With buttery and soft crumb, simple ingredients, this moist and easy Banana Bread Recipe is sure to win your heart! You will love that this one is a one bowl, fuss free quick bread that comes together with just 10 minutes of active time. Bake it plain, or with nuts and/or chocolate chips. So good, either ways!
If just like me you are always on the hunt for ripe banana recipes, you have definitely come to the right place. First up, give these Banana Bars a try! If you want to bake a healthier Bread, try this Whole Wheat Banana Bread.
Are you craving muffins instead? These popular and Healthy Banana Muffins will be an instant favorite!
Jump to:
- How to quickly ripen Bananas:
- Other Bread Ingredients and substitutions:
- Recipe Overview and questions that you might have:
- How to freeze Bananas?
- DID YOU KNOW???
- You can mash your bananas directly in your mixer!!
- What if my bananas are very ripe and way too sweet?
- Banana Bread Variations:
- How to freeze this bread?
- More Banana Recipes that you will love:
- Recipe
How to quickly ripen Bananas:
Place Bananas in a Paper Bag: Well there are many ways to ripen bananas if you just bought them or for any reason if they are a bit raw. To quickly ripen bananas, place them in a paper bag and cover the bag tightly. You can also place a ripening fruit like an apple or an avocado in the bag to speed up this process.
Oven Method: Bananas can also be softened and made ready to be used in the bread using an oven. Place unpeeled bananas on a parchment lined tray and bake them at 250 deg F for 15-20 minutes or till their peels blacken. This time will depend on how ripe your bananas were initially. But as soon as their peel blackens, you can be sure that they are done.
Take them out of oven and allow them to cool down. Once the bananas are good to handle, peel and mash them to use in your bread batter.
Other Bread Ingredients and substitutions:
Butter and Eggs: You will need both these ingredients at room temperature. I also like to add unsalted butter in my bread as you get to control the amount of salt that goes in. Room temperature eggs combine well in the batter and give structure to your bread.
Leavener: We are only using baking soda in this recipe. The acidity in eggs and brown sugar combines with the base in baking soda and give bread a lift.
Sugars: I have added both granulated sugar and brown sugar to this bread and I suggest you do the same. We don't want the bread to taste too dense and stodgy. Thus granulated sugar works perfectly to reduce some of the moisture that brown sugar would have solely imparted.
Milk: Quarter cup of milk also helps in moistening the bread. This bread not only bakes moist, but stays the same for days. If you want an extra dose of moistness, I suggest replacing milk with the same amount of full fat sour cream or full fat yogurt. Oh and if adding milk, reach for full fat one as well.
Flavorings: Vanilla goes pretty well with the flavors of banana and butter. You can use any form of vanilla, just make sure its pure. Pure Vanilla extract, vanilla beans paste or vanilla powder, they all work. I also like to add a dash of cinnamon to my bread, I think you will love it too.
Recipe Overview and questions that you might have:
I always like to use room temperature butter in this bread as opposed to melted butter or oil. I know oil is famous to impart moistness to any baked good. Here in this recipe that part is handles by bananas, brown sugar and also milk/yogurt/sour cream that we will add.
So we are using room temperature butter to give that phenomenal buttery taste to our bread. Also make sure your eggs are at room temperature too.
If you forget to take eggs out of refrigerator, just place them in a cup/bowl of hot water for 5 minutes and your eggs are good to go in the batter.
I love adding a hint of cinnamon in my bread because I adore banana and cinnamon together. Now that is optional, you can skip cinnamon and just add vanilla if you are not a fan of cinnamon.
I chose to keep my bread plain this time, but you can definitely put add-ins of your choice here. I have mentioned certain variations below in this post.
How to freeze Bananas?
Bananas can be frozen if they are ripen and you aren't ready to bake with them yet. Both unpeeled and peeled bananas can be frozen till you are ready to use them. Freeze unpeeled bananas in a freezer safe bag. Take out all the air out of bag and freeze them.
Peel and roughly break or chop bananas and freeze them in a freezer safe bag as well. Thaw in the refrigerator before beginning to mash them.
DID YOU KNOW???
You can mash your bananas directly in your mixer!!
No need to grab a fork and mash bananas with your hands anymore! Just throw peeled and roughly broken bananas in your stand mixer/hand mixer. Firstly turn on your mixer on low speed and then gradually increase it to med-high.
You will see the banana chunks will start breaking down into mashed banana. Take this banana out in another bowl and start beating butter and sugars in the same mixing bowl. You don't need to wash or clean it!
What if my bananas are very ripe and way too sweet?
If your bananas are very ripe, chances are they will be very sweet to taste too. If I notice my bananas are ripen way too much, I always reduce granulated sugar to ¼ cup. Otherwise I find the bread turns out too sweet too!
Banana Bread Variations:
Nuts: Try adding ½ cup-¾ cup of chopped walnuts or pecans to your bread. These chopped nuts soften in the bread as it bakes and if you love nuts, you will enjoy this texture contrast.
Raisins or Cranberries or Dried Blueberries: These can be added along with nuts or individually as well. Live walnuts and raisins go well together well. If I were to add both, I'd go with ½ cup walnuts plus ½ cup raisins. In case you choose to add berries only, I love about a cup of dried berries in mine.
Chocolate Chips/ Peanut Butter Chips/ Caramel Bits: Again, you can add walnuts in combination with chocolate chips/caramel bits, or chocolate chips individually. Combination possibilities are endless! If adding only chips go with ¾ cup. When adding chocolate chips, I reach out for mini chocolate chips. You will definitely love and appreciate more bits of chocolate in every bite 😉
Spices: If you aren't a fan of cinnamon, you can add a dash of nutmeg to your bread batter instead. But if you are a spice lover like me, try adding this spice mix to your batter along with cinnamon. Chai mix- ½ teaspoon Nutmeg, ½ teaspoon Ginger, ¼ teaspoon allspice, ½ teaspoon cardamom and ¼ teaspoon cloves.
How to freeze this bread?
You can either freeze the whole loaf or you can also freeze it sliced. Slices not only thaw soon but also are easy and hassle free to consume after thawing in case you want to eat the bread in batches.
Wrap slices individually or in a group of two to three using a plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Place them in a freezer friendly bag or container and freeze for 2-3 months.
If you wish to freeze a whole loaf, wrap it too and then freeze in any freezer safe container. Thaw on counter top or in refrigerator before enjoying.
More Banana Recipes that you will love:
If you liked this cake give it a star review. Also, tell me in the comments below, how did this turn out for you! And don’t forget to share your creations with me on Instagram at #greedyeatsblog Also follow me on Pinterest and Facebook!
Recipe
Easy Banana Bread Recipe
Equipment
- Stand Mixer/Hand Mixer
- 1 8 x 5 inches Baking Pan
- Parchment Paper
Ingredients
- ½ cup Butter (unsalted and at room temperature)
- ½ cup Granulated sugar
- ½ cup Brown sugar (any light or dark brown sugar is fine)
- 2 large Eggs (at room temperature)
- ¼ cup Whole Milk (even buttermilk or sour cream or yogurt works too)
- 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon Ground cinnamon
- 3 medium Bananas (mashed, very ripe)
- 2 cups All purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ⅛ teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉ and line your loaf pan with parchment paper and set it aside.
- In the bowl of stand mixer or using a hand mixer, cream room temperature butter and both sugars till the mixture turns pale and fluffy. About 2 minutes.½ cup Butter, ½ cup Granulated sugar, ½ cup Brown sugar
- Now turn mixer to medium speed and add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Next add in mashed bananas, milk and pure vanilla extract. Beat them in to combine too.2 large Eggs, ¼ cup Whole Milk, 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract, 3 medium Bananas
- With mixer running on low speed, add in flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Slowly mix wet and dry ingredients together until just combined. Do not overmix at this stage.½ teaspoon Ground cinnamon, 2 cups All purpose flour, 1 teaspoon Baking Soda, ⅛ teaspoon Salt
- Pour the prepared batter in the pre-lined pan and bake the bread for 55-60 minutes. Or until it passes toothpick test. After 30-35 minutes have passed, loosely cover bread with aluminum foil so that it doesn't brown too much as it is cooking in the center.
- Start checking the bread at round 50 minutes mark and then check after every 5 minutes for doneness. Once baked, remove bread pan from oven and cool the bread down in pan on a wire rack for around 45 minutes and then flip it over and slice when ready to serve.
SONIA SEIVWRIGHT
Yummy. I love incredibly soft bread packed with flavour and aroma. Banana bread is like this. It's been a while since I had some; this is a sign to bake one asap.
Joy
Bread was delicious!! I love all the variations you shared—so fun to switch things up, but I usually stick with the classic nuts option! Thanks for the freezing tips too—super helpful for making a batch last a little longer (if I don’t eat it all first!).
Catalina
There’s nothing better than the smell of banana bread baking in the oven! I love how simple and fuss-free this recipe sounds!
Michelle
My husband loves banana bread! I have to give this recipe a try, to shake things up a bit when I make it on the weelends.
Emily
I love a good banana bread recipe! I always buy more banans than I can eat, so that I have over-ripened ones to use for baking, like this.
Beth
This looks so good! I can tell just by looking at the pictures that it's super moist and tender, and that's exactly what I love in a good banana bread!