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
This is my go to banana bread recipe…. nothing compares! Curious though, in the past I have just left my oven rack positioned to the middle ( #3 on my wolf oven)… today, however I did as your recipe calls for and repositioned to lower 1/3. Why do this? I still had to add about 10-15 minutes more baking time . Just curious about oven rack positioning!
Hi Deb, With tall loaves that have a very long bake time we like to move the rack down a little bit further away from the heating element. This helps the top of the loaf to not get too brown while the center is finishing baking.
I have found that, at least for my oven, I get a more consistent texture if I bake at 325 for 1 hour, then an additional 20 minutes at 350. Fantastic flavor, great recipe.
Second time making this recipe. It is amazing! I’m using chocolate chips this time around. This is truly the best! Ty
I make this recipe once a week and it never fails. Today I added cardamom, can’t wait to see how it tastes.
Hi Sally,
This is by far the best banana bread recipe that I’ve come across. I’ve tried this so many times, and each time it comes out amazing! The instructions are very clear. Thank you for this! My family loves it as well.
Hi Sally,
I love your recipes! I’ve tried so many like the raspberry danish, overnight cinnamon rolls, easy cinnamon rolls, and oatmeal raisin cookies just to name a few. Every one of them came out superb and this is another that I must add to the list! I made this banana bread this morning and it came out so moist. Great recipe! Thank you!
Baking time for two 8×4 pans?
I have made this twice and both times I forgot the step of covering with foil. (I know!!!) I’m curious though, if this is the reason why my bread looks mushy? It just never looks done even after baking the full time and more. The flavor is good but I’m wondering about the reason for the texture.
Hi Miri, It sounds like your bread is simply uncer baked. Every oven, and pan, is different so don’t be surprised if your bread takes longer – using a toothpick to check for doneness is the best way to tell if the center is baked. Tenting the top with foil will help the top to not brown too quickly as the center continues to bake.
It is by far the best Banana Bread I’ve ever tasted- So moist and full of flavor!
I’m a husband and father of 4. I wanted to use the bananas that were over ripe and not let them go to waste.
I looked online for many banana bread recipes. Following the directions exactly.. I simply impressed myself!!
Letting the bread season and stand for 2 days was the final instruction.It’s truly the best I’ve ever tasted..
Don’t believe me?? My family thinks so and now I’m on the hook to make it every Christmas!! Thanks so much!
Hi Sally,
Thanks for great recipe! So it turned out good but at the bottom it was dense and not spongy. Do you know what could be the reason?
Hello Karishma! Could it have been over-mixed? Try mixing just until the ingredients are combined next time!
I use King Arthur’s GF Measure for Measure flour and it turns out perfect!
Hi Sally,
I made this recipe several times and absolutely love it. Can I add 1 1/2 cups of fresh cranberries without altering the rest of the recipe?
Definitely. Enjoy, Katharina!
Hi Layla, absolutely — you can substitute with apple sauce here. See recipe notes for other substitute options.
Made this today for the first time! It’s so good. I added mini chocolate chips in place of nuts! Fantastic, thanks Sally.
same! mine is in the oven and i had to subsitute one of the eggs with apple sauce! i will let yall know how it turns out!
Hi Sally, when covering the bread with aluminum foil it’s after 30 minutes if baking correct? And then after you put the foil you place it back into the oven for the rest of the 30 minutes? Did I get that right? I’m baking this bread for my church tomorrow. Thanks again.
Yes that’s correct, Sori!
Made this last weekend, used extra bananas, versus yogurt or sour cream, turned out great. Mixed chopped English Walnuts in mix, turned out super moist and delish…..couldn’t keep my 14 year old son out of it….
Looks yummy. I’ve tried to make this for my family, and my family really love it. I will introduce your recipe for my friends. Thank you so much. I love it.
I loved this recipe! it was so moist and dense and it tasted amazing. I am definitly going to make this again! Unlike a lot of other comments, my Banana bread was really moist and it had just the right amount of sugar.
I’m new at baking and love banana nut bread, so I decided to try this recipe. It is sooo good! I baked my loaf for three extra minutes (68 min total) to make sure the center was just right. The ends of the loaf came out a tad dry (normal for bread ends, I think) but the rest of the bread in between is PERFECT! I added cream cheese icing and walnuts on top. Oh, so good! Can’t wait to try Sally’s deep dish pizza recipe next.
Awesome recipe. For a variation, I used a fifth ripe banana, cut it into cubes and folded it into the batter along wit a half cup of crushed pineapple. I used pineapple juice to make a glaze. If you use pineapple, use two tablespoons of flour to account for the extra moisture. The combination is awesome.
Hello 🙂
I was wondering if I could use another type of flour (rye, oat, almond…) since I can’t eat white flour.
Thank you
Hi Kathrin, You can try substituting whole wheat flour but the texture will be a bit heartier and not quite as moist. We haven’t tested any other alternative flours. If you’re interested, here’s our whole wheat banana bread recipe!
Just took this out of the oven and it was great. I had to bake it almost 80 minutes before a knife inserted in the middle came out clean. I used 3 frozen bananas and 2 ripe ones and a small amount of apple sauce (out of bananas!) order to make 2 cups . I added raisins, a little more cinnamon along with ¼ t. cloves and ¼ t nutmeg – I like it a bit spicer. The bread is moist, firm and I plan to try to toast a piece tomorrow.
Everything is better with cream cheese frosting! Seriously excellent recipe. Thank you.
This was heavenly! Some additions this time- 4tsp pf freshly squeezed Orange juice and a tablespoon total of orange and lemon zest(1/2 orange+1/2lemon). It added the subtle citrusy tinge to this perfect loaf! Bonus is that the home smells amazing! Thank you Sally, your recipes are keepers!
This is my go to recipe for banana bread! Moist and flavorful with Greek yogurt, it’s a staple in our home. Thanks Sally!
Delicious banana bread – moist, flavorful and just the right amount of sweet.
Amazing! Tried a few different recipes and this is the best one I’ve tried, will be my go to recipe from now on. Thank you!
added some nutmeg and had to bump the oven time to 1.5 hours but that might be my oven being old.
bread slaps, good stuff.
Forget the box… I always made the boxed banana bread from BJs wholesale club (which really is good)… My son asked for banana bread the other night, I didn’t make it and I felt bad so I decided to make it for him while he was out at work. I didn’t have any boxes of the bread mix left, my husband offered to go buy it for me so I could make it. I decided not to have him grab it and I wasn’t going to make any. Guilt got the better of me being a mom and not wanting to let you kids down no matter their age so I decided to look up a recipe just to see if I even had all the ingredients I would need.
Sooooo glad I did… I decided to try this recipe based on the ratings and reviews. I followed the recipe to a T and added chocolate chips as that is a must in our banana bread. I needed an extra 10 minutes of cook time but it was sooooo worth it… my husband, son and I all loved it. Can’t wait for the rest of the family to try it (if it lasts) but I couldn’t wait to write my review so here you go…. definitely making this again.
No more box recipe for me. I can actually bake and feel better about knowing what’s in my bread. Thank you for a quick, simple but more importantly DELICIOUS banana bread… No more box for me
4 Thumbs Up!!
I asked my husband what he thought about the banana bread and he said “it’s the best” and gave two thumbs up! I have to agree! Thank you so much for sharing this very tasty and moist banana bread! And, it’s healthier than the one I’ve been baking for the last 10 or so years.