Incredibly easy and delicious banana bread. SO moist, and the best way to use up those overripe bananas!

With just 3 ripe bananas and a few basic pantry ingredients, you’ll have amazing moist banana bread. It’s such an easy and delicious way to use up overripe bananas. The more ripe the bananas, the sweeter and more moist the bread will turn out. You can also use frozen bananas! Just defrost and mash – using about 1 – 1 1/4 cup of mashed bananas. It works just as great as fresh bananas off the counter.

Banana Bread FAQ’s

Do I need an electric mixer?: Nope! You can definitely use an electric mixer (hand or stand), but it’s not necessary. It can mash the bananas well, but otherwise you can mash the bananas well with a fork.

Substitute for milk?: A great substitute for milk in this recipe is sour cream or greek yogurt. I haven’t tried it with a dairy free milk before, but I’m sure it also makes a great substitute.

Why lemon juice?: The lemon juice helps preserves the color and freshness of the bananas. Using lemon juice is a trick I grew up with, but it’s definitely optional! If you don’t have lemon juice on hand, you can still make an amazing loaf without it!

Can I make into mini loaves?: Yes! Easy. Divide the batter until it fills the loaf pans about 3/4 of the way full and bake for 30-35 minutes until toothpick comes out with moist crumbs on it.

How to store?: This banana bread stores great. Wrap well airtight and keep at room temperature for a few days. I actually prefer banana bread better on day 2 when the flavors get a chance to rest and blend together. If you’d like to store it longer than a few days, you can wrap airtight and keep it in the fridge. You can also freeze the loaf, or precut the slices then wrap and freeze. Then you can pull it out slice by slice when you need a quick, easy treat!

Healthier Banana Bread

Looking for a healthy banana bread? There are a couple simple substitutes if you would like to adapt this recipe for a healthy version. Here’s what I would trade out:

All purpose flour – trade out the all purpose flour for 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour OR half oat flour with half all purpose flour

Butter – trade out for 1/2 cup applesauce

Sugar – to keep correct moisture ratios, use 1/3 cup sugar (brown or white) + 1/3 cup honey instead of the 1 cup sugar called for

Milk – trade out for equal parts of greek yogurt. I haven’t tried it with a dairy free milk substitute but I’d imagine you’d still have great results

Happy baking!

Best Banana Bread

Lori Vaughn

Incredibly easy and delicious banana bread. SO moist, and the best way to use up those overripe bananas!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Servings 1 loaf

Ingredients

  

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs room temperature
• 3 medium overripe bananas, mashed (1 – 1 1/4 cup mashed bananas)
• 1 tsp lemon juice (optional)
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour weigh or spoon & level
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• ½ cup chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a loaf pan with nonstick spray and set aside.
• Combine melted butter and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk together well.
• Add eggs and vanilla to the butter-sugar mixture and whisk together again.
• Mash together bananas with lemon juice and then add to the batter. Add the milk. Gently mix everything together.
• Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Gently mix together until all combined with no dry flour remaining. Fold in optional nuts and/or chocolate chips. In the recipe pictures you'll see I chose to keep mine simple and classic this time, but add mix-ins as you wish!
• Pour batter into your prepared loaf pan. It should be about 3/4 of the way full.

  Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the toothpick comes out with moist crumbs on it. If it's starting to get too brown at 45 minutes, put a sheet of aluminum foil over the top to slow down the browning.
• Let it rest in the loaf pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling. I actually love this bread on day 2 when the flavors have a chance to rest and blend together, making it a little more flavorful.

  Wrap airtight and leave it on the counter for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for a week. This will also freeze really well by wrapping well in plastic wrap, then sealing it in a freezer ziplock bag.

Notes

*Make sure you use really ripe bananas. The more ripe the bananas, the sweeter and more moist the loaf will be. 

*You can also divide the batter into mini loaf pans! Fill pans 3/4 full and bake for 30-35 minutes until toothpick comes out with moist crumbs on it.