies!
Could I use salted butter, and do away with the salt being added? I don’t have any unsalted butter on hand
I use salted butter in this recipe Layna. Enjoy!
I only had 2 bananas (about 1 1/4c) and replaced the missing amount with milk. I used a flax seed egg replacer as well, added chocolate chips, and it turned out fantastic!
I’m not sure how long I actually baked it in the oven, but I honestly loved this banana bread. It was perfect and my mom loved it too! Easy, tasty, and quick. I actually put 3 medium-sized bananas, since it was all I had.
I’m by no means a baker. I had some bananas that should have been thrown away about 2 days ago. I mushed the bananas I had, but was short about a cup. I bought some baby food toddler cups of bananas, made the 1 1/3 cup requirement and it worked like a charm! It was perfect.
Great improvising Mel!
Love this recipe!! So easy to make and moist
My new favourite recipe! I added chocolate chips at the request of my kids. Top was nice and crispy while the bread itself nice and moist. It too sweet and great flavour. So good!