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 medium or 3 large ripe bananas.
I originally published this recipe in 2013 and have since added new photos and a few more success tips. It’s one of the most popular recipes I’ve published on this website, out of over 1,200. This recipe is such a fan favorite, that it deserved a spot in print! You’ll also find this recipe in my cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
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.
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
- 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—or a swipe of cinnamon butter
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 1 and 1/2 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
- Baked Banana Oatmeal
- 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. This recipe is also in my cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
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 Greek yogurt or full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 cups (345g) mashed bananas (about 3–4 ripe bananas)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional: 3/4 cup (90g) chopped pecans or walnuts, or 1 cup (180g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
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 9×5-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar together on medium-high speed until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) With the mixer running on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the yogurt, vanilla, and mashed bananas until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and beat on low speed just until combined. Do not over-mix. Fold in the nuts/chocolate chips, if using. The batter should be thick.
- Pour and spread the batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 60–65 minutes, making sure to loosely cover the pan 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. Cool the bread in the pan set on a cooling rack for 1 hour. Remove the bread from the pan and cool it directly on the rack until ready to slice and serve.
- Store wrapped tightly at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9×5-inch Loaf Pan | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack
- Update in 2025: With enough reader feedback stating the bread can often be too moist and dense, and therefore not bake properly, my team and I retested the bread multiple times over the past 2 years; we slightly reduced the amount of mashed bananas from 2 cups to 1 and 1/2 cups.
- 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 what is called for in the recipe), 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 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi there, I’m curious if I use those little banana loaf tins that do for small loaves instead of one big one, how long would you put it in the oven then?
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Amaris, we’re unsure exactly how long a mini loaf will take but use a toothpick to test for doneness. A toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf will come out clean when the bread is done. Use the same baking temperature. You can tent with foil if the bread starts getting dark in the oven. Enjoy!
I made the mini loaves and it took about 40 minutes to bake.
I don’t have a mixer. Can I mix the ingredients by hand?
Hi Maud, It will take a lot of arm muscle to cream the butter and sugar together. Also, make sure you mash the bananas well first. Enjoy!
At what oven temperature it should be cooked?
Hi Scuta, Bake this at 350. Enjoy!
How do you get it so the banana doesn’t settle at the bottom? I’ve made it twice and although the flavor is great, there’s always a layer of banana that sinks to the bottom and is more mushy than the rest of the bread.
Hi Jessica, If the batter is mixed properly it shouldn’t be just banana at the bottom. It’s likely that the batter simply not baked all the way through and still a bit raw on the bottom. An easy fix for next time is to give your bread more time in the oven! You can cover the top of your loaf part way through the bake time if you notice that the top is browning before the bottom is finished baking.
Hi I just finished this load and let me tell you I think it’s the best banana bread I’ve had. I sub’d Greek banana yogurt and basically puréed my bananas I know your not suppose to but I seem to have the same issue really moist or almost raw at bottom of the loaf. This was my first time doing that but it baked consistently from top to bottom. I also first time covered loaf half way with foil. I just draped over. Thank you very much for the recipe I’ll I will definitely use this recipe from now on
Made them into muffins and they tasted delicious!! They taste even better with the cream cheese frosting! A must have
What a perfect recipe, I haven’t made Banana Bread in years, googled this and had it cook for about 62-63 minutes… perfection! I used sour cream instead of yogurt, worked perfectly! can’t wait to make this again.
My daughter is expecting twins this week and I’m making freezer meals and desserts for her. Can I freeze this with the topping or is it better to leave it off? Thank you
Hi Anna! By topping, are you referring to the optional cream cheese frosting? You can freeze this bread with or without the topping. Best of luck and congratulations to your daughter!
I just wanted to say congrats to you and your family from a fellow twin momma.
This is the kindest gesture. Your kindness will be incredibly valued.
Making this bread with my nuggets now:)
First time I followed this recipe and it came out dry and very little banana taste. Glad I added walnuts to give it alittle taste.
Awesome recipe! I would like to know how can I can replace flour for almond flour since we love sweets but we’re on a low carb diet. I need some help with the amounts. Thank you!
Hi Marian! We’re so glad to hear you’ve been enjoying this banana bread recipe. It would take quite a bit of recipe testing to ensure good results using almond flour. It has very different baking properties than all-purpose flour and isn’t always a 1:1 swap. For best taste and texture (and so you don’t waste your time trying to adapt this recipe since it may not work properly), it may be more useful to find a recipe that is specifically formulated for almond flour. Thank you!
Hi! I have been using this recipe for a long time now, whenever I have some over-ripe bananas.
I love it more than any other banana bread recipe out there.
My question is whether you could make a plantain bread recipe. Thanks!
Hi Rosie! So glad you love this recipe. We’ve never tested a plantain bread recipe but let us know if you find one you love!
really is the best banana bread I’ve ever made, thanks Sally!
Just made this recipe with the applesauce substitution, and it is fantastic! My son has a cold and getting him to eat anything is a struggle right now–but he sure did want seconds of this banana bread! Thanks for the sick-kid-approved recipe!
Hey, so I’m 12 years old and want to make this for my family how many servings does this make? how many batches would i have to make if my family loves banana bread and at Christmas my whole family is coming (13) and there all going to want at least 3 pieces
Hi Serenity, the number of servings depends on how thick you slice the bread. For that number of people, you may want to make a few batches so that you have a couple loaves ready. It freezes wonderfully if you end up with leftovers. Hope your family loves it!
This is by far the best banana bread recipe ever. I’ve made it more than a dozen times now and experimented with different types of bake tins. My latest is baking it in a Bundt tin which turned out to be another great bake in a shorter time. I added chopped dates and walnuts. It gets hoovered in one seating every single time lol. Thank you for the recipe.
I used fresh milled soft white, so upped the flour to 2.5 cups. These are spectacular! Made 12 plain and added chocolate chips and pecans to the other 12. Thank you Sally for another suberb recipe!!
Hands down best banana bread recipe I’ve ever made. So light and moist, absolutely delicious! I’ll be making it again for sure and maybe adding in some chocolate chunks when making it for a special occasion.
Can you provide the gram weight for the banana? The gram weight is most important for high variable ingredients, such as bananas.
Thank you
You’ll use about 600g for the weight of the mashed bananas– there’s a lot!
The most perfect banana bread, my family loved it! We couldn’t wait until it cooled so cut slices and toasted them to eat with butter and jam. My kids had peanut butter on theirs. Always come to your site for recipes. Love from South Africa
This recipe is so so good! I’m baking this recipe for my work with kids. I made loaves and muffins with this recipe and kids loved it. I added 1 cup of mini chocolate chips amd sprinkle more on top.
Mine is baking now but it’s going on 70 minutes. The middle is taking a long time. I hope it tastes good. Smells great.
Fantastic recipe ! Made it multiple times and makes a moist and delicious loaf. I thought I burned it the first time I made it but it’s just a dark loaf and you can tint with foil if you think it’s getting too dark. I used the gram measurements and the only difference is that I added nutmeg and chocolate chips.
I cook a ton, but rarely bake, and find it daunting. I appreciate the easy to follow instructions. The bread turned out just perfect after 55 mins. I used gluten free flour from Costco.
Has anyone figured out the mini loaf question?
Hi Allison! You can definitely use mini loaves to make this banana bread. The baking temperature will be the same, but the bake time will depend on the size of your pans. Keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
Disaster when I checked the bread I had turned the oven off and it was at 275. I made two loaves from the one recipe…I reset the oven and in ten minutes it was done to perfection! It turned out delicious in spite of my disaster! Love it!
Hi.. I always use your crispy chocolate chop cookies recipe, to bake for my kids. They love it. Now I’m planning to do this one. So I was wondering, can I use frozen Bananas for this?
yes, just thaw to room temperature and drain off extra liquid 🙂
Hello Sally,
Will this Banana Bread freeze well?
If so how long would I be able to freeze it for?
Hi Jessica, See the paragraph in the post above called “How to Freeze Banana Bread.” Enjoy!
If I bake these in 4 x 2x 2, how long should I bake them?
Hi Margie, we’re unsure of the exact bake time, but it will be less than stated. Keep a close eye on it and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
I made this recipe using 4 x2 x 2 pan (a 4 mini loaf pan). I baked loaves for 20 minutes, and then loosely covered with aluminum foil for 10 minutes, and the loaves turned out beautifully. I hope this helps.
Can anyone tell me if you have substituted Swerve brown sugar or another product like this (not liquid) how it turned out?
I love your banana bread recipe! If i were to add unsweetened cocoa powder to this recipe how much would i add? Will i also add more sugar?
Thanks!
Hi Inday, we haven’t tried adding cocoa powder to this recipe, and it would take a bit of recipe testing to find the best amount. Unfortunately, it’s not always a 1:1 swap with an equal amount of flour. If you decide to do any experimenting, let us know how it goes!
The perfect my go to.
Quick question, can double, triple the batter?
Hi Hlekan, for best results, we recommend making two separate batches rather than doubling. This ensures the ingredients are properly incorporated. Happy baking!
Not enough sweetness for me. Texture was ok. Next time will add more brown sugar. Bread was moist.
I have baked this twice and both times I thought it was not sweet enough. Just a heads up for others out there who like their banana bread on the sweet side.
Hi Sally, love the recipe thanks. My family loved it!
But could you please help me out, though the bread tasted great, it always deflate. What do you think am I doing wrong?
Thanks !
Hi Jevil, If the bread is deflating, double check the freshness of your baking soda. (We find it loses strength after just 3 months.) Additionally, try baking for a few extra minutes. Sinking is usually because the baked good is under-baked.