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 made this last night and it’s amazing!!!! Super moist!! Love it
I love all your recipes. This banana bread is excellent. Do you sell any cookbooks for Christmas
Hi Pauline, here are all of Sally’s current cookbooks—there aren’t any specific to Christmas, but Sally’s Cookie Addiction does have a chapter dedicated to holiday cookies. Hope this helps!
This recipe was so good that there won’t be any left for the 2nd day when it taste its best.
I don’t even really like banana bread, but this is so good. I had to increase the bake time by almost 20 minutes. I pulled it when an instant read thermometer read 205, and the bake was perfect.
(Warning: This reviewer’s opinion is based on a tweak!)
To say I am impressed. This bread is moist and dense. The good kind of dense, just trust me. Here’s my tweak. I did 25g less sugar. It’s not even close to being too sweet, even after adding the optional semi-sweet chocolate chips, around 1/2 cup. I feel bad for posting a tweak to those looking for genuine reviews, but I hope y’all try this, whether it’s as written or doing what I decided to.
I was wondering about putting golden raisins in the recipe ?
Hi Pam, you can replace the 3/4 cup of nuts with raisins instead. Enjoy!
I was a bit hesitant to try this as I didn’t have a mixer, however I am glad I did! I tried it and mixed it by hand(using a wooden spoon) and the result is just as pictured here. It was delicious! Not overly sweet and the texture was amazing!
I like to make your various quick bread recipes into the miniature loafs (3 x 7 I think) to give to friends. Can you provide that option for baking your recipes such as this wonderful banana bread?
Hi 4Graces, you can certainly bake in mini loaf pans! We’re unsure of the exact bake time (it will vary by recipe and by loaf size), so keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness. Same baking temperature, though.
What would be a dairy free substitute for sour cream or yogurt?
Just dairy free yogurt?
Hi Nad, yes, you can try a dairy-free yogurt in place of the regular yogurt/sour cream. Enjoy!
My banana bread flopped
Hi Taryn! We’re happy to help troubleshoot. Did the bread sink when you took it out of the oven? This usually indicated under-baking – an easy fix for next time. Make sure to use the toothpick test to check for doneness.
Just baked this bread and it was perfect. I did you swerve brown sugar and ff plain Greek yogurt because that is what was in refrig Thank you again
I love this recipe as I just a sweet guy so reduce 25g sugar but keep the same amount of all ingredients. Really good and tasty indeed. Will bake for church morning tea more often.
Wow best banana bread ever!!! Didn’t last long I’ll tell ya that
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Tammy!
I have made these recipes before and I love the different options, the banana bread is a hit with everyone.
Hey Sally and team I was wondering if you could test making recipes with allulose and let me know if it has the same texture as granulated sugar and also can you make brown sugar with it
Hi Carlina, We’d love to help but we are not trained in baking with sugar substitutes. 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 sugar substitutes. Thank you!
Can I use vanilla Greek yogurt for this recipe?
Hi Jamie, yes, that will work in a pinch.
Worked great with fat free vanilla Greek yogurt I made it today! I did up the cinnamon quite a bit (their cinnamon must be a lot stronger I quadrupled it and still barely tasted it )
This is my favourite banana bread recipe. It makes a nice large loaf and had perfect texture. I use einkorn flour (same amount) and it works beautifully. I love adding bc a cup of Saskatoon berries or fresh goji berries c when in season, along with any nuts/seeds that I have on hand. A tablespoon of Demerara sugar on top gives it a nice crunchy top, though not necessary.
Hi! My butter and sugar never “creamed” and my loaf was really dense. What did I do wrong?
Hi Shannon, was your butter at room temperature? That will be important for getting the butter and sugar to cream together properly. And was the batter over mixed by chance? This is a denser bread, but if it was excessively dense it could be that the batter was over mixed. Be sure to mix until everything is just combined. Hope this helps!
How do you make banana bread without a loaf pan?
Hi Jenn, if you have a 9×13 pan, you can follow this banana cake recipe instead.
I would Iike to make two smaller loaves from this recipe. Do I need to change the baking time or temperature?
Hi Barbara, You can absolutely do that! Bake time will depend on the size of your smaller pans. Keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
I have made many banana loaves in my day but I must say this is one of the best! Very moist and great banana flavour, will definitely use this recipe again. Thank you!
Can I substitute 1 cup of bananas with 1 cup of pumpkin puree?
Hi DJ, sure can!
Want to confirm for anyone else who wants to make it with pumpkin that it does work. I only had one banana, so for my other fruit, I filled in the rest with pumpkin.
This is my second time making this the exact way, first time plane and its was delicious, so moist, best recipe so far, 2nd time which is right now, I’ve added 72% dark chips and walnuts I’m excited for this one as well, can’t wait to try it
I do love this recipe so much and have given it to friends etc. My problem with it is I don’t like the adds that come between the ingredients and the actual instructions. You have to have them both, and its annoying that you cant see the whole thing on the same page.
Use Duck Duck Go browser and no adds!
Yaaaayyyy!!!!! So so so so good. Not super sweet. Perfect texture. Thanks!!
Hi Sally, I especially love all of the ingredients that you use. The only problem that I have is making the Banana Bread in a metal pan. I don’t have this type of pan because most of my pans are made of glass. Would it be alright to bake this in a glass loaf pan?
Hi Carole, you can use an oven-safe loaf pan. Bake time may be a few minutes longer. Hope you enjoy it!
I love banana bread but have never made it. This recipe caught my eye and it is absolutely delicious! Such an easy recipe and a brilliant result. Not sweet at all which is brilliant! Thank you so much x
Absolutely the BEST Banana Bread I’ve ever made or tasted. Absolutely love this recipe. I did use walnuts finely crushed in mine, delicious and I’m making another for my daughter today
Can I double this my favorite banana bread recipe?
Hi Dorothy, for best results, we recommend making two separate batches rather than doubling.
But overall a super yummy banana bread recipe! Must try!!
Hey i wish to make this recipe, but without dairy, can i substitute the butter for say coconut oil and the yoghurt for vegan yoghurt or perhaps applesauce?
Thank you
Hi Rachel, in place of the butter here, you could try solid coconut oil or even a plant-based butter. You need a fat that is solid at room temperature so that it can be creamed together with the sugar. A dairy-free yogurt should work, too. Let us know how it goes!