Best Banana Bread Recipe is so easy to make and super soft and moist! The very best way to use up overripe bananas this bread is tender and packed full of flavor!
Since I have already shared with you my family's favorite Chocolate Chip Banana Bread it was time to give you my very best classic recipe as well! If you love all things banana, then make up these Banana Nut Muffins too, one bowl, so easy, so GOOD!
What Is The Best Banana Bread Recipe?
To make the very best banana bread that comes out super moist, it is important to start out with those ugly, overripe bananas! In the picture below you can see the bananas that I used for this recipe post. These bananas are just ripe enough to work with. They need to be a dark yellow with lots of browning. You can use bananas that are even darker than this! The riper the bananas, the more moist your bread will be and the more banana flavor it will have!
How Do You Keep Banana Bread Moist?
The best way to keep banana bread moist for days is to wrap it tightly! Once your bread is baked and cooled, I recommend wrapping tightly in plastic wrap. Then, take a second step and store it in a large zip top freezer bag or a plastic container with a tight fitting lid. Stored this way on the counter, your bread will last up to 3 days. If you'd like, you can store it wrapped in the refrigerator for up to 6 days.
How to Make Banana Bread:
This recipe makes one loaf of banana bread. The first step is to preheat your oven and prepare a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter.
- Next, take a large bowl as seen below and whisk together your dry ingredients. This will include the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- In a separate bowl melt your butter in the microwave, then add in the bananas and mash until mostly smooth.
- Add your eggs and vanilla to your mashed banana mixer and use your fork to combine everything really well, until you no longer see any streaks of eggs.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together with a spatula just until combined. Don't overmix.
- Now, you are ready to pour your batter into your prepared pan and bake!
**NOTE: You can also mash your bananas with the melted butter in your stand mixer if preferred.
Can you Freeze Banana Bread?
Yes! If you'd like to freeze this then allow it to cool completely at room temperature on a plate or wire rack once it comes out of the oven. Once cool, wrap the bread in plastic wrap, then wrap in foil. Freeze the bread for up to 2 months for best results.
To thaw the bread, remove from the freezer and allow it to come to room temperature, covered on the counter. This will take about 24 hours.
Enjoy!
~Nichole
Best Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Stick (½ Cup) Butter
- 3 Large Ripe Bananas
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter and set aside.
- Add the stick of butter to a large bowl and microwave for 1 minute, or until melted.
- Add the bananas to the same bowl and mash with a fork.
- Add the vanilla extract and egg to the bowl and use the same fork to mash and stir until no yellow streaks of egg remain.
- In a second large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together with a spatula just until combined.
- Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.
I made this while visiting my daughter, who lives in Las Vegas, NV. It's DELICIOUS!! But I live at 4,465 feet above sea level. Please include adjustments for high altitude baking.
Thank you so much!
EXCELLENT RECIPE!! I've made it twice and it's delicious! Super easy and works. You cannot ask for more!
I doubled everything except the flour. I used three cups of flour and 3/4 cup of Dutch processed cocoa. I added an additional banana (7 total). Pecans and a combination of milk and semi sweet chocolate chips. Instead of all white sugar I used 1 & 3/4 cups Brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar. I really like the richer flavour of dark brown sugar. Wow!! This is the most flavourful , moist banana dessert I have ever made.
this was so easy and so delicious-made with my toddler and little one. I added about 1/2 cup of an oatmeal mix(oats,quinoa,amaranth,flax, and chia) plus chocolate chips. now i can eat 6 of them 🙂
Best banana bread I've ever had. Very moist. I'll never stray from this recipe now that I found it!
I used 4 medium bananas in the recipe and baked it for the full 55 minutes.
Saving this as my go to recipe. I used less sugar and it still was beautifully sweet and fluffy! Thank you.
Made it once before and agree it's the Best banana bread ever. But I need help right now. I only have two bananas! what should I do? gotta make it .those bananas are too ripe not to be used thanks!
Peel your bananas and put them in a ziplic freezer bag and freeze them till you have more ripe bananas. This way you can use them for baking whenever you have enough for a recipe. I used to mash them and freeze in plastic containers, but it took too long to thaw. . I like them better frozen and I can see how many bananas I have.
Wow! I haven’t made a lot of banana bread in my life but I sure have eaten a lot it it. I don’t know what magic this is, but it’s the best banana bread I’ve ever had. I didn’t do anything different with it, aside from increasing the recipe by half. I didn’t have a loaf pan to bake it in so I just figured by doing that I could use the last 2 bananas and use my regular baking pan. I will definitely save this recipe. Thank you!!
It is absolutely delicious. I did have to cook it for the full 55 minutes but is was definitely worth it. This is the best banana bread recipe I have ever made.
I bake lots of breads, zicchini/pineapple, etc. One thing I use to make my loaves look nice and easy to extract from the pan is to take a silicone baking mat & cut to fit the bottom of the bread pan. Loosen sides after baking and the loaf drops out. Peel off mat & you have the perfect loaf.
I’ve made this quite a few time and find that using 1/2 of a vanilla bean really adds a richer flavour.
Hey! How many servings to 1 loaf? I've been making your recipe for years & it's always a hit! Thanks ☺️
Made it without eggs, used applesauce instead. Turned out great!
AMAZING!!! We had some modifications that I thought I’d share:
We did a little less sugar (~2tbsp) and added a little honey (~2tbsp) and we use 4 bananas, and it turned out incredibly moist, and stayed moist for a few days!
We make ours in mini disposable bread loaf pans (from Amazon), and so this recipe makes 3 mini loafs. The cook time turns out to be about the same as the original recipe calls for. We start checking it with a toothpick around 35 minutes and again at 45 minutes.
One more thing, we use 4 bananas!
Simply Awesome 🙂 Have tried others but this one is my get go only 🙂
I did it a couple of different ways. First batch I followed it to the tee, came out perfect. 2nd batch I did muffins and added butterscotch chips, chopped pecans and a dash of brown sugar on the top. They were both great. The extra sweetness was good in moderation 😉 my baking time was 52 mins for the bread, 31 mins for the muffins.
Can I do two loafs at the same time? Or do I need to change baking time?
always so good. I have been making this recipe for months my go too banana bread. everyone in my family loves it and as well as friends. MUST TRY!
I've made banana bread about a dozen times based on this recipe. I've added chopped pecans or walnuts nearly every time.
The last time I made it I didn't have Vanilla extract, so I substituted almond extract and swapped out chopped nuts with almond slivers. That was a hit! I have one in the oven with almonds and almond extract as we speak!
Another thing I've played around with is substituting brown sugar. At this point I use about 1/3 brown sugar and 2/3 white. That seems to be a happy medium to me.
One thing I've struggled with is getting the center cooked while not allowing the top of the loaf to get too crispy making it difficult to cut slices without the top crumbling. I'm still trying to figure out this balance, but I've found covering with foil for the first 30 min or so helps.
I've looked at dozens of recipes and I always come back to this one for my baseline. It's great followed to the letter and also easy to tweak a bit when you are out of vanilla extract or just want to experiment a bit!
Try cutting it upside down so the top doesn't crumble. Works with Italian and French bread too.
I was going to say the same thing about cutting it upside down. I love the soft middle with the crispy crust, so I wouldn't try to change that.
Delicious recipe! I had smaller bananas so used four, then lined the top with whole pecans (I'm a Georgia girl!), and sprinkled it with brown sugar. It made a lovely crust on top and the flavor of the bread was delicious! My only suggestion would be to put the loaf size at the top of the recipe rather than at the bottom. I didn't notice that this calls for a 9" x 5" rather than a standard 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" until after my batter had spilled over and burned on the bottom of my oven. The loaf rose beautifully, though! lol My bad for not checking the pan size, but it would be good to have it noted at the top so it's harder to miss. :-).
If anyone does plan to use an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 pan, it would probably be best to not use all of the batter. I used it all, so the bread took about 15 minutes longer to cook, and I had to foil the top so it didn't over brown while the center finished baking. Still turned out great!!
Super tasty and light. Like a lot of other folks, my baking time was quite a bit longer (almost doubled).
Also didn’t have quite enough butter so I added some lard; added chopped walnuts to the top.
I’ll make this again. And again… thank you!