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
When I tried this recipe recipe my bread came out very dense in the centre. Is covering with aluminium foil important in getting it cooked properly
Hi Mamta, banana bread is pretty dense, but if it’s overly so, be sure not to over mix. If it was a bit wet, too, it could simply need a few more minutes in the oven. The foil is meant to prevent the edges of the bread from over browning, while allowing the middle to continue baking. Hope this helps for next time!
This banana bread is delicious and moist and we love it. It slices very nicely and firm enough to toast without crumbling. It cooked in exactly one hour and I had all the ingredients in my pantry. I have found the perfect banana bread recipe at last! Thank you so much.
This recipe is the best hands down!
This was a really good banana bread recipe! I did change a couple of things: I added an extra teaspoon of both vanilla and cinnamon. Other than that, I followed the instructions and the bread is perfect. It’s a perfect combination of density and moistness. I like to spread butter on my banana bread when I eat it.
Could I just substitute AP for Whole Wheat flour in this recipe?
Hi Becky! Whole wheat flour will dry out this banana bread a bit. We recommend using our Whole Wheat Banana Bread recipe specially formulated for whole wheat flour instead
I tried the Whole Wheat version and it was delicious but I wanted to try out the sour cream aspect that was in this recipe. Could the milk in the Whole Wheat recipe be replaced with sour cream?
That would be a bit too thick for that recipe. What you could try is replacing just half the flour in this recipe with whole wheat, then adjusting from there. Let us know what you try!
Loved this. Added milk instead of yogurt and used coconut sugar (100g) as well as 2 grated carrots!
Few chunks of dark chocolate pushed in before the bake was a game changer.
Love this and will make again x
while I love your recipes very much, the addsave gotten ridiculous! I know theyae impoyrtant… buts ads like walmart taek up an entire page…they followed me… inome cases i was unable to
turn them off. th walmart ads were the worst. they take up 3/4ters of the page and as i turned thos off they threw in a quarter of a page appears. It’s getting tough tobgred your recipes.
Hi Robert, I had another reader email about this same issue. I believe the Walmart ads are a bad glitch, and they should absolutely not be showing up like that. I have blocks on my pages to prevent ads from taking up so much room, and from popping up over my content. I think there’s a code caught or stuck somewhere, and I have brought this to my ad network’s attention. Sorry for the trouble, and hopefully it is resolved soon.
Can I use glass baking pans for banana bread recipe?
Hi Carol, a glass pan will work just fine. Bake time may be a couple minutes longer, but keep a close eye on it and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
This turned out so yummy! I have tried several banana bread recipes in the past and been disappointed. This was lovely. Definitely will make this one again!
Can I substitute bread flour?
Hi Sue, we don’t recommend bread flour, it would yield a dense and chewy banana bread. It’s best to stick with all purpose for banana bread!
Is there a difference for glass loaf pan?
Hi David, a glass pan will work just fine. Bake time may be a couple minutes longer, but keep a close eye on it and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
Should I reduce the temperature if using a glass loaf pan?
Hi Karen, you don’t have to reduce the temperature. Bake time may be a couple minutes longer, but keep a close eye on it and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
I was curious if you can make these as mini muffins? What would the temperature and time be?
Hi Nikki, absolutely. For mini muffins, bake 12–14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C). Enjoy!
This was excellent and the recipe is very forgiving. (I baked the first 30 mins at 350 by mistake and corrected back to 325 for the next 30 and it still came out moist.) Will definitely make again!
I made this recipe today. It was very good but I wasn’t “wowed” as expected. I’m wondering why it doesn’t include nutmeg like the banana muffins. Could I add it?
I like to add nutmeg to the muffins for some added flavor, and you can certainly add it here.
This is my favorite banana bread recipe. I only had about a cup of flour and substituted a cup of almond flour. It made this recipe even better (hard to believe!) Super moist and yummy.
Best banana bread recipe I’ve tried. We used sour cream, and it is scrumptious.
I don’t have a loaf pan could I make these as mini muffins? If yes how much time and what temperature! Love this recipe!
Hi Sheer, we recommend using our banana muffins recipe – for mini muffins, bake 12–14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C). Happy baking!
Delicious – not too sweet. My family & friends loved it.
Hi Sally, I love your banana bread recipe. Have you ever experimented with starting it in a cold oven. King Arthur had info on this technique. Just wondering how successful it is?
Hi Rosie, we haven’t tested that method so unfortunately we can’t offer much advice here. Sorry!
Hi Sally,
Can I substitute the baking soda for baking powder? If so, how much baking soda should I add?
Thank you! Can’t wait to bake it!
Hi Maria, we use baking soda, not baking powder in this recipe. You might enjoy reading about the difference in this post.
This is the umpteen times I have baked this lovely recipe using my Anova oven. Using conventional mode (rear circulating fan turned off) with a dish of water in the oven (Bain Marie method) at 175°C for 90 minutes. Cover loaf tin when it is 30 minutes into baking and let the baking do its magic!
Planning to make today! I only have whole wheat flour, is that ok?
Hi Sandra, You can try substituting the same amount of whole wheat flour but the texture will be a bit heartier and not quite as moist. If you’re interested, here’s our whole wheat banana bread recipe!
I’ve made this recipe twice (1 year apart) and it turned out moist & fluffy both times. I used 1/2 cup of brown sugar because I had 4 sweeter Vietnamese bananas. I’ve also baked it in different dishes with varying cooking time. Really loved the freezing hack! Delicious and you really can’t go wrong with the recipes on this site :))
This recipe is definitely the best banana bread recipe. I have made this recipe many times over the last few years. This recipe is so good that I had to share with family who loved when I made it. The foil covering tip was fantastic. Thank you Sally.
I made this recipe a few days ago, and ppl in the comments said it couldn’t be messed up, which I may or may not have took as a challenge. The only thing I measured was the flour. I had 5 bananas to use up, those all went in. I had 3 eggs a couple days past the bb date (I float tested them) all went in! I mixed everything by hand. I did grind walnuts & chocolate chips in my ninja (I was getting lazy, I baked a lot that day) and put those in. I only had a couple tbls of sour cream, so I put in the bit of whipped cream cheese with it. I promised myself I’d review this if it turned out, it did! Lol. I don’t trust online recipes much, or comments (so many fake ones & and I’ve made expensive mistakes) but these are real! Fool proof (I’ve been baking for 50 years, I didn’t use recipes most of it, I am really good at guesstimateing amounts, I wouldn’t recommend not measuring stuff if you aren’t)
This banana bread lasted <13 hours in my household. Soooooo delicious, thank you Sally!
Have you made this recipe with gluten free flour?
Hi Dianne, we haven’t tested this bread with gluten free flour so we’re unsure of the results. Some readers have reported success doing so with a 1:1 gluten free flour like Bob’s Red Mill or Cup4Cup. Let us know if you give anything a try!
What is the protein content of the flour you used to bake these cookies. AP flour here (Canada) is 13.3% and i believe this is making a difference in my cookies.
Hi Don! What cookie recipe are you referring to? We usually use King Arthur all purpose flour, which has 11.7% protein.
I was refering to ypur chocolate chip cookies sorry about it being on the wrong recipe, I was looking at both the banana bread and the cookies at the same time. Thanks for the quick response.
Can u use vanilla flavored yogourt if theres no plain yogurt?
Hi Maria, that will work in a pinch!
Can I double the recipe,made it at Christmas and everyone is wanting me to make it again, I’m making some now need 6 loaves of banana bread