Homemade Banana Bread Recipe
This banana bread is ultra tender and moist, and it’s incredibly easy to make! You also can easily divide and double this recipe to suit your needs. And the best part is, banana bread freezes like none other!
* This post was updated with new pictures (for the gazillionth time!) 🙂
Banana bread is one of my all time favorite desserts! It’s easy to make, (relatively) healthy, and a great way to deal with overly ripe bananas sitting on your counter (an issue I know ALLLL too well).
It’s also easy to pack and take on the go! I personally like to double (aka: quadruple) the recipe and freeze off any extras! For emergency banana bread needs.
How to Make Banana Bread:
1. Cream butter and sugar together. You just need the sugar to dissolve. No need to beat the butter until it’s fluffy!
2. Add eggs and vanilla. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Tip: If you want your eggs to get to room temperature quickly, you can just submerge them in a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes!
3. Add your mashed bananas. Mix to combine.
4. Add in your flour, baking soda and salt. Mix everything together juuuussst until you no longer see any dry flour spots. Take care not to over-mix because that can cause your banana bread to end up dry and dense!!
5. Transfer the batter to a greased/parchment lined baking dish, and bake. How long to bake banana bread depends on the type of baking dish you use. If baking in a loaf pan, it’ll take the banana bread around 45 to 50 minutes to bake in a preheated 350°F oven.
What Type Of Bananas Should You Use For Banana Bread?
When making banana bread, you should use ripe bananas. The bananas should have a healthy amount of black specs on the peel, and they should be quite soft.
Model them after these handsome fellas:
How Many Bananas Should You Use For Banana Bread?
With this recipe for banana bread, you should try to use between 3 to 4 bananas (depending on how much banana flavor you want). If you add more bananas, you may also need to reduce the sugar depending on your taste and also depending on how ripe/sweet your bananas are.
How to Get Moist Banana Bread:
My first time making banana bread was a … learning experience. It didn’t taste bad, but it was a SUPER dry. It did get me thinking: how can I make my banana bread moist?
What I’ve found the simple answer to be is don’t over bake it. I found that my sad, dry, and hard banana bread was definitely left in the oven for too long. My philosophy was always, “Over baked is better than under baked.”
I’m not sure why. You can always re-bake something but you can’t un-bake something. But it made sense to my past self, and we rolled with it.
Either way, the point is: watch your bread! You should start checking on you banana bread (or really anything you make) 5 to 10 minutes before your recipe calls for it being done.
Why? Because not all ovens cook the same. You really need to make this banana bread a couple of times before you get a feel for exact times (plus you get to eat tons of banana bread in your “research efforts”).
A good tip that also helps a ton when it comes to getting super moist banana bread is to add another banana. Not only do you up the flavor, the bananas are what give banana bread the moistness it’s known for.
Additionally, you can swap out the sugar for some honey or brown sugar if you want even more insurance. Honey and brown sugar help keep things moist and help insulate your baked goods from over baking.
But this all begs another question:
How Long Should You Bake Banana Bread?
You’ll know banana bread is done when the outside is a rich, dark caramel color, and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean (no batter, no crumbs).
While I would love to give you all a specific time for this (because I personally hate guess work), it really does depend on your oven (again), AND what pan you choose to make your banana bread in.
If you’re using a 9×9 inch baking dish for your banana bread, you should bake the banana bread for around 35-40 minutes at 350°F.
If you want to bake your banana bread in an 8×5 inch loaf pan, you’d need around 45 to 50 in a 350°F oven.
If you decide to make standard-sized banana bread muffins, bake for about 20 minutes. This recipe makes 12 average sized muffins.
Banana Bread Add-ins:
I personally like a plain and simple banana bread, but you can definitely add to this basic recipe. Some popular additions to banana bread include chocolate chips (white, semi-sweet, dark), nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans), and spices (cinnamon, nutmeg).
Banana Bread Substitutions:
• Make This Banana Bread Gluten Free: You can substitute the all-purpose flour for a gluten-free variety if you want gluten free banana bread.
• Make This Banana Bread Vegan: You can make this banana bread without eggs and butter. To make a vegan banana bread, just replace both ingredients with 1/4 cup each of plant-based milk and vegetable or melted coconut oil. Use 4 to 5 bananas to add body to your bread.
• You can also make this banana bread recipe without baking soda. Just use 1 teaspoon of baking powder instead (but you will have a slightly more cakey banana bread).
Whatever you choose to do, the technique and bake times remain the same.
How to Store Banana Bread:
Banana bread can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days, or 1 week in the fridge. You should make sure you wrap it well in plastic wrap to preserve freshness. If you don’t plan on finishing it within a week, you can also freeze banana bread.
Banana bread can be frozen for up to 3 months. After it’s cooled completely, wrap the banana bread tightly in plastic wrap, then in aluminum foil, THEN put it all in a freezer bag. It sounds like a lot of hoopla, but you really want to protect your banana bread from the freezer. Thaw completely before enjoying.
** Whichever storage you choose, try to avoid slicing the whole loaf unless you’re sure you’ll be serving it all! Banana bread keeps longer unsliced than it does sliced.
If you liked this banana bread, check out some of these similar recipes:
• banana muffins
• cinnamon swirl quick bread
• sour cream pound cake
• marble cake
• apple crumb cake
• chocolate chip cookie sheet cake
Homemade Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3-4 medium ripe bananas
- 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan. Set aside to prep the batter.
- Cream together softened butter and sugar until you have a thick paste, and you no longer see any dry sugar crystals.
- Gradually incorporate room temperature eggs (one at a time) to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat well before adding the next egg. *Your batter may look grainy and separated at this time, that's completely fine! Add mashed banana and vanilla extract. Stir to combine.
- Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix batter until everything is just combined. Take care not to over mix!
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish. Bake in your preheated 350°F oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until it turns a rich, dark golden color on top and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. If the outside is browning too quickly, loosely tent with aluminum foil and continue baking until cooked through. Cool to room temperature before slicing and serving.
Enjoy!
I would love to hear any tips you’d like to add to this post and how your banana bread turned out in the comments below. Have any questions? Any ideas to improve this recipe? Feel free to comment for that as well. Happy baking!
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