This Easy Banana Bread Recipe is our go-to recipe for quick and easy banana bread! Wonderfully moist with a lovely banana flavor, this easy quick bread is the perfect excuse for baking and using up ripe bananas!
Looking for more banana recipes? Try this Banana Bread Coffee Cake and Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding!
Banana bread has always been a staple in my household. In fact, I don’t really know anyone who has a distinct dislike towards this sweet quick bread. I mean, it’s moist, has just the right amount of sweetness without necessarily falling into the “dessert” category and is incredibly easy to make – what’s NOT to love about it?!
Serve your banana bread at breakfast or brunch, or enjoy a slice with butter and a fruit jam as a tasty snack any time of the day. Making a loaf or two of this easy banana bread recipe to store in the freezer is also a really good idea – you’ll soon find out how quickly it goes!
More Banana Recipes
Some of our favorite desserts are banana desserts! They just go so well in baked goods or paired with chocolate or cream cheese frosting. Take a look at a few of our favorites:
- Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Banana Split Cheesecake
- Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding
- Banana Nutella Trifle
- Banana Caramel Cream Dessert
What You’ll Need
Let’s take a quick look at what you’ll need to make this easy banana bread and, as always, you can find the full, printable recipe card at the end of this post.
- all purpose flour
- baking soda: acts as the leavener in this banana bread recipe.
- salt
- ripe bananas: anywhere from 3 to 4 bananas. If you want to measure, the mashed banana should be about 1 1/2 cups
- granulated sugar and brown sugar: can use any combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar as long as it equals
- eggs: room temperature eggs will incorporate more easily into the batter.
- unsalted butter: the butter will need to be melted and cooled before using in the recipe so I recommend melting it first and letting it cool while you get the rest of the ingredients together.
- sour cream or plain Greek yogurt: these ingredients are interchangeable in this recipe so use whatever you keep on hand.
- vanilla extract: use my homemade vanilla extract recipe or store bought but whatever you do, use the real stuff, it makes such a difference.
If your bananas aren’t super ripe, you might want to consider adding more sugar. Bananas develop sugars and sweetness as they ripen so if your bananas don’t have brown spots all over them, add an additional 1/4 cup brown sugar.
How To Make Easy Banana Bread
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Spray an 8½ x 4½ inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray or grease and flour the bottom and sides.
- Combine dry ingredients. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
- Mash bananas in a large bowl using a potato masher, fork, or a mixer.
- Whisk in sugar, eggs, melted butter, sour cream and vanilla extract.
- Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and stir in gently to combine.
- Spread evenly in prepared loaf pan.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Let banana bread cool in the loaf pan for 15 minutes. Carefully remove banana bread and place directly on the cooling rack to finish cooling.
If the banana bread starts to get too brown on top towards the end of the baking, simply tent with foil.
How To Store Banana Bread
It’s best to store this banana bread tightly wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
If you store the bread in the refrigerator then bring it to room temperature before serving (unless, of course, you enjoy chilled banana bread).
You could also toast your sliced banana bread to serve it with butter and a fruit jam of your choice. Nowadays there are even some rather decadent homemade compound butters that you could serve with your banana bread such as maple cinnamon butter – yummy!
Can You Freeze Banana Bread?
Yes, you can! This banana bread can be stored in the freezer for at least a month which is great news if you want to make a loaf or two ahead of busy times.
Make sure to allow your bread to completely cool before wrapping it in aluminum foil and then in plastic wrap and then place in an airtight freezer safe storage bag before placing in the freezer.
Thaw your frozen banana bread overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature for the following day to be enjoyed.
Gluten Free Banana Bread
Generally, when making a bread that contains chopped fruits or nuts, all-purpose flour should be your go-to choice of flour since it’s a sturdy flour that will help to suspend all those delicious add-ins in the bread batter instead of them sinking to the button of the bread pan.
Having said that, if you’re looking for a gluten-free flour, then I suggest using the King Arthur gluten-free flour since you need exactly the same amount as what is needed when using AP flour which makes the substitution super easy!
Full disclosure – I haven’t used a gluten-free flour in this recipe but I’m confident that this easy banana bread recipe will still come out as it should if you do opt to use it, especially since the recipe doesn’t call for extra add-ins in the batter.
Easy Banana Bread Recipe Tips
- This easy banana bread is ridiculously delicious and moist. You could leave it as is or include some of your favorite chopped nuts, add in mini chocolate chips or even chopped dried fruit like dates which will add a little extra sweetness.
- Either leave your bread plain or jazz it up a bit with a drizzle of cinnamon sugar glaze and a sprinkle of chopped walnuts or pecans. Do this once the bread has completely cooled though otherwise the glaze will just slide off the top of the bread.
- Avoid over-mixing the bread batter in this recipe. Like most breads, muffins, waffles…etc, this bread will also become overly dense and tough if the batter has been overworked. Gently mix the wet and dry ingredients instead and you’re sure to end up with a scrumptious loaf instead!
- I’ve used butter in this bread but if you’d prefer, you can easily make this bread with vegetable oil instead which will also provide a good amount of moisture to the batter.
More Favorite Bread Recipes
- Gingerbread Loaf Recipe
- Lemon Blueberry Bread
- Perfectly Lemony Lemon Bread
- Cranberry Orange Bread
- Pumpkin Bread
- Apple Cinnamon Bread
How To Make Banana Bread
Easy Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour spooned and leveled
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups mashed bananas 3 to 4 ripe bananas, mashed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled
- ⅓ cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Spray an 8½ x 4½ inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray or grease and flour the bottom and sides. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the all purpose flour, baking soda and salt.
- Mash bananas in a separate large bowl using a potato masher, fork, or a mixer. Whisk in granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, melted and cooled butter, sour cream and vanilla extract.
- Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and stir in gently to combine. Spread evenly in prepared loaf pan.
- Bake the bread for 50 to 60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. If you notice the bread starting to get too brown on top, simply tent with foil.
- Let the bread cool on a cooling rack in the loaf pan for 15 minutes.Carefully remove banana bread and place directly on the cooling rack to finish cooling.
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