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
Made this today with the pecan option and used the light brown sugar as I had run out of the dark and it’s the best moist banana cake I have ever had! The whole family loved it. Now I have a great use for my overripe bananas!
Absolutely LOVED it! Only problem is, I can’t stop eating it!!! Will be the only recipe i use from now on…
Delicious! I made the bread two times. The first time it was done in 60 minutes. The next time i baked it, well, I am still waiting for the center to cook and now it has neen an hour and 30 minutes. I am using a different oven that seems like it is hot enough. Could it be the oven?
Hi Judy, it can definitely be the oven. An oven’s temperature can greatly vary and may not always be exactly as it reads — an oven thermometer helps to ensure the exact temperature. If you’re using a different pan (i.e. a different material or lighter or darker color), that could also be a factor, too. Hope this is helpful!
This is the only banana bread recipe I use and have since I found it a couple of years ago. It freezes well too. Sometimes I drizzle melted peanut butter into the batter once it is in the pan before baking and then move a butter knife through to distribute the peanut butter a bit. And add those dark chocolate chips to the mix – heaven. Thank you for a truly easy and wonderful recipe!
Thank you very much for the recipe. The bread was perfect.
Didn’t work for me eitherpretty disappointed, I made 3 batches so that was a lot of ingredients. Didn’t raise at all. Pretty dense and didn’t raise or brown at all. I think 2 cups is maybe too much banana, I dont think 4 bananas is 2 cups. I use 1 cup(3 bananas) but I thought I’d try maybe it would just be extra banana-e♀️
It sounds like maybe you’re baking soda was dead. Buy a new thing of baking soda and try again.
I made this today and I believe its my new favorite for banana bread! It was super moist and had an amazing texture! I added chopped walnuts and made two loafs using the aluminum disposable/reusuable loaf pans from Handifoil.
Turned out great! Very nice texture.
Can I use a bundt pan?
Hi Kelly! A 9×5 inch loaf pan holds about 8 cups of batter. Bundt pan volume varies because of various designs but on average a 10×3 inch pan hold 10-12 cups of batter. You can read more about how to convert cake pan sizes here.
How about using this banana cake batter for a Bundt instead (see recipe notes for Bundt cake instructions)? Let us know what you try!
Hi, I made this banana bread yesterday and it was delicious. It came out really puffy and soft although on the bottom it seemed a little bit raw, next time I’m going to reduce the temperature of my oven just a little bit.
I covered it with some aluminum foil and stored it out of the fridge. This morning I wanted to eat some for breakfast and I noticed that the loaf turned a little mushy like it was raw. It’s really strange that it changed consistency over night and I can’t explain that. Can you tell me what did I do wrong?
I only had one cup of banana – so I split the recipe in half and made 12 muffins! They are DELICIOUS. It’s also a chocolate kind of week, so I added chocolate chips as well. So tasty. And the oven temp directions to get that high top worked perfectly! Thank you for your wonderful recipes and simultaneous baking education. I’ve learned so much from this blog – and it’s always a joy!
I made this bread last night and it truly is delicious. However, I had to bake it for 90 minutes before a toothpick came out clean, and even then the bottom was not quite baked through, even though I baked the loaf on a lower rack as instructed. Next time I will bake 4 mini-loaves to ensure thorough baking. Also, I’m wondering if there is a way to make the bread less dense by adding baking powder or something? I don’t want to overmix the batter, as I don’t want the loaf to become “tough.” I welcome your suggestions.
Hi Penny, It’s likely that the bread was too dense because it was underbaked. Did you change any of the ingredients or use more/less banana, butter, yogurt, etc? Be sure to test your oven temperature too!
Thank you for your quick reply, Stephanie. I only had 1-1/2 cups of banana, so added 1/2 cup of applesauce. Also, when softening the butter in the microwave I accidentally melted it — perhaps that made a difference? I was using a new oven, and never thought of checking the temperature for accuracy. I will do that ASAP. I’m looking forward to trying this recipe again.
Very delicious bread! I added more dry ingredients to make the bread more dense. Frosted with cream cheese frosting with orange peel added to it and it was FANTASTIC!
I added:
Golden raisins
Shredded cocoanut
White chocolate chips
Dried pineapple (chopped roughly)
Macadamia nuts
Pecans
Shredded peel of one orange
1 tsp. almond extract as well.
These extra ingredients were not individually measured but together they totaled about 2 – 3 cups. I added them at the end, just before pouring into the bread pan. Cooked same amount of time as original recipe.
Just bought an acre with a dozen pecan trees . This recipe is going in my permanent file. Texture came out perfect. Bread was delicious despite no cinnamon or vanilla.
If you have a surplus of pecans., I’m interested in purchasing some for home use . So not like thousands of pounds.
I just made this recipe this morning and oh my goodness this really is a winner!!! I left out the nuts because my daughter can’t bring most things with nuts to school and she will want this in her lunch. I think it would be awesome with nutella incorporated into it somehow. Thanks for the great banana bread recipe! YUMMINESS!!!
Just done this. I love it. The idea to cover with foil was fantastic.
Really good recipe, very tasty and moist. I’m trying to do more baking and this was very easy to follow. I added chopped walnuts to mine. Took about 16 mins longer in my oven (which was surprising as the temp is pretty accurate) but it was a super idea to cover with foil so the top didn’t burn while the cake cooked properly. Having a slice now with a cup of tea for supper!
The best banana bread ever!! It’s so yummy and super moist! I made this today and my hubby loves it so much. He said it’s the best banana bread I’ve ever made! Thanks Sally for the recipe. Your recipe never fail us ❤️
This was delicious but I’d love to know the nutrition facts on it. Has anyone calculated them?
Hi Julie, 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://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
Hi, love your recipe! How many grams of cocoa powder should I add if I wanna make it
A banana chocolate muffin?
We haven’t tested a chocolate version of this banana bread, but you may love these Double Chocolate Banana Muffins instead!
Tried the recipe and it tastes great but somehow it ended up dense and not bready like on the photo. Can anyone please help ?
Hi Trisha, Could it have been over-mixed? That can lead to a dense, spongey texture. Try mixing just until the ingredients are combined next time. And make sure to bake the bread in the lower third of your oven as well (see step 1). Hope these tips help for next time!
Love the recipe…
I had one problem, I baked it for 65 min the toothpick came out clean but when I cut it, it was still little bit raw at the bottom… should I turn the oven to bake the bottom first for a little while?
Hi Avi! Could it have been over-mixed? That can lead to a dense, spongey texture. Try mixing just until the ingredients are combined next time. And make sure to bake the bread in the lower third of your oven as well (see step 1). Hope these tips help for next time!
Could I use cake flour for this or even bread flour I ran out of all-purpose
Hi Nyce, we don’t recommend cake flour here. Banana bread contains additional wet ingredients, so cake flour isn’t really ideal. You need a stronger flour like all-purpose flour. We don’t recommend bread flour, either, it would yield a dense and chewy banana bread. It’s best to stick with all purpose for banana bread!
I just tried this recipe and followed it exactly using plain yogurt. I love that it has less sugar and a little less flour and other recipes I’ve used plus more bananas! It was absolutely delicious and flawless banana bread in my opinion.
Wow, this is an amazing recipe!
This bread is very decadent tasting compared to the “healthy” versions I have made lately. It is filled with banana and buttery goodness! I used too much banana so it took much longer to cook, I baked it for about 75 minutes. I used the aluminum foil trick at about 30 minutes so it kept it from browning too much. I added about 3/4 cup chocolate chips and no nuts but next time I think I will leave out the chocolate because I found it too rich with them. Overall texture is nice, it’s pretty dense but soft and the sort of crust on the top is a bit chewy a little bit like a brownie which is really yummy!
Best banana bread thanks, and question can I make with gluten free rob mills baking flour.
Hi Lorraine, we haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flour, but let us know if you give it a try!
The Banana bread turned out fantastic! I replaced the 2 eggs with 2 tablespoons peanut butter, 1 teaspoon fruit vinegar and 3 tablespoons oat milk.
I also used Skyr (100 gr) instead of yogurt.
We loved it <3
The bread came out nice and moist!
I followed the recipe, I have to say that I would recommend 1 cup of white sugar instead of the 3/4 cup of brown sugar or maybe a mixture of both because it did not turn out sweet enough.
This recipe is wonderful!
Thank you for the suggestions at the end, helped replacing ingredients I was missing, I used applesauce to replace the yogurt
I used white sugar after I realized my brown sugar was rock hard. Same amount and added a spoonful of molasses, to hopefully keep the depth of favor brown sugar adds.
The muffins came out beautifully.
Hi I wanted to say this is my favorite blog for great recipes my little boy just loves !! Thank you for all your hard work
Also I wanted to ask of I can substitute the yogurt for butter milk in this recipe and if so would I keep it at just a half cup? I’ve got tons of butter milk and bananas I have to use up !!! Thank you
Hi Vera! Thank you so much for making our recipes. You can use buttermilk instead of yogurt or sour cream (same amount), but the batter will be on the thinner side and, as a result, the baked bread will end up a little squat without as much rise. Best to stick to the recipe.