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
The bread came out the oven great, looked great, but it lacked flavor and somewhat bitter. I must have missed on one of the ingredient! Maybe to much mayonnaise? Just kidding about the Mayo!
Turned out WONDERFUL. I had only a ceramic load pan. Decided to do muffins. Turned to recipe for muffins. It was different. Needed buttermilk. Had none. Added a little milk 🙁 decided against muffins. Did four mini pans and a tray of little muffins. Mistakes tasted great TY
Don’t shy away from using a ceramic loaf pan if it can take the heat. I’ve made this recipe in both ceramic (clay-fired) and metal loaf pans with equally-good results – the baking time for either of mine is the same. Good luck.
Oh. My. God. This is the most delicious recipe ever!! I’ve used it a few times now and it’s fool proof, comes out amazing every time! I add chocolate chips instead of nuts
I made this in 3 small pans (3×5) with no nuts and used buttermilk instead of sour cream because that is what I had at 5am and had promised my husband I would make it. This worked great, easy too. Thanks!
I’m totally addicted to making (and eating) this delicious banana bread. I add 100g walnuts plus 100g mixed chocolate pieces and it’s utterly divine. Love baking it for friends and family and friends too ❤️
I only had 2 bananas, so I added a little over a cup of canned pumpkin to them instead. My family loved it!
Excellent idea! Love it.
Absolutely love this recipe — tried it this past weekend … a definite keeper !!!
Can I substitute almond flour for the all purpose flour as I have a diabetic in the family?
Hi Lois, 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.
This is a great recipe and is now my families favorite! I don’t have bread pans so I used my bundt cake pan and it comes out perfectly. Thank you so much!
I made this recipe but the bread was too high , it was like the bread pan was too small but I use the right size
Can I use Greek yogurt instead?
Hi Danielle, sure can!
I made this recipe using vanilla Greek yogourt for muffins. The muffins were literally melt-in-the-mouth delicious. Best muffins I have ever made.
I tried the recipe and inside were not cooked… It not fluffylike bread… What should I do?
Hi A, sounds like your bread just needs some more time in the oven. You can tent it with aluminum foil to prevent the exterior from over-browning.
Perfect recipe, even at high altitude and making dairy free subs (plant butter and Tofutti sour cream). I really enjoyed how lightly sweet this quick bread is and how the banana flavor shines through. Texture is perfect. Sally, I really enjoy how reliable your recipes are. I never have to worry that I’m trying an untested recipe that will waste my money and time. Thank you!
This was so delicious…I’m not a banana bread lover but had a bunch of bananas that I didn’t want to throw away. Now, I think I’ll be making this very often because it’s so good. I used the walnuts and also added a chopped semi-sweet chocolate bar to the batter (maybe 3/4 of a cup all together). I didn’t have the right size loaf pan so I used one a bit smaller and then also filled 2 muffin tins. Sprinkled the top with baking sugar too. Since I didn’t have the right size pan, I had to estimate the baking time, which worked out fine…I think it was in the oven for a total of 50 minutes.
I would like to know what temperature I would bake this banana bread at for Mini loafs and how long
Hi Patty, the bake time will depend on the size of your pans (mini loaf pans vary widely in size). Use the same over temp, keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
This is a very popular recipe in my home. Everyone is always asking for it. It’s so delicious and the bread is always so moist!
I made this recipe today. Love it.I made cream cheese frosting,with it. PERFECT
Phenomenal!! I have never been the baking “mom”, but no one would have known with this recipe. My oldest son and his girlfriend both told me it tasted better than Starbucks and asked if I could make some more! I have made several items using the recipes on this site and they have all come out great. I firmly believe it is because you are so good at explaining why you should, for example use room temperature butter, how to measure flour, etc. The instructions come with an explanation and without that or without having to know how to do it, I would have failed at another recipe again. Thank you for taking the time to do what you do. I appreciate it and so does my husband, children and family members.
Thank you so much for this kind review, Jessica! We’re so glad you love this banana bread recipe.
Excellent. I think the sour cream makes all the difference.
Can I use apples instead of bananas and put chocolate chips?
Hi Alejandra, for quick bread recipes using apples, we’d recommend this apple cinnamon bread or harvest spice bread recipe. You could add chocolate chips to the harvest spice bread recipe.
Thanks Sally, you are my go to website!
I love this recipe, easy to make, this will be my favourite.
Great taste, I added chopped pecans on top and 1/2 cup of chopped cranberries mixed in . I also added 1tsp of baking powder. Needed 70 Minutes to bake @ 350.
I will never use another banana bread recipe, this one is the all time best.
Most disgusting banane bread I’ve ever had the displeasure of tasting! DO NOT use baking soda, there is no acid, use baking powder and way more sugar even molasses or just find a better recipe! I LITERALLY threw it into the garbage, th as nks!
Hi Heather, brown sugar and sour cream/yogurt are the acidic ingredients, and bananas are mildly as well. Did you leave out the sour cream/yogurt? This isn’t an overly sweet banana bread. I wouldn’t recommend using 3/4 cup (or more) of molasses. Thanks for your feedback!
Can I substitute olive oil for the butter? Thanks!
Solid coconut oil would be the best alternative to butter. Or try our whole wheat banana bread!
I have tried so many banana bread recipes and this is by far our favorite!
Love your BB but tell me, what is the “lower third” rack of my oven? I have 5 levels, would that be the middle one?
Hi Anna! Slightly below middle should be just about right.
Sally, you are the greatest! I have made this recipe several times to rave reviews by all. I am almost embarrassed to accept all of the accolades I get from this recipe and your fabulous chocolate chip cookies! Doing a google search for the recipe when I lost it was scary as I couldn’t find it … fortunately I remembered the name of your website and was able to locate it again. They definitely should have you higher on the search results, as your recipes are simply to die for. Warmest regards, Ken
This is the first recipe I ever baked from Sally’s and I just made it again last night after about 3 years of always coming here when I’m looking for recipes for baking. Truly a great recipe and never disappoints. Takes about 50 minutes in my oven.
Thank you for making and trusting our recipes, Grace!
Hi Sally, I’m new to baking but I’ve tried 3 of your recipes before and they were all great! Can I add raisins to this Banana Bread Recipe instead of nuts? Thanks!
Absolutely! Same amount.
How would you adjust the heat and baking time for mini muffins?