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
- 1/3 cup (80g) plain Greek yogurt or full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 cups (345g) mashed bananas (about 3–4 ripe bananas)
- 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 yogurt, vanilla, and mashed bananas 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 cool it directly on the rack until ready to slice and serve.
- 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 recipe is the bomb. Seriously. I’m a total baking novice and was worried I’d butcher it somehow, but no, it turned out so fluffy and delicious! Only minor changes were:
– I only had a round 8″ cake pan, which I coated with aluminum foil because it tends to leak
– I used sour cream instead of yogurt, as she suggested
– Only added chocolate chips, no nuts
– I didn’t have a 4th banana on hand, so I used half a cup of regular applesauce.
This recipe is bae. Trust me.
I never could make banana bread, it always seemed to fall flat on me. But now with your fabulous receipe, I can make it perfect everytime. Girls came home from school this week and marvelled at my newly baked warm moist and delicious banana bread. I was hoping to freeze some leftovers, but they ate it all ! Bonus points for their mamma and many many thanks to you Sally for posting this. Hugs from Malaysia….
OH WOW – just made this with 2 over ripe bananas and 3 over ripe pears (no sour cream/yoghurt) and it is the best banana cake I have ever made. My go to is usually Donna Hay’s banana cake in the Thermomix, but I don’t think I will ever make that again (sorry Donna Hay)
After my sister tried your recipe and we all loved it, I decided to give it a try myself. I added semisweet chocolate chips and walnuts, it was an even bigger hit! Thanks!
Hi! I made this with choco chips and 1 more extra banana 🙂 it’s so good and delicious! Thank you so much
I just made this and it was the best recipe I’ve ever used. The bread was so moist. I’m glad I doubled it and made two.
Already made this recipe for the 3rd times and it always taste delicious. Never fail, this recipe really great for beginner. I substitute with other nuts, raisin even chocolate and it never failed me
Delicious, but I had to cook it for a whole lot longer for it to be fully cooked!
Great texture – moist and delicious with nuts and choc chips.
Just wondering if anyone has calculated the calorie content for this recipe?
Whew!!! I’m so glad I found you again!!! I made your banana bread…it was the best ever!! In fact I told my mom, your bread is great, but I just made one that is out of this world!!! I couldn’t find it again to make more today, so I googled “2 cups bananas, brown sugar and plain yogart…and woola!!” I found you!!! I doubled your recipe, added 1 teas of banana ext. (Had to keep a bit of mom in my,recipe from you!) Then added a handful of choc chips. Ive been baking for 50,years, this,is the best recipe ive ever made!!! Thank you!!! I’m going back,home to,Washington next month, mom,said, “bring your new recipe!” She is 92 years old and my “everything” and I cant wait to make,it for her and dad!! Definatley worth the 2 hours it took,me today to,find you again!!! Thanks for such a great recipe!!! Look forward to following you and making morr of your recipes!!!
Hi Sally,
If I use a convection oven, do I have to adjust the baking time? Thank you
Hi Joanne, Convection ovens are fantastic for cooking, roasting, and when using low sided pans like baking sheets. But if you have the choice, we don’t recommend convection settings when baking cakes, breads, etc. The flow of air can cause baked goods to rise and bake unevenly and it also pulls moisture out of the oven. If you must use convection settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake.
Hello, I made this recipe ,this is the first time wanting to make banana bread. I really love the ingredients that’s what motivated me to make the banana bread. Yes I did the cream cheese frosting as well thank you so much.
YUMMERS…
Made four beautiful loaves. ONe in the freezer and half of one left. Nuts are imperative for us!
Made this for my in-laws in texas
But had to make another load because my didn’t get to try it
I baked this for someone and when I cut it up to put in the box, I decided I would try a piece. The flavour was delicious, however after following recipe to exact measurements and bake time, I found it to be very, very dense and very moist – almost oily. I used my mixer on low speed when incorporating the flour mixture and blended in until just mixed.. Any suggestion? I am thinking next time I will not use the mixer, but will just mix everything by hand. Question – when you say butter (melted), do I measure butter first and then melt or melt it first and then measure. I plan on making your Banana Muffins. Thank you
Thanks for your reply Sally. My question for the melted butter was not in relation to this recipe, but to the Banana Muffins that I plan to make. I followed the Banana Bread recipe exactly as written but it was as mentioned in my previous comment. Not sure what might have gone wrong. I will try and mix by hand next time and see how it goes.
Thank you for another delicious recipe, Sally!
Made four beautiful loaves. ONe in the freezer and half of one left. Nuts are imperative for us!
Followed the recipe to the t, just used a whole teaspoon of garam masala instead of the cinnamon.
Very tasty, best banana bread I’ve made so far!
Turned out fantastic! I did add a teaspoon of nutmeg to mine- and instead of sour cream I substituted cinnamon applesauce. The result was a spiced banana bread that I’ll make again! Exactly 59 minutes in the oven for mine- came out moist and delicious. Totally perfect!
I made it yesterday and i found it the easiest one and most yummiest.
Thanks
Used crème fraîche instead of yoghurt and chia seeds instead of nuts. Chia absorbs liquid but these came out moist.
This was delicious, it was my first time using yogurt & brown sugar! I doubled the recipe and did one loaf & 12 muffins. They turned out amazing. The muffins I added chocolate chips & walnuts and the bread I left regular, but I do not want to mix all of them
The best recipe! I used gluten-free flour, a few more teaspoons of coconut sugar since I was a little low on brown sugar. It came out super moist, this was a hit out of the ballpark.
This was delicious, it was my first time using yogurt & brown sugar! I doubled the recipe and did one loaf & 12 muffins. They turned out amazing. The muffins I added chocolate chips & walnuts and the bread I left regular
Hi Sally, thank you for sharing a wonderful banana bread receipe. I didn’t add walnuts instead added chocolate chips. It was very nice.
I love this recipe.. I had done a few times ❤️ Thanks Sally
I love banana bread and have searching for the perfect recipe. This recipe was good but a little too moist for me. How can I make my bread still moist but more breadier. If that’s a word lol
This recipe is delicious! I made half the recipe because I only had 2 bananas. It was just a little shorter in the pan & I baked it for only 45 minutes. Really glad I tried it
I attempted banana bread for the first time this evening using this re joe that came up on a quick google search. I wasn’t disappointed. It was delicious, moist and full of flavor. I opted not to include any nuts or chocolate chips since this was my first attempt. Unfortunately, the top browned quickly so I’ll try covering the top with foil around 25 minutes instead of 30. Otherwise, the recipe was simple and very easy to follow. I’m looking forward to trying other recipes from Sally!
This is a great tasting, easy to make recipe. I made muffins and 2 mini loaves with this recipe. It’s so moist and flavorful. I made 1/2 of the muffins and 1 mini loaf with walnuts. So yummy!