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Super moist, EASY, and delicious, this is the Best Banana Bread recipe ever! It’s our favorite way to use up overripe bananas and it freezes really well too!

My family goes in spurts of eating so many bananas that I’m always having to go to the store for more, or completely ignoring them so I end up with a bunch of overripe, spotted bananas sitting on the counter. When that happens, the first thing I think to make is homemade banana bread! 

This happens more often that I would like to admit, so sometimes we switch things up with coconut lime glazed banana bread or by adding walnuts and making banana nut muffins. But this easy banana bread recipe is definitely my go-to when I’m up to my eyeballs in bananas that I don’t want to go to waste. 

Banana bread is as delicious as it smells and this easy banana bread recipe will have your tastebuds salivating while it’s still baking in the oven. A slice of moist, warm banana bread fresh from the oven with a little butter on makes a great snack, breakfast food, or treat.

How to make banana bread

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare a loaf pan by spraying it with nonstick cooking spray and lightly dusting it with flour. This will help your loaf to not stick to the pan when baking. You can also use Baker’s Joy (affiliate link) cooking spray, it has flour built-in, saving you one step and a little mess.
2. In a large bowl, combine your melted butter and mashed bananas using a large wooden spoon. 
3. Stir in your sugar, eggs, vanilla.
4. Over the top of your batter, sprinkle the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and flour, then stir to combine.
5. Add in nuts or chocolate chips last, stirring just until there are no more dry spots of flour and everything is well combined.
6. Pour your batter into the prepared loaf pan and sprinkle the top with more walnuts or a little sugar if you want a sweeter crust. 
7. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick, comes out clean and then remove from oven.
8. Allow the loaf to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from loaf pan and transferring to a cooling rack. 
9. Best served warm or enjoy at room temperature.

How ripe should bananas be for banana bread?

The best banana bread is made with overly ripe bananas. You can tell bananas are overripe when they turn deep yellow and get brown giraffe spots all over them. Even almost completely black bananas are still good for banana bread. My family can handle eating fresh bananas with just a few spots, but once they start looking like this, I know nobody is going to touch them.

Bananas ripen and darken as the sugars inside of the flesh begin to break down, making the banana sweeter in the process. So the riper the banana you use, the sweeter the banana bread becomes.

You can speed up the banana ripening process by placing several bananas and an apple inside of a brown paper bag, closing the top and letting them sit on the counter for a day or two. The gases released will speed up the banana ripening process using this method.

Or if you don’t already happen to have ripe bananas on hand and can’t wait for your underripe (or perfectly ripe, depending on your point of view) bananas to ripen fully, you can help the process along by sticking the bananas in the oven for a little bit. Just place them whole (with peel intact) on a baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees F for about 20 minutes, then cool, peel, and use in this banana bread recipe as normal. 

How to store banana bread?

Store your banana bread in a ziploc bag or in another airtight container on the counter for a few days. Refrigerating it will help it last a day or two longer. But after about 5 days banana bread starts tasting stale, even if it has been wrapped tightly or kept in an airtight container in the fridge.

Can you freeze banana bread?

Yes! You can freeze banana bread! You can either slice it first and freeze the slices individually so you can easily enjoy banana bread whenever you want, or you can freeze entire loaves for later consumption.

Like I mentioned earlier, sometimes I am left with bunches of overripe bananas, so I will double or triple this recipe and make multiple loaves at a time. Sometimes I give them to friends, but often I will just set some aside in the freezer for later. 

To freeze a loaf of banana bread, let it cool completely, then wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in an airtight container or freezer-safe ziploc bag, then stick it in your freezer. That’s it!

To freeze individual slices of banana bread (something I like to do because it makes it easy to stick into school lunches or give the kids for breakfast on busy days), lay individual slices flat on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Freeze for 1-2 hours, then transfer to a freezer-safe ziploc bag and stick them back in the freezer.

For best quality, enjoy it within 2 to 3 months, although honestly I’ve dug a loaf out of the freezer 6 months down the road and it’s still pretty darn good.

How do you keep banana bread moist?

With this moist banana bread recipe, you shouldn’t have to worry about your loaf coming out dry unless you overbake it. If that happens, you can cut off a few slices and warm them in the microwave with a damp paper towel to help steam them back to freshness.

You can also prevent your easy banana bread from going dry during storage by keeping it sealed in an airtight container.

But generally speaking, the amount of bananas in the recipe will help keep the banana bread nice and moist for days!

More Quick Bread Recipes You’ll Love

• Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
• Passion Fruit Lemon Loaf
• Irish Soda Bread
• Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
• Cherry Bread
• Lemon Blueberry Bread
• Perfect Cornbread
• Apple Carrot Bread

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Yield: 10 servings

Best Easy Banana Bread Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 3-4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chopped walnuts, plus extra for topping if desired

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour an 8.5x4.5-inch loaf pan or spray with baking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas with the melted butter, then add the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Stir well with a large wooden spoon.
3. Sprinkle the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt over the banana mixture. Stir to combine.
4. Add flour and walnuts or chocolate chips (if desired), and stir just until no streaks of flour remain. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Slice into 10 thick slices and serve.

Notes

If your bread pans are larger or smaller than mine, your bake time might be on the shorter or longer side, respectively.

This banana bread recipe can also be made as muffins. Just divide between the cups of a muffin tin and bake for 20-24 minutes until muffins are done and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

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  8.5 x 4.5-Inch Bread Loaf Pans

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

10

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 309 Total Fat: 15g Saturated Fat: 5g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 9g Cholesterol: 35mg Sodium: 257mg Carbohydrates: 42g Net Carbohydrates: 0g Fiber: 3g Sugar: 21g Sugar Alcohols: 0g Protein: 5g