With more than 8 million page views and hundreds of FIVE STAR reviews, this super moist, EASY, and delicious, really is the Best Banana Bread recipe ever! It’s one of the most popular recipes on my website for a reason and our favorite way to use up overripe bananas and it freezes really well too!
Table of Contents
- You’ll love this Easy Banana Bread Recipe
- Banana Bread Recipe Ingredients
- How to Make Banana Bread
- How old can bananas be for banana bread?
- Best Banana Bread Recipe Tips
- How to store Homemade Banana Bread
- Can you freeze banana bread?
- How do you keep banana bread moist?
- How to Make Banana Bread FAQs
- More Quick Bread Recipes You’ll Love
- Best Banana Bread Recipe Recipe
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.
If you have lots of overripe bananas, this bread is a winner! Or try our delicious Banana Bars with Penuche Frosting. Some of our other favorite banana recipes are Old-Fashioned Banana Cream Pie and Homemade Banana Pudding!
You’ll love this Easy Banana Bread Recipe
This is a classic, moist banana bread recipe that is perfect for using up those spotty brown bananas that are lingering on the counter. It can be made by hand in one bowl with one spoon in under 10 minutes. Kids love to help with this one by peeling and mashing the soft bananas, measuring, and stirring. And it’s easily customizable by throwing in chocolate chips, walnuts, or cinnamon chips.
If you need any more convincing, just read the dozens of 5-star reviews after the recipe. Once you have tried this easy banana bread recipe you will never go back to any other.
Banana Bread Recipe Ingredients
- Overripe bananas – The spottier the better! A banana develops natural sugars as it ripens that helps sweeten the banana bread and provides even more banana-y flavor.
- Salted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Large egg
- Vanilla extract
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Ground cinnamon – Just enough to add warmth & depth but not overpower the banana bread.
- Salt
- All-purpose flour – You could even do half white/half whole wheat flour if you wanted.
- Mix-ins (optional) – Chopped walnuts are my personal favorite but my family loves chocolate chips.
How to Make Banana Bread
- 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.
- Peel and mash bananas with a fork in a large bowl.
- In a large bowl, combine your melted butter and mashed bananas using a large wooden spoon.
- Stir in your sugar, eggs, vanilla.
- Over the top of your batter, sprinkle the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and flour, then stir to combine.
- Add in nuts or chocolate chips last, stirring just until there are no more dry spots of flour and everything is well combined.
- 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.
- Bake for 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick, comes out clean and then remove from oven.
- Allow the loaf to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from loaf pan and transferring to a cooling rack.
- Best served warm or enjoy at room temperature.
How old can 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.
Best Banana Bread Recipe Tips
- Don’t overmix. No need to break out your hand mixer for this recipe. You can just use a large spoon to mix everything together by hand, which keeps the banana bread from turning out dense or dry from overmixing.
- Bake until a skewer comes out clean. A toothpick really isn’t long enough to accurately test a loaf of banana bread. A wooden skewer or sharp knife is a better testing tool to tell whether the banana bread is done all the way through.
- Make it your own! Feel free to add your favorite mix-ins or sprinkle the top of your banana bread with chocolate chips or a streusel before baking to change things up.
How to store Homemade 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!
How to Make Banana Bread FAQs
There are usually 2 medium bananas in a cup of mashed bananas. Ultimately you want about 2 cups of mashed banana for this recipe, which is usually 3 big or 4 medium bananas, but it’s a pretty forgiving recipe and I never bothering measuring an exact amount of bananas any more.
Sure, if you have bread flour that you want to use for banana bread you are welcome to use it and the recipe will turn out just fine without any modifications.
My banana bread recipe cooks in 50-60 minutes for a loaf made in an 8×4-inch pan. Slightly different pan dimensions might require a slight time adjustment, but generally speaking it will take about an hour to bake a loaf of banana bread.
More Quick Bread Recipes You’ll Love
Did you make this recipe?
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Best Banana Bread Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3-4 ripe bananas mashed
- 1/3 cup butter melted
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large 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 or chocolate chips, plus extra for topping if desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease and flour an 8.5×4.5-inch loaf pan or spray with baking spray.
- 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.3-4 ripe bananas, ⅓ cup butter, ¾ cup granulated sugar, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Sprinkle the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt over the banana mixture. Stir to combine.1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 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.1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 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.
Video
Notes
- Baking time: If your bread pans are larger or smaller than mine, your bake time might be on the shorter or longer side, respectively.
- Muffins: 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.
I saved this recipe a long time ago and it has become my go to banana bread recipe. My kids absolutely love it and found out that the reason my kids would ask me to buy bananas and then NOT eat them was so that I would make banana bread with them! The favorite version his when I add 1/2 cup of walnuts and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and then sprinkle more chocolate chips on top.
Ha ha that’s funny. What clever kids 😉 Your favorite version is also my favorite version.
I’ve been making this recipe for 4 years now, and it is everyone’s favorite! I make it as a neighbor/mail carrier/pastor/teacher/whoever gift at the holidays and every year someone new asks for the recipe! I’ve found it to be so forgiving and adaptable – we’ve tweaked it to be “free of” many different things (dairy, egg, gluten, refined sugar, etc – sometimes all at once!) and it still turns out and stands out as a delicious banana bread!
That is so good to hear! I am glad so many have benefitted from your delicious bread!
The best banana bread ever. So moist & flavorful & light. It’s a definite 10+
Thank you Trish!