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
One commenter mentioned “I keep this recipe on speed dial”. NO KIDDING!! I do too now! This is my all time favorite, no fail, banana bread recipe. I add semi sweet chocolate chips and it just bakes to perfection. I brought the bread to work a few times, its usually gone within a few hours. Great for gifting as well.
I’ve made this banana bread recipe at the beginning every month for the last year. I make 4 loaves at a time. Keep one out to eat and freeze the others for the rest of the month.
They freeze and defrost amazingly. My family is borderline obsessed when I make a fresh batch.
I use sour cream instead of yogurt because I always have a ton on hand since I use it for muffins (also Sally’s recipe) and sandwich bread.
This time around I used half bananas and half very ripe plantains because the store messed up my grocery delivery and I didnt know what else to do with the remainder of 20lbs of plantains they sent. It added a more “tropical” essence to the bread but didnt change anything else.
I tried to bake banana bread for the first time and it’s turned out great best recipe and easy thank youuuu so muchhh
Can this Banana bread recipe be doubled or even tripled? Would same time during holiday baking. Thanks!!
Hi Karen, for best results, we recommend making two separate batches rather than doubling. This ensures the ingredients are properly incorporated. Happy baking!
THANK YOU for using grams. nothing worse than trying to guess produce equivalency with recipes.
I substituted with gluten free flour, it tasted delish but was crumbly. I followed the recipe exactly except for the flour.
Can I use bananas that are oven ripened for this recipe?
Hi Diane, That should be fine – enjoy!
I used gluten free flour and it was excellent! Great recipe!
Hi Sally, Internet is a wonderful place:) I am on the other side of the planet and I just found your recipe.
Just finished baking it and it is delicious. Many thanks for the tips and step by step walkthrough, I find it handy as a baking newbie.
Hello from Czech republic.
So so good. I baked it in a 9 x 11 pan because it takes less time. Came out moist and tasty. This is my granddaughters favorite!
For more than 20 years of baking, it was my first time making a banana bread since my specialty are cookies. And oh boy! It was a hit! My dad who is very choosy with his pastries loved it sooo much! Told me to make another batch. LOL
Definitely the best banana bread recipe I’ve found in my 75+ years! So moist! Easy to follow directions – down to positioning the rack in the oven. I used bananas that I had frozen just for this recipe.
If it passes my husband’s judgement, it’s delicious! Yummy.
How heavy will the final banana loaf be at the end? So excited to try this recipe!
Hi Mushie, this is a dense bread, but not heavy per se. We hope you enjoy it!
Just made this tonight and it turned out perfect. Thank you!
Do you think this would work with an egg substitute like Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer or a flax egg? My daughter has a severe egg allergy.
Hi Shauna, we haven’t tested that swap here, so we’re unsure of the results. Let us know if you do give it a try.
I’m the idiot here. The breads (one with chocolate chips and the other cocoa to make chocolate bread). Came out dense, but I missed putting in the 1 tsp baking soda. Didn’t realize that would make so much of a difference.
Made as written with the new updates that were posted below the recipe. Let me tell you this banana bread is AMAZING! This will definitely be my go-to recipe from now on. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
Hello Sally,
Can the bread recipe use in a Bread maker?
Hi Veni, we haven’t tested it – let us know if you do!
I have made this recipe as is for many years. However every time, no matter how careful I am with making sure ingredients are room temp., my batter breaks when I add the yogurt, bananas, eggs, vanilla. It comes back together when I add the flour. Is this expected?
Hi ST! Yes, it is normal for wet ingredients to appear a little curdled when mixing. The slightly varying temperatures prevent them from combining fully, but the dry ingredient bring everything together. Perfectly normal!
I have been using Sally’s Baking Addict recipes for anytime I bake! My baking always turns out perfect! Thank you for posting your wonderful recipes..My daughter loves my baking.
Wow! Too much for a normal size loaf pan! Overflowing and making messy oven. Muffins next time.
Hi Margaret! Yes, this makes a large loaf. Make sure to use a true 9×5 inch loaf pan, anything smaller will not work here (many are 8.5×4 inches or similar).
I made this banana bread and it came out looking like a completely normal loaf. However, when I tried it after it cooled, it had no flavor and was not sweet at all! I couldn’t even taste any banana (and they were brown and spotty) I even bumped the sugar up to 1 cup, as noted after the recipe, for a sweeter loaf, and I definitely added the proper amount of bananas. I’m 100% positive I goofed because this recipe has so many good reviews and is raved about. Do you have any idea what went wrong?
Hi Lu, a lot of the sweetness and flavor here comes from the banana – were yours nice and sweet?
Yes, they had that strong overripe banana smell and were pretty brown.
Hi sally I have someone who is allergic to cinnamon, is there anything I can use to substitute or can I entirely remove it from the recipe?
Thank you!
Hi Ash, you can leave it out or add extra spices you enjoy (like nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, etc.).
My family loved this recipe but my dad wanted it with buckwheat flour next time. I wonder what adjustments you recommend I could make to accommodate this change? Thank you!
Hi Audrey, we haven’t tested this recipe with buckwheat flour, so are unsure of the results. Let us know if you give it a try!
Hi! Would a browned butter work with this recipe? I think the nutty flavor of a browned butter would taste great but am not sure if melted butter is ok to use. Thank you
Hi Jennifer! We haven’t tried it, but if you want to try it make sure your butter solidifies to room temperature again. Here’s everything you need to know about how to brown butter. Let us know how it turns out if you give it a try!
Out of curiosity what is the importance of cooling after baking and can I shorten the time (maybe to 30 minutes) if i’m working on a time crunch?
Abi, we recommend cooling the loaf completely so it slices neatly, but you are welcome to serve it warm if you prefer.
I use this recipe in my Ninja Belgian waffle maker and my husband says it’s the best waffles he’s ever had.
Can you use baking powder instead of baking soda?
Hi Lori, no, the two are not interchangeable. You can learn more about baking powder vs baking soda here.
I thought they were the same thing and used baking powder. The taste was fine, but the cake was slightly more dense than normal banana bread and it didn’t brown as much. I’m not mad about it!
how many mini loaves does this recipe make? How long to bake it for and at the same temp?
Hi Mary Ann, yield for mini loaves will depend on the exact size of your mini loaf pans. Fill about half way. We’re unsure of the exact bake time, but keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness. Enjoy!
My 11 year old daughter made this recipe with zero help, and it is Banana Bread perfection. Sally always has the best baking recipes!