With its super-moist and buttery texture, banana and brown sugar flavors, soft crumb, and 1,300+ reviews, this is a delicious AND undeniably popular banana bread recipe. You need 4 ripe bananas.
I originally published this recipe in 2013 and have since added new photos and a few more success tips.
One reader, Michele, says: “Perfectly delish every time! Absolutely foolproof. Nuts, no nuts, smidge more or less of sour cream—no problem… bigger bananas, smaller—no worries, perfect, beyond delicious EVERY time. ★★★★★”
This is my favorite banana bread recipe, one that I’ve cherished for years. It’s one of those classic recipes that you start to know by heart, just like a good pie crust or chocolate chip cookies recipe. This bread comes to mind first when I have leftover spotty bananas on the counter, and it’s the bread that’s on constant rotation in my freezer stash.
It’s one of the most popular recipes I’ve published on this website, out of over 1,200.
One reader, Tricia, commented: “I have this recipe on speed dial. LOL. It is so tasty and is always a crowd pleaser. My kids and entire family love it!!! ★★★★★”
Yes, I have this recipe on speed dial too! 😉
I’ve tried dozens of banana bread recipes over the years, and when I baked and originally published this recipe many years ago, I never looked back.
Why You’ll Love This Banana Bread Recipe Too
- Mega banana flavor (from 2 cups/460g mashed bananas)
- Not overly sweet, so banana flavor shines
- Dense, but still quite tender & soft
- Buttery & stays moist for days (tastes best on day 2, just like peanut butter chocolate chip zucchini bread)
- Straightforward, simple recipe
- Freezes wonderfully
- Excellent plain or with nuts or chocolate chips
This bread uses more mashed bananas than similar recipes. Add 2 whole cups (460g) of mashed banana, which is about 4 large bananas. More banana = more moisture and flavor in the finished loaf.
How to Mash Bananas
Did you know you can use your electric mixer to mash bananas? Break or slice the spotty bananas into large pieces and place in the bowl of your stand mixer—or use a regular mixing bowl and your hand mixer. Begin beating on low, then gradually increase to medium-high speed as the bananas break down into mashed banana. Transfer the bananas to another bowl and use the mixing bowl for the butter and sugar. (No need to clean it—some mashed banana remnants is fine.)
I do this when I mash bananas for banana muffins and banana chocolate chip breakfast cookies too.
Other Banana Bread Ingredients
- Butter: Use softened butter for a soft texture and irresistible butter flavor.
- Brown Sugar: Use all brown sugar in this recipe. In the headnotes for this chocolate chip cookies recipe, I explain that brown sugar yields soft and moist cookies. Well, brown sugar works that same magic in banana bread, too. It also adds wonderful flavor.
- Eggs: Eggs supply cakes, cupcakes, breads, doughs, and cookies their stability and structure, as well as a tender texture. You’ll need 2 large eggs for this.
- Sour Cream or Yogurt: Sour cream or yogurt adds even more moisture to this banana bread. (You can use the 2 interchangeably in most baking recipes.)
For banana nut bread, add 3/4 cup of chopped nuts to the banana bread batter; I like using either pecans or walnuts. If you’re nuts for nuts (LOL), you’ll enjoy the toasty slight crunch nestled inside the soft crumbs. If you’re not a nut person, feel free to leave them out or replace with chocolate chips. For a whole wheat version, try my whole wheat banana bread. Or for a chocolate version, try my double chocolate banana bread.
Can I Use Frozen Bananas?
Yes and I do this often. Thaw the frozen bananas at room temperature. Drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe below. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking. Try not to mash too much or else you’ll be left with 2 cups of banana-y liquid; some chunks are great.
Can I Turn This Into a Banana Bundt Cake?
I recommend using my extremely similar, scaled-up recipe for chocolate marble banana Bundt cake instead. You can leave out the chocolate swirl in that recipe.
How to Freeze Banana Bread
Freeze banana bread using these instructions to preserve its fresh flavor and texture for months:
- Cool baked banana bread completely.
- Tightly wrap the loaf or slices (individually or grouped) in 2–3 layers of plastic wrap or aluminum foil.
- Place wrapped banana bread in a large freezer-friendly storage bag or reusable container.
- Date the bag and freeze for up to 3–4 months. Thaw wrapped or unwrapped in the refrigerator or at room temperature. All methods work like a charm!
I like to freeze the quick bread in slices because slices thaw much quicker than a whole loaf.
Overall, this is an easy recipe for classic banana bread. The batter takes about 10 minutes to throw together, the bread stays moist for days, and nothing beats the smell of fresh banana bread in the oven. (Except for, maybe, zucchini bread or pumpkin bread… try those next!)
Other Favorite Banana Recipes:
- Banana Cake & Banana Cupcakes
- Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread
- Banana Cream Pie & Banoffee Pie
- Banana Muffins or Healthier Chocolate Banana Muffins & Blueberry Banana Muffins
- Banana Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins
- Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
My Favorite Banana Bread
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 65 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
With its super-moist and buttery texture, banana and brown sugar flavors, soft crumb, and 1,000+ reviews, this is a delicious AND undeniably popular banana bread recipe. You need 4 large ripe bananas.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup (80g) plain yogurt or sour cream, at room temperature
- 2 cups (460g) mashed bananas (about 4 large ripe bananas)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional: 3/4 cup (100g) chopped pecans or walnuts
Instructions
- Adjust the oven rack to the lower third position and preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Lowering the oven rack prevents the top of your bread from browning too much, too soon. Grease a metal 9×5-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. With the mixer running on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then beat in the yogurt, mashed bananas, and vanilla extract until combined.
- With the mixer running on low speed, slowly beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until no flour pockets remain. Do not over-mix. Fold in the nuts, if using.
- Pour and spread the batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 60–65 minutes, making sure to loosely cover the bread with aluminum foil halfway through to prevent the top from getting too brown. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean with only a few small moist crumbs. This may be after 60–65 minutes depending on your oven, so begin checking every 5 minutes around the 60-minute mark.
- Remove bread from the oven and allow the bread to cool in the pan set on a wire rack for 1 hour. Remove bread from the pan and cool bread directly on the wire rack until ready to slice and serve.
- Cover and store banana bread at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Banana bread tastes best on day 2 after the flavors have settled together. See post above for freezing instructions.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9×5-inch Loaf Pan | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack
- Butter: If needed, you can use salted butter in this recipe with no other changes needed. I’ve also successfully reduced the butter down to 6 Tablespoons (85g) with no issue (just as tasty).
- Brown Sugar: This is not an overly sweet quick bread. If you want a sweeter banana bread, increase to 1 cup (200g) brown sugar. Feel free to replace some or all of the brown sugar with regular white granulated sugar.
- Cream Cheese Frosting: This banana bread also tastes fantastic with cream cheese frosting on top! To make it, beat 4 ounces (112g) of softened cream cheese and 1/4 cup (60g) of softened unsalted butter together on medium speed until smooth. Beat in 1 cup (120g) of confectioners sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt until combined. Spread on cooled loaf.
- Banana Bread Muffins: Use this banana bread recipe to make 15 banana bread muffins. Spoon the batter into a lined or greased muffin pan (fill each to the top with batter) and bake for 5 minutes at 425°F (218°C); then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 16–17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total bake time for the banana bread muffins is about 21–23 minutes. The initial burst of hot air helps those muffins rise nice and tall! Or try my quick & easy banana muffins.
- Brown Sugar: Feel free to substitute the same amount of regular white granulated sugar or coconut sugar. I do not recommend any liquid sweeteners.
- No Sour Cream or Yogurt? Feel free to use 1/3 cup mashed banana (in addition to the 2 cups), unsweetened applesauce, or even canned pumpkin puree.
- Frozen Bananas: You can use frozen bananas here. Thaw the frozen bananas. Drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking. Try not to mash too much or else you’ll be left with 2 cups of banana-y liquid; some chunks are great.
- Chocolate Chips: I love this bread with chocolate chips, too. Feel free to add 1 cup of your favorite chocolate chips. No need to leave out the nuts if you add the chocolate chips. Chocolate chips and nuts are both optional.
- Can I Turn This Into Banana Bundt Cake? There isn’t enough batter. I recommend using my extremely similar, scaled-up recipe for chocolate marble banana Bundt cake instead. You can leave out the chocolate swirl in that recipe.
Made this yesterday. It is by far your best banana bread recipe. Not to sweet, just right. Using it for our baked Christmas gifts this year. It is that good.
I usually do not like banana bread – the receipes I tried before turned out pretty bad. However, I forced myself to try this recipe since I didn’t want to throw out some over ripe bananas lying on my kitchen counter.
Must say, this has turned out splendid. Replaced the pecans to walnuts and reduced the receipe amounts to half since I had one cup mashed bananas. But, it worked out very well. Thank you Sally!
I love this banana bread recipe!! I followed the recipe exactly; however opted to not add the nuts or the frosting. My husband, parents, neighbors, and husband’s co-workers raved about it. My husaband’s co-workers even asked him when more was coming. This is definitely my go to banana bread recipe from now on. We love it so much we get excited when the bananas over ripen as we know an awesome loaf of banana bread is coming. Thank you, Sally!
I love this banana bread recipe! I don’t even like bananas, but this recipe is awesome. My kids (2 and 3) gobble it up every time I make it – if you know anything about toddlers they are not known for their adventurous appetites! I’ve made it with Greek yogurt, regular yogurt, and today with sour cream because I didn’t have any yogurt and it’s always turned out fantastic.
Whenever I bake anything I check your blog for a recipe first. Thank you for such great recipes, every one I’ve tried has been a winner!
I started making cookies from your recipes, I tried a lot of different ones and they are all fantastic and easy to make, I had so many I brought them into work for my co workers, then I tried this banana bread recipe, so easy and perfect every time, I also brought this into work, I now spend every Sunday baking cookies and banana bread for my co workers. Thanks Sally your recipes are easy to follow and so yummy.
Have you ever tried butterscotch chips with bananas? It’s amazing!
I have! I have a butterscotch banana bread recipe in my cookbook. It’s incredible.
Made 4 mini loaves yesterday – gone today!! Again, husband and sons agree this banana bread recipe is the moistest, most flavorful I’ve made for them. The yogurt and brown sugar really add richness – didn’t have plain or vanilla yogurt yesterday, so used Chobani coconut.
Couldn’t tell the difference with all the other flavors combined. Another hit, Sally!
Just WOW! You were serious when you said Best Ever! This is by far the best ever banana bread recipe I have made…can’t wait to make it again!
Made this the other day & just enjoyed yet another slice with my breakfast. Yum! I chose this recipe from your several banana bread recipes because I had (you guessed it) 4 very ripe bananas on hand and I’m so glad I did. The flavor and texture are fantastic and it was a quick and easy batter to mix up. I especially appreciate the weight measurements for ingredients as I prefer to bake with weight measurements (and it’s so much easier when baking with kids too). I used mini chocolate chips instead of nuts in the bread & omitted the frosting this time. A keeper for sure!
Best ever banana bread is right!! Made this and it was moist, flavorful, and easy to do. I am at high altitude and there were no adjustments needed (as with almost every recipe I’ve tried from Sally). I did not make the cream cheese frosting because I was trying to go more ‘traditional’ with the banana bread.
Made as written except browned the butter and used half while wheat flour. Turned out wonderfully. Definitely one of the best banana beads I have ever had!
Hi Sally:
I have made your banana bread twice so far and both times were to die for. It is so quick and easy to prepare, and yet tastes so amazing. I will never look at another banana bread recipe again. I also really love the cream cheese frosting idea- I think I can put that on anything :). [This may sound strange/wrong, but I have to confess that one of my favorite things to do to banana bread is to under-bake it by a few minutes to get a really soft center. My mom did this on accident to almost all of her banana breads growing up, but that ended up being my favorite part]. You are a very talented baker/cook and I always trust your recipes. Thanks so much!
This was delicious! It’s become my dad’s favorite banana bread as well, and knowing how picky he is, I was thrilled! Thanks for the great recipe, Sally 😀
This banana bread recipe is amazing!!!! I have made banana bread countless times with other recipes, but this one easily tops them! If I wanted to add semisweet chocolate chips, should I adjust anything in the recipe? Also, what amount of chocolate chips do you think would be appropriate? I loveee your website, the best baking blog around!! Thanks for sharing!!!!
Hi Kevin! I suggest 3/4 cup of chocolate chips for the banana bread. Thanks for the kind words about my blog! I’m happy you enjoy this banana bread recipe.
This is super tasty, but what did I do wrong if the bottom of my bread (almost 1/2 inch) is dense and gooey? How can I fix this? I want to make this again since the rest of the bread came out perfectly (moist, tasty, the texture it should be) so I have no doubt this recipe is great one and that it’s awkward bottom is just a mistake on my part. Please let me know what I can do, thanks for your help Sally!
Hey Michelle! It sounds like you have to bake the bread for just a little longer. Try loosely covering the top with aluminum foil and then baking for about 10 minutes longer. That should help bake things a little more evenly.
This recipe was awesome for using up all my bananas! It’s making my apartment smell like a dream too. It’s still baking so I haven’t tasted it yet, but the batter was good! The only change I made was too the frosting, I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a few good shakes of cinnamon. Can’t wait to try it!
I made this today and it was soooo good! This is by far the best banana bread I have ever had. It was super duper moist and flavorful. I could eat it without the frosting. I think the frosting makes it a little too sweet. Thank you so much for sharing. Oh, and this is really filling too.
Hi Sally!
I just wanted to let you know that I’ve made this banana bread at least once a month every month this year! I’m a college student, and don’t have a lot of time to myself but when I do have free time, I make this banana bread! It’s so comforting and delicious. It’s great to share with other hungry college students as well. Thanks so much for the recipes!
The best banana bread I have tried so far!! I enjoyed having it for breakfast this week 🙂
I made this bread yesterday with small substitutes like White sugar as I had no Brown Sugar at hand and also without the frosting. But still it came out just perfect!! Super moist and everybody loved it, including my 4 yr old son!!! Thank you so much. Love your recipes!!!
Sally!!
Oh my goodness. I’ve already tried 3 of your recipes these last two months (the snickerdoodles, the homemade funfetti cake, AND this), and you’ve exceeded my expectations. Admittedly, these expectations were already sky high. I LOVE this banana bread! I’m happily eating it as I try to type this.
If anyone else reading this is still somehow, for some reason, debating whether or not to make this…just do. Just do.
My 2 year old has started baking with me and we’ve had such fun with your banana bread recipes. We made cinnamon swirl bread a couple weeks ago and this one today. We made muffins using your sky-high techniques. She gets so excited to try to finished product! Of course, her daddy appreciates the end result as well. Thanks for another winner!
I’m 3 for 3 with recipes on your website Sally. This was, hands down, the best banana bread I’ve ever made. So moist and the frosting on top was delicious. I don’t know what to try next!
I have a degree in Culinary Arts, but my baking skills have NEVER been up to par! Sally, since finding your site and employing your recipes and methods, my family is under the impression that I can now bake like a professional as well! Thanks so much for sharing your gift with us! I have your banana bread currently in the oven, and the muffins just came out! They are DELICIOUS! Omg YUM!
Beautiful flavor. Lovely moist cake. I used 3/4 cups of the sugar for the frosting and added a teaspoon of cinnamon. Yum!!
Had a bunch of spotty bananas that I didn’t want to freeze so I made a double batch of this last night in mini loaf pans. So good!
Just made this last night and its SO GOOD! I even swapped out half the butter for applesauce, and it’s still divine!!! It’s very banana-ey and dense, yet still very moist ….. exactly the way i like it. I didn’t add the frosting cuz I think it’s rich enough as is. This recipe is definitely a keeper 🙂
Baked this yesterday and you are right, it really is the best ever banana bread, even without the cream cheese frosting! Absolutely delish!
You’ve done it again Sally….this was unreal! I made it tonight and it was totally perfect. I added chocolate chips (duh) and skipped the frosting since I had no cream cheese. Perfection!
Hi Sally!
I made this magnificent banana bread today and it is wonderful! And that cream cheese frosting on top of it – simply amazing! I’ve been baking quite a few recipes from your blog in the last few weeks and I love that yours are the only recipes where I never need to make any changes – the results are perfect the first time every time. Thank you so much for sharing your talent!