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 and 1/2 cups (345g) mashed bananas (about 3–4 ripe bananas)
- 1/3 cup (80g) plain Greek yogurt or full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
- 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 mashed bananas, yogurt/sour cream, and vanilla 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 place it directly on the rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.
- 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
Agreed with everyone else, this is absolutely delicious banana bread. Moist and very flavorful, a great way to use up a few brown bananas. Be sure to measure those carefully as any extra could result in a dense bread. Bake time for our loaf was about 70 minutes
I cannot rate this recipe high enough….the texture and flavour is the best I have ever made and we all loved it at home. I made two loaves, just doubling up the quantities as I had 8 over ripe bananas and so glad I did. One thing I didn’t do was add the yoghurt or sour cream only because I didn’t have any and it was still amazing, but will try next time just to see and taste the difference. Thank you for a fantastic recipe!!!
Hi Sally, Thank you for sharing. How different will this banana bread muffin recipe taste from other quick banana muffin recipe?
They taste pretty similar, but this has a softer and more buttery texture.
I used coconut Oui yoghurt in this and because it was a little under the measurement I topped it off with sour cream. Then I crumbed pecans on top after I added batter to pan. It turned out amazing. So moist and flavorful. This will be my go to recipe.
Made approx. 16 muffins with this recipe…giant, beautifully-dome shaped muffins. I added 1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips to the batter…cannot wait to test them out!
I made this recipe today as written with no substitutions. It is PERFECT. Moist, flavorful, and super soft. I ended up using 5 small bananas.
I’ve also made it with nuts or chocolate chips or subbing in a little canned pumpkin puree when I didn’t have enough bananas. You can’t go wrong here, it’s always delicious. Thank you again Sally!!
Hi Audrey! Solid coconut oil would be the best alternative. Or try my whole wheat banana bread.
This is truly the best banana bread I’ve ever made! I have made this 3 times in the past two months. I made this using the muffin suggestion at the bottom of the recipe. Makes 12 regular sized and 12 mini muffins for my 1 year old no problem. She loves them without walnuts but I added walnuts to the big muffins. Also I used sour cream instead of yogurt came out perfect can’t say it enough. Thank you so much for this recipe.
GODDDD!! sally I just tried this recipe yesterday and it turned out amazing!!The flavours were correctly balanced and had the right consistency.Would love to repeat this again in the future
This banana bread was a big hit with my friends. It certainly is the best banana bread I’ve ever had. It’s truly in a class by itself. I’ll be making it again soon. Thanks!
Hi Sally this is the 3rd time making banna bread using this recipe absolutely the BEST bread I have had. I love to cook but not to good on the baking but the recipe is so easy to make and turns out delicious every time thank for the recipe
SO delicious! I added 1/4 tsp of almond extract and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and it was a total hit! Will definitely bake again 😀
Just made this banana bread with sour cream and frozen bananas in two 8 × 4 pans and baked for 45 minutes. Just delicious! Moist and flavorful…yummy! Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Great recipe- 5 stars for sure! Easy to follow and a perfect outcome ! Thanks for sharing!
Sally,
The recipe for your Best Ever Banana Bread is easy and renders a loaf of fabulously moist and phenomenally tasty banana bread. Thank you.
I usually approach baking with caution as it’s not my strongest point. I had an overload of ripe bananas and chose this recipe from the internet search because it was the only one that uses more than 2 bananas (I ended up using 5 but they were small ones). I didnt have walnuts to add but will do so next time. Also I baked it in a cake tin as I didn’t have a loaf tin. It turned out to be the most tastiest banana loaf/cake ever. My family were visiting and everyone helped themselves to seconds!
A brilliant and easy to follow recipe, thank you for sharing. I’m so glad I chose it over all the other recipes online.
Great recipe. I added cranberries (dehydrated) and extra yogurt. Using all brown sugar made it beautiful! I’ll be using this Recipe again!
I had over riped bananas on my counter and figured I’d try banana bread and this recipe was so easy to follow and my family loved it. Thank you!
This is the MOST DELICIOUS Banana Bread I have ever baked, and I have probably tried about 8 different banana bread recipes, in my lifetime; And I’ve been baking for 45 years! I did not have either yogurt or sour cream, so I used Mayonnaise. It was so delicious! I also used 2 frozen bananas and threw in ALL juices. (The frozen bananas had turned brown and looked very unappealing when I thawed them out, but it didn’t affect the taste at all.) (Plus 2 ripened bananas that were on my counter.) Not sure if I can mention this, but, I have to say, Curtis Stone loaf pans cook breads beautifully! You don’t even have to grease the pans! Between the pans and your recipe, it was the very first time that my banana bread didn’t get hard as a rock on the outside. I’m most certain that covering the loaf with foil after the 30 minutes, was a big plus! I am going to make 3 loaves today; For 2 loaves, I am using sour cream, and the other loaf, with the mayonnaise. I’ll let you know which loaves I like best!
So what was the verdict (mayo vs sour cream lol)?
The verdict was sour cream over the mayo. The only difference, really though, was the the sour cream loaves had a bit more of a banana flavor. However, I would surely use the mayo again if I didn’t have sour cream or plain yogurt. The difference was so close! I shared a few slices with friends, loaf made with sour cream, and they said that this banana bread was delicious, and the best they have ever had!
The bread raised beautifully. I will use this again!!
This is delicious! I have made it twice now, and both times it came out perfectly. The second time, I made it for brunch with friends, and they devoured it. Thank you for sharing this recipe!!
I loved this recipe!!! I’m not too fond of banana bread but I thought I’d try this recipe since I had some brown bananas. It was so delicious! The only thing I did differently was that I used 5 mini loaves and baked it for 30 to 35 minutes. Same temperature. (My oven does not bake loaves well). My husband loved it as well. I will definitely make this again!
I made this without egg (my son has an allergy) and it came out perfect! I added a little more sour cream than the recipe stated as it was a little too dry without the egg added.
I have been searching for a fabulous banana bread that didn’t need baking powder and I found this one. I baked it for my guys at the shop where I work, and …there’s none left. Best ever. The yogurt made it so moist.
This really is the best banana bread recipe! I added chocolate chips and made the cream cheese frosting. It was a big hit during a weekend with friends. Thanks as always, Sally for the fabulous recipe and helpful suggestions!
Title is #truth
I’m not a banana bread person. But with my elderly mom in the hospital after a serious farm accident and my dad just out of the hospital himself and home, missing Mom, I decided to try and make his favorite, banana bread. I scoured the internet for recipes and settled on yours, Sally. I made smaller loaves so we could freeze some for Dad to enjoy at his leisure. I added mini chocolate chips for a tiny loaf. I just made this the second time. I love the simplicity and use nonfat yogurt & no changes, except smaller loaves. Dad loves it. And if it makes him happy his daughters can cook almost as good as Mom while she’s recovering, that’s a 5-star recipe winner for me!
I made this today with some leftover chopped pecans and chocolate chips. In the words of my 15-year-old son, “this is sick,” which apparently means good. I used nonfat Greek yogurt. The banana bread was extremely moist and everybody loved it.
I made this and used Dannon low fat vanilla greek yogurt and added chocolate chips (my 3 year old grand daughters request). Used a muffin pan, turned out fabulous!
I made this bread exactly except I used Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten-free baking flour. It tastes delicious but after 80 minutes of baking, it came out still uncooked in the middle and too cooked on the outside (it was tented with foil halfway through). At first, I thought it was the gluten-free flour (I made the orange cranberry loaf the other day and had the exact same issue), but I see a few other comments saying the same thing. One thing I didn’t do was measure the bananas. I used four, as per the recipe but didn’t measure if it came out to two cups. Could this possibly be the culprit? I’m going to make it again with regular gluten-y all-purpose flour and see if it comes out differently. One can never have too much banana bread …
I did this in my food processor! Fantastic!
I bought a new oven and wanted to try something new. I came across this recipe and WOW!! Very delicious!!! Thank you for sharing your recipe!!