Banana Bread Recipe
Mama used to make banana bread often and give us thick slices, toasted, with peanut butter for breakfast. It’s one of my favorite comfort foods that takes me back, though I don’t make banana bread very much.
You need some very very ripe bananas to make it — the banana should have lots of brown flecks all over it. That’s going to make a sweet, tender banana bread. If you have some overly ripe bananas, but lack the time to make the bread right now, you can peel, cube and freeze the bananas. When you’re ready, pull them out and thaw them before mashing and making the recipe. That’s what my mama always did and she is smart.
Banana Bread Video – scroll down for banana bread recipe
Banana Bread Recipe – Printable
PrintBanana Bread Recipe
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 10 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup mashed ripe banana (2–3 bananas)
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons soft butter
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
Instructions
- Set oven to 350 and grease a 9″x5″ loaf pan.
- Whisk dry ingredients together. Set aside.
- Mash banana until fairly smooth.
- Cream sugar with butter, add in eggs and banana until smooth. Add buttermilk and vanilla.
- Fold in dry ingredients and pecans if using.
- Spread in to loaf pan and bake 1 hour.
- Cool 5-10 minutes in pan, invert and cool completely on rack before slicing.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 270
- Sugar: 13
- Fat: 12
- Carbohydrates: 36
- Protein: 5
33 Comments
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Banana bread makes me think of two things.
When I was a young kid, I took a baking class. We made banana bread. The teacher forgot to have us put in baking soda. The bread came out flat as a pancake. Tasty, but very unappetizing.
The other (better) thought is of Marian. Marian was a sweet little old lady who worked, years ago, in a client agency office when I was a lawyer. My boss teased her once that we’d clear her work faster if she bribed us. The next time she brought us a document to clear, she also brought us a banana bread she’d baked. She kept doing it with every document, until my boss got too embarrassed and asked her to stop. I miss Marian, and I miss her delicious banana bread.
I’ll try making yours, and I am sure it’ll be delicious!
Oh what a nice story, GSF. I just love little old ladies and their baked goods. Let me know how my banana bread recipe compares to Marian’s!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and Mrs GSF!
I’m in love with this recipe, i’ve made a couple of different recipes but this one is by far the greatest one. keeping this recipe forever. It’s amazing. Thank you so much
So happy to hear, Stephanie!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I lost my grandmother’s recipe and every recipe I’ve tried so far in order to recapture it had a really coarse texture…more like muffins or a country style bread. This looks much like my grandmother’s banana bread. I’ll bet your banana bread freezes well, too (it would be too dangerous for me to leave it sitting on the counter as banana bread is one of my major weaknesses). Love the idea of plain yogurt instead of buttermilk since I always have the former around (I make a gallon every two weeks) but can rarely find good buttermilk in stores.
Oh I hope this is similar, Randy! Wouldn’t that be great.
I’m with you on the no good buttermilk complaint. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen real, cultured buttermilk in a store. Maybe a farmer’s market dairy stand would have some. I’ve been meaning to try that local Austin dairy, Mill-King, but never remember to get to the market in time.
Unfortunately, Mill-King doesn’t produce buttermilk 🙁 They do produce excellent heavy cream (my other major dairy product complaint is ultra-pasteurization). Try finding heavy cream from anyone else that isn’t ultra-pasteurized. Thanks to them, I can make homemade clotted cream. Now if they’d only produce cultured buttermilk, I could make homemade crème fraîche more often. I’ve been tempted to try to make homemade cultured buttermilk, but I’m confused over what starter culture to use.
Hopefully my bananas will be ripe enough by tomorrow!!! Why is it that whenever I’m really wanting ripe bananas, all I can find are green ones? I need to pay attention to the occasions when stores have available every degree of ripeness possible, buy some really ripe ones and freeze them.
I’m going to ask my food blogger group about a local cultured buttermilk and get back to you. Now I have got to find one!
I Just finished baking mine based off your recipe. Turned out amazing!
Here’s a pic of it:
http://instagram.com/p/v4ylxFS25X/?modal=true
It looks perfect! Thanks for sharing the picture, Rafael!
Hi Hilah, or anyone who will answer this-I was wondering if I could use sour cream in place of plain yogurt? Thanks
Hi Priscilla!
Yes, that should work just fine!
Thank you:)
Oh my word.. that is the BEST lookin’ banana bread.
I assume that’s real butter spread on top?
I like how you offer the recipe as a printable. Nice touch 🙂
darlene
Oh yes, Darlene, it’s Kerry Gold butter. I never thought I’d be a butter snob, but goldang it’s some delicious butter!
I love your recipes but since I have an electric oven I’m always scared of baking stuff because they doesn’t work the same as regular ones but I’m finally losing that fear and giving it a go anyways because I really like cooking.
I made this bread the other day and it turned out great (even if the milk part didn’t turn out quite the way it should’ve) and the family loved it. I’m definitely making it again for Christmas.
PS: Congrats on the little guy! He’s adorable! 🙂
Oh hooray! Thanks for the feedback, Lorena. Banana bread will be great for Christmas. 🙂
Your timing is great. We just happened to have a lot of old bananas. Banana bread is hard to beat! I have never met anyone who does not like it. Great recipe, as always!
I love it when I have good timing! 😉 Hope you like this version of banana bread, Gene.
I just made this and it’s fabulous! The smell is beyond amazing, the texture is tender and moist and it’s so naturally sweet from the bananas! Another homerun, Hilah
Just made this, as we had bananas that needed to go.
I used Mexican Table Cream instead of the Buttermilk and it worked just fine.
Great recipe, the house smells amazing. Another great one, Hilah! Thank you!
Ooh, great thinking, Bonzo! I bet the cream will make it extra tender.
My daughter loved it. It looked amazing. I wish I would have taken a pic. I chose to leave out the nuts. I have picky eaters. The recipe we normally use uses orange juice instead of buttermilk. I found it to be okay in taste. I think I’m use to a sweeter bread and not the tangy that buttermilk creates. I may try it again in the future.
The daughter-unit (18 months old) really approves of this banana bread recipe. She would rather eat that than cereal, which is a victory any day!
That said, I adore it, too! I made a double batch and froze one loaf so it can sustain me… until I run out. So crunchy and yummy! I sprinkled some chopped pecans on top, and it just added that extra little bit of crunch. Mmm crunch. Next time, I will have to remember not to turn the oven off when I put the loaves in. They might bake faster then.
Hilah,
Can bread flour be substituted for all purpose flour in this recipe? (I have bread flour I’m wanting to use up) If so, how should I adjust the quantity of flour? I’m pretty sure 1 cup of all purpose flour is NOT the same as 1 cup of bread flour. Right?
Love your YouTube channel. It’s a treasure trove of delicious ideas and recipes! Thanks!
Hey Donald!
I would not suggest using bread flour to make this recipe. Bread flour is much higher in gluten protein and your banana bread will probably end up with a dense and chewy texture, rather than light and cake-y. (Hypothetically, if I were to sub, I’d use a little less than a cup of BF per cup of APF) If it’s too late and you’ve already tried it, let me know how it turned out!
Help I don’t have brown sugar can I use stevia???!
I really don’t know. What do the instructions on the stevia say?
Hi Hilah. How would I go about substituting the white flour for whole wheat? Do you know how much I could use instead – or a mix of both? Thanks!
Hey Veronica!
If you are using whole wheat pastry flour, you can substitute it for white flour 1 for 1. If you’re using a standard or stoneground WW flour, you can swap out half of the white flour with that.
Thank you!
I have to bake this! The serving size is 1 and the calories are 270! That means I can smoke a bowl and eat the whole loaf and not worry about my girlish figure. Hell yes!
Haha! that’s one SLICE, but I think you knew that, Tom 😉