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
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 8x4-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?
Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
Best Banana Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3-4 ripe bananas mashed
- ⅓ cup butter melted
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ 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 8.5x4.5-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.
- Sprinkle the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt over the banana mixture. Stir to combine.
- 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.
- 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.
My fiancé and I agree this is the best banana bread I've ever made. What makes it even better is how simple it is and only having to use one bowl! Thank you so much for the recipe. I'm making it for the second time right now and it smells amazing.
I made this tonight , And let me say yummm! I made the recipe as is but added whole raspberries in the middle. So so good but the rasberries are a little sour, (which i really love about them) so may not be for everyone. I dont normally leave comments but had to because it was that good 🙂
Thank you, Shelby! I love the idea of the raspberries in this!
Making this recipe for the third time since finding it last month.
I made this for April’s quick bread challenge. It was an easy recipe to make and so yummy! We added chocolate chips!
I used a tsp of chai spice blend in place of the cinnamon. Yum!
This recipe turned out Wonderfully Delicious. I added blueberries and it was a Big hit in my house. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes.
Please how do you incorporate the banana skin in the batter so its less chewy after its cooked? My wife really didn't like it but she loves the one we buy in store.
Hi Keuvin! I'm sorry if the instructions weren't clear, but you need to peel the bananas first and discard the peels rather than adding them to the banana bread batter.
*ROTF*
Best banana bread I have ever made. I've made it several times. Very easy to put together. I have one good hand, and I get the batter mixed perfectly. Thank you for the recipe. My next challenge is to make a banana cake. Any suggestions for a recipe would be much appreciated.
I'm so glad to hear it was so well received! I don't have a banana layer cake, but these banana bars are basically like a banana sheet cake and they are super tasty if it looks like something you might enjoy!
My favourite banana bread recipe! I double it to make a loaf and add chocolate chips to half for muffins! Everyone loves it!
Since I tried this recipe it's the one I go to when making banana bread 🍞😋
I have used this recipe at least 10 times in the last year…truly so easy and delicious. Thank you!
I'm so happy to hear that this recipe has been used so much at your house, Alex!
Best recipe--so easy and delicious! My new go to for banana bread.
Thanks!
Great recipe and so easy! I love the one-bowl prep.
Delicious recipe
I do mostly brown sugar instead of all white sugar. And add cinnamon.
I do wish you had a “jump to recipe” button. It takes quite a while to get to the ingredients list.
I'm sorry about that Alli! I actually have had a jump to recipe button for years but am in the process of a technical change on the backend of my site. They will be back up by next week!
I loved this banana bread and I have tried quite a few recipes but yours has something special. Maybe it's the baking powder which most recipes don't have. Anyway it tastes wonderful!
One more great recipe looks so delicious, my entire family loved it, I will definitely try your recipe, looks seem easy to make. Five stars for you and thanks so much for this guide.
Followed recipe to a tee and it turned out perfectly. Thank you for the awesome instructions.
I make a vegan version of this at least once a month and EVERYONE loves it!! Substitute dairy free yogurt for egg and I use dairy free butter. It’s amazing. THANK U FOR THIS SUPER SIMPLE AND DELICIOUS RECIPE!!
This bread was awesome! I made 4 mini loafs w 8 bananas (doubled the recipe). I like vanilla and cinnamon so added a little extra of each. Cooked for 40 min and they came out moist and soft.
Could you double the recipe and put it in a 9x13 pan instead of the loaf pan
I don't see why not! I haven't tried it, but I think that would work just fine. It's a really versatile banana bread recipe.
Yum!!
This really is the best banana bread recipe, it comes out perfectly each time and by now I can make it almost by memory. I do check it around 45 minutes with a wooden toothpick just to make sure I don't overcook it. Simple to make and really as good as mom's recipe.
Absolute best Banana bread ever and easy - also I used pecans and dark chocolate chips. The only problem is that I just made it this afternoon and it is half gone.
Looking forward to making this again I might make it my Christmas give away to neighbours and family.
The best banana bread recipe!!!!! Easy.
Been making this banana bread for the past two years. Tried a lot of other recipes in between but keep coming back to this one. It’s honestly the BEST no-fail, classic, perfectly moist and simplest banana bread recipe I have ever made.
Every once in awhile I’ll tweak it here and there by adding in some walnuts or chocolate chips, or a little bit of maple syrup, substituting with brown sugar or even a dollop of sour cream… no matter what it still turns out perfect. Although the recipe is perfect as is, love that it adapts well to whatever I have on hand or add in. Hands down a recipe everyone should have saved.
This was the best banana bread recipe I have ever made. It was easy, quick, and had the perfect texture and flavor. It's definitely a keeper!
Everyone I’ve shared this bread with has loved it. I have found that I’d your bananas are ripe but you’re not ready to bake, I throw them in the freezer. The skin turns black, but I think it makes the banana bread even moister. If using the very small pans, it take about 25 minutes to bake
I make this recipe into muffins, so easy, so delicious. One bowl! (I do cut the sugar down to a little less than half a cup) I use silicon muffin cups and they just pop out.
The bread was fluffy, and it tasted so good. Thanks for the recipe.
Made this recipe exactly as written, using 4 bananas and the extra nuts for topping. It was easy and turned out perfectly moist and oh so yummy. Definitely a keeper!
This banana bread was so easy! My husband and I loved it with pecans. Will definitely make it again and again! Thank you so much!
Came out great!! Added pecans & extra cinnamon, love cinnamon. Shared it & everyone enjoyed it. Keeping this recipe.
Thanks!!
Absolutely delicious! Don’t tell anyone but it’s better than my Mom’s…..and hers is fabulous! Added 1/2 tsp nutmeg and used pecans instead of walnuts. I’ve made it 3 times now and my husband keeps asking me to make it again!
Lol, I promise I'll keep your secret. So glad you love it and I'm going to have to try the nutmeg!
This is the best banana bread ever! My family just loves it. I always have to make 2 of them.
Absolutely Delicious!
Just made this banana bread this afternoon.
Grandkids gobbled it up warm after school.
It wasn’t until a couple hours later that I found the 1/3c butter in the microwave 🤣😂.
If it was that good without the butter I can only imagine how good it will be when I make it and include all the ingredients lol
Thanks Amy, for the yummy recipe.
This is the best banana bread. My family loves it. I also have to make 2 of them!!!
I have made this twice, once each in 2 different ovens. I used an oven thermometer to make sure they were accurate. I did not change any ingredients. I thought the first loaf was dry, so I tried it again and took it out sooner. Honestly I thought it wasn’t done in the middle. But it was done and still dry! I don’t know what else to do. It has a good taste, but it is not moist. I love the ease of the recipe, but probably won’t try it again unless someone has a suggestion as to how to correct the dryness.
Everyone loves this recipe. I make it in three small loaf pans so I can give away or put in the freezer
BEST BANANA BREAD EVER!
Aunt Betty's 70 year old banana bread recipe was retired after 50 years of using it!!!!
This banana bread recipe is my new go-to..
Easy & delicious....
You can definitely teach a 70 plus gal some new tricks!!
Thank you for sharing your recipe
Great recipe! Super easy and delicious! Everyone loved it!! Will definitely be making it again!
Hi all! I really was happy with this moist & flavorful recipe! I used 1/2 cup unsalted butter and before baking added cinnamon sugar right on top. It made a nice topping and there was a crust on the bottom that was so delightful!
I love this banana bread. Thanks so much. Oh, and my favorite is walnuts😁 I started making this when the world stopped. I used to throw my bananas away but when we went on lockdown, I didn’t throw anything away. I was always afraid to bake. Thanks for making it easy.
So glad you love this as much as we do (and yay for another walnut fan!).
This is by far the best recipe I've ever used for banana bread. Every time I make the bread, I get so many compliments. It's my husband's favorite. I did away with the other recipes I had for banana bread. 🙂
I made 6 loaves of this to feed the college cross country team and it was a HUGE hit!! It got more compliments than any other part of the meal. Thanks for the recipe!!
I love that you fed the college cross country team! So amazing!
this easy and delish! I added a cup of chocolate chips at the end of mixing....this recipe is staying in the rotation...
Omg!!! Love this recipe. Added some white chocolate chips.
Yummmmm
Thank you for the recipe, I added yellow raisins, and they are very very yummy 😋 again, Thank you for sharing this recipe .
Love this recipe, although I make it into muffins, with just 20 minutes in the oven.
I’m a cook at the local senior center and I’m making this for lunch for my people today. 💕
I have a 12 count mini loaf pan. How long would you suggest in the oven? Love to try to make for gifts.
For a mini loaf pan I would start checking around 16-18 minutes.