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
This is delicious
What baking instructions when I’m using mini loaf pans 5×3.5”? Making to share with my neighbors. I have six mini pans.
Hi Susan, yes, you can definitely make these in mini loaf pans. Same temperature, but bake time will vary so keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
I followed directions exactly and they turn out great! Just the right amount of sweetness and texture. I split between 4 mini loaf pans and baked 30 minutes. They baked even with no browning on the inside! Than you!
Tastes great! Carb count?
Hi Ruth, we’re glad you enjoyed it! We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
I followed this recipe to the T, it is very good bread but mine turned out extremely dense! So bummed. What can I do about this?
Hi Andreya, Banana bread is always going to be more dense than light and fluffy because of all the moisture from the bananas. If yours is turning out too dense there are a few things you can try. First check your baking soda – we find it can lose strength after just a few months. Also make sure not to over-mix your batter, which can lead to a dense bread. If you prefer a lighter texture and a more simple recipe, you may enjoy these quick and easy banana muffins. Thanks for giving this one a try!
Can I use almond flour for this recipe?
Hi Patricia, we don’t recommend it. Almond flour has very different baking properties than all-purpose flour, and it wouldn’t necessarily be a 1:1 swap. Best to stick with all-purpose flour here, or you might try searching for a different recipe that was specifically developed to use almond flour. Let us know if you do give this one a try!
Is very moist, however not sweet enough for me. Taste very bland could definitely use triple the amount of vanilla and add the same amount As you would brown sugar, but with graduated sugar. That’s my advice. I would also use salted butter because I used unsalted and I would’ve Rather a little more salt. Thank you for sharing your recipe, it was pretty easy, especially if you follow it to a T. This is just my advice If you like it.
Thank you Sally & team. I never baked, so the education that I got from your site is invaluable. Have you ever substituted ricotta cheese? I learned how it makes pancakes and egg omlets fluffier than anything else.
Hi Kenny, we haven’t tested that exact substitution, but it *should* work just fine. Let us know if you try it!
Thanks, I reduced the brown sugar, used almond vanilla milk, used frozen then thawed bananas, added dates (chopped with blender), blueberry sugar free yogurt, cinnamon vanilla protein/recovery powder, wheat flour, chopped walnuts and use a mini muffin pan which reduced the baking time. I shared with fellow cyclists.
This recipe works perfectly – my only change is 1/2 cup coconut sugar – gives it more of a molasses flavor – and sufficiently sweet with 1/4 cup less sugar. 3rd using recipe!
I followed your recipe to the T . came out Perfect . the tin foil after 30 min was key .. Oh I did add the walnuts. .. and my next time ill use pecans .. Thank you Robert
I just made the banana bread. This is my favorite banana bread. It tastes so good and it is not dense. I love it.
Can I substitute for almond flour?
Hi Jack, 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.
Worked out so well. Although it took longer to cook in my little oven. I used my home-grown ‘lady finger’ bananas. Will definitely use again.
Just made this recipe but used a gluten free flour. It turned out exceptionally good.
I didn’t read through the instructions and melted the butter and put it with the wet ingredients. For those wondering it worked fine. I added ginger, cinnamon,cardamom,clove and black pepper to mine and extra vanilla. It is amazing.
The absolute best and easiest banana bread ever! Made this and my family devoured it in one day! Definitely keeping this in the rotation!
What did I do wrong? I followed instructions perfectly. To make this banana bread. It took me 1.5 hours to cook it and it was mushy on the bottom of the loaf. It wasn’t eatable. Could there have been too much moisture in the fan? I was so disappointed
Hi Cheryl, it sounds like too much moisture. Try reducing the bananas down to about 1 and 1/2 cups, and the butter down to 6 Tablespoons. That should help.
Sally!!!!! This recipe is out of this world! I’ve made it several times with the addition of pecans, walnuts and chocolate chips on different occasions. It’s so so so moist and warms my soul every time. My boyfriend is not a big sweets person but BEGS for this banana bread. Thank you for the great recipes as always!
I love the banana bread!! Yum! Thanks
This recipe is a 10/10. I used bobs gf baking flour and it’s come out perfect every time (using the gram measurements)
All my friends want me to make a loaf for them now!
Alia, this will be really helpful for readers who inquire about making it GF. Thank you for reporting back!
I haven’t tried this recipe yet but love all of your other ones that I have, is it possible to use vegetable oil instead of butter? I usually make multiple loaves and butter gets expensive
Hi Bill, in place of the butter, you could try solid coconut oil. You need a fat that is solid at room temperature so that it can be creamed together with the sugar, so vegetable oil will not work here. Hope you enjoy it!
I tried coconut oil and it worked out perfectly
I have made this so many times. I absolutely love your recipes. I just ordered your cook books. I was hoping for a cookbook more towards your quick bread recipes. Will you be coming out with another cookbook. Everyone at work is in love with the breads I make from your website
Hi Jennifer, the 4th cookbook is set to come out in 2025! It will include recipes from all categories. Thank you for trusting our recipes!
Hi Jennifer, thank you so much for your support! Sally is coming out with a new cookbook in September 2025—you can learn more about it here. There will be several quick bread recipes included!
I love this recipe but one of my friends cut out sugar in their diet. Can I replace the sugar in this recipe with honey? If so how much?
Hi Sara, we don’t recommend it in this recipe, but how about our healthy banana bread recipe instead? It’s a little different, but it uses honey for some of the sugar. You’ll see that it has brown sugar as well, but that it can be replaced with coconut sugar. Let us know if you give it a try!
Your banana bread recipe is so good
I made this twice, the second time I did it exactly as the recipe stated with room temperature ingredients and proper mixing order, not overmixed. Both times were very gummy and uncooked even though a toothpick came out clean. I tried leaving it in the oven for longer but it didn’t help. I used a metal pan, not glass. Oven was preheated before I started mixing the ingredients. What could be going wrong?
Hi Clayton, I missed your comment before but I see it now. Sorry you had trouble here. Do you think you over-mashed the bananas? You’ll want to make sure they are still the consistency of, say, a chunky applesauce and not liquid and thin at all. If they’re mashed down too much into almost a liquid, there won’t be enough flour to soak it all up. If you try this recipe again, you can reduce the banana and/or mash them up a little less. I hope this helps.
Could I make this recipe with King Arthur brown rice flour? If not, do you have a good gluten free recipe for banana bread? Thanks!
Hi Addie, we haven’t tested a gluten free version of this bread, but readers have reported success with a 1:1 flour substitute (like Cup4Cup). If you give it a try, let us know how it turns out!
Perfect Banana bread! Somehow I missed the frosting but I’ll add that next time. The only issue I had was the next day the top was slightly sticky/moist. The bread was completely cooled before I wrapped it. Is there a way to prevent this?
Hi Lori, a little stickiness/moistness is to be expected with this bread. You can leave your container or bag open just a crack to help eliminate some of that moisture. We’re so glad you enjoyed it!
Love recipe and all the helpful hints afterwards
Thanks
This recipe is delicious; frequently requested!
This recipe is a staple. Everyone loves it. The only thing I add is a few chocolate chips to sweeten it up. All other recipes have so much sugar. Thank you for this!!!
A wonderful recipe!! The bread is moist and so good! I made mini loaves and have kept some in the fridge and froze the rest! They taste just as great as the first day I made them! They warm up nicely!