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
I rarely leave reviews!!! But I just had to. This banana bread is excellent. I followed it exactly. I like to measure my ingredients, so thank you for always posting that way as well. I added walnuts. I made it for our breakfast tomorrow… but had to try it tonight. Can’t wait to toast it with some butter. Yuuuum. Thank you!!!!
This is my go to banana bread recipe! The best ever! I was wondering if I can alter this recipe for my one son, who isn’t a fan of banana and use applesauce in place of banana, but I know the water/starch ratio is very different. Any tips?
Hi Pam, we’re so glad you love this recipe. We wouldn’t recommend making it without any bananas, but your son may enjoy our applesauce muffin recipe instead!
A great starting point to use my blackened bananas. Used bowl/wooden spoon/whisk. Used what I already had. Baking spread worked well. Lightly greased & lined my loaf pan, placed on a baking tray. Added 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon( love the stuff!). 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom plus the seeds from 5 whole green Cardamom pods, 1/4 grated nutmeg. 2 teaspoon vanilla. Left bananas a little chunky. Added roasted & chopped walnuts. Baked in my fan oven at 160°© for 65 mins. Used scales instead of cups.
Seriously, the best banana bread I’ve every had!
I really like molasses on my banana bread, can I add it to this recipe? How much would you suggest to add?
Hi Ingrid, we haven’t tested adding molasses to this recipe, but we would start by replacing just a few Tablespoons of the brown sugar with molasses. Since molasses is a different texture than brown sugar, we’d start small to ensure that the bread can still bake through properly. Then, feel free to adjust for more/less molasses in future batches. Please do let us know if you try it!
This is the best banana recipe so far. Light, fluffy and not that sŵeet. I eat it with a cup of coffe in the morning. Delicious!
Followed the recipe, but left out the nuts since I didn’t have any. It turned out great! Lots of banana flavor and perfect texture. Cooked for 65 mins in a glass loaf dish. Will add more cinnamon next time, at least 1 tsp, maybe even 2 tsp.
I’ve had great results with all of Sally’s recipes, so I did not do my regular “go-to” banana bread but used this recipe instead. My husband was thrilled (and me too). This site is such a blessing!!!
Can you make mini loaves and if so how many will it make and what alterations in baking need to be made?
Hi Doris, you can definitely use mini loaf pans! Bake time will depend/vary based on the size of your mini loaf pans. Keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
This is the third time I made banana bread per this recipe! My family and I love it! Added chopped walnuts and chocolate . Used kitchen scale to measure qty. Thank you!
Dear Sally, everyone loves this banana bread! Just wondering what the difference is if I were to call this banana cake? Whats the difference between a banana bread and cake? Nonetheless It’s so yummy!!
Hi Penny, this quick bread is a little denser than cake. I’m glad you enjoy it!
I made these the first time very crumbly and dry. I made another batch added another few tablespoons of peanut butter and let them cook on my cookie sheet until completely cool. They turned out really good. They were good both ways but I like the last one better
Hi Sheila, glad you enjoyed the second batch. As for the first, a dry banana bread is usually caused by over-baking or too much flour in the batter. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
The best banana bread recipe ever! I am getting rid of my other recipes and only using this one! I used sour cream and pecans, which may have made the difference. Using brown sugar could have given it the just right sweetness.
This is the best banana bread recipe!!! I bake all the time but only use this recipe. My grandson requests I bring it every time we visit.
While I usually browse around when looking for recipes, you have become my go-to source for baked goods. Very competent and tasty recipes.
It says this receipe will make 15 banana bread muffins, how many jumbo muffins would that convert to?
This banana bread is the bomb . com
Love the recipe! Made it for my family who I was visiting and they are buying more bananas first thing tomorrow to age so I can make more lol only a few minor changes, used 3 bananas, 2 tea spoons vanilla and cinnamon sugar.
People who call this bland might be suffering some covid after effects in their taste buds.
I made these as muffins… my husband said they were amazing! I added sliced almonds and a crumb topping. Can’t wait to try more variations!
Surprised at how bland it turned out. I went back and double checked the recipe thinking I’d left something out. Nope, just not very good. Sorry.
I have done this three times. It’s delicious, and I even made it for Friendsgiving, where it was a huge hit!
Such an easy recipe to follow and makes a lovely, moist banana bread. I’ve had lots of compliments from family and friends about it. I personally like it with dark chocolate and cherries but you can add such a variety of things if you wanted yo.
As a middle eastern, in my culture we don’t have these types of cakes or desserts (different types), and this banana bread was the first banana bread recipe i ever made and it was when I was 15 years old. Everyone in my family and my cousins love it, it is absolutely demolished after minutes. The only thing I switch in this perfect recipe is the amount of banana, i prefer a bit less of mashed banana and it turns out just as good. Highly highly recommend this recipe. I’m 17 now and still make this upon many requests from my family for functions.
This was a hit with the family! It was easy to make and so delicious.
I doubled it because I had so many bananas going bad. I added candies pecans and chocolate chips- only about 1/2 cup each, just to make it interesting. Wow, really added a sweet touch. I don’t have metal pans so I used Pyrex and turned the oven down to 325. I had enough batter for an additional small loaf. Had very smooth texture, moist, and good flavor. So many recipes I’ve tried come out so dry. This recipe is a keeper.
The best banana bread I have ever done & eaten! Thank you for this great recipe
Could I add pineapple and coconut to this recipe?
Hi Sharon, we haven’t tested anything, but you could certainly try replacing some of the mashed banana with canned crushed pineapple. You can also add 1 cup of sweetened or unsweetened shredded coconut. Let us know if you test anything!
perhaps a silly question but could i make this into mini loaves? and if so, how does that change the cooking time? thank you!
Hi April, you can definitely use mini loaf pans! Bake time will depend/vary based on the size of your mini loaf pans. Keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
With mini loaf pans, i start out at 30 minutes and check.
Recipe was ok, on reading it looked a little bland so I added nutmeg and cardamom. Probably needed a little more salt. Seemed the amount of banana was off – I used 3 medium bananas (260g) – I can’t imagine what 460g would have made. Lots of oil dripping off the bottom . The recipe didn’t state what kind of yogurt, so I used greek. To prevent the mashed bananas from oxidizing I mixed the yogurt and vanilla into the mash.
Thank you for the recipe! Tried it and it’s currently in the oven now. Will it still be good to freeze with the cream cheese frosting?
Hi Melody, You can freeze this bread with or without the icing. Enjoy!