Banana Bread

Nothing beats this soft, moist, sweet bread fresh from the oven! It’s a perfect addition to the cup of coffee in the morning, a perfect after-school snack, and a wonderful dessert if you add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. It might just be my very favorite sweet bread, and I have a long list of bread recipes I love.

You know what is my favorite thing about banana bread? It’s so EASY to make! All you need is a whisk, a fork, and a bowl. No need to take out the mixer. Just about 5 minutes of mixing the ingredients and off to the oven it goes. After an hour or so of baking, you will be enjoying fresh, delicious, homemade banana bread.

This bread can be enjoyed when it’s still warm or stored for later. It stays good for up to a week in the fridge and even longer in the freezer! Scroll down for more info about storing and freezing. After all, it never hurts to know you have a loaf of pretty perfect banana bread sitting in your freezer waiting for you!

Bananas – Over-ripe or ripe bananas both work well! As long as they’re not still green, they’re good to go.

Flour – When measuring flour, spoon it into the measuring cup. When you dunk the measuring cup straight into the bag of flour, it get packed. Packed flour results in too much flour!

Eggs – They’ll need some time to adjust to room temperature prior to using, so plan accordingly.

Walnuts – You can always omit these if needed. I like the little crunch they give the bread!

Cinnamon – An optional spice that adds a nice touch of warmth to the bread.

See the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and instructions.

Prepare. Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a loaf pan.

Mix the wet ingredients. Mash bananas with a fork in a large mixing bowl. Leave a few little lumps (1). Whisk in eggs, sugar, melted butter, and vanilla extract until all mixed (2).

Make the batter. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and gently whisk until the batter is smooth and everything is evenly combined (3). Fold chopped walnuts to the batter (4).

Bake. Transfer batter into the prepared baking dish (5). Bake for 55-60 minutes. Do a toothpick check and if need to bake longer, bake a few more minutes if needed.

Let it cool. Take bread out and let it cool before cutting (6). Use serrated bread knife to slice the bread.

PRO TIP: If the top of bread is browning too fast, loosely cover with aluminum foil to keep direct heat away.

How to Make Muffins with this Recipe

You can easily turn this banana bread into muffins. It’s as simple as portioning the batter into a muffin pan instead of baking it in a bread pan.

This recipe will get about 10-12 muffins. I did say “about” because this is one of those bread recipes where amount is never exact. It highly depends on the size of bananas and whether nuts are added or not. You may even want to add extra nuts, which will increase amount of batter.

To make the muffins, prepare the batter the same way as the bread. Line muffin pan with liners if you wish or grease the muffin pan. Then divide the batter among the muffin cups, filling them 3/4 of the way.

Bake muffins for about 30 minutes. Start checking for doneness after 25 minutes either by touch or with a toothpick.

You can even prepare a quick streusel crumb topping for these muffins!

How can I tell when quick bread is done baking?

It can be tricky to tell, but don’t worry – we’re here to eliminate the guessing game. Remember that location, altitude, and ovens all affect bake times differently.

The easiest and quickest way to check if your bread is done baking is to gently press the middle of the bread with your fingertips to see how firm it is.

You can also use a toothpick to see if the bread is fully cooked. Simply insert the toothpick into the center of the bread. If the toothpick comes out clean, your bread is fully cooked and ready to come out of the oven.

PRO TIP: Using an instant read digital meat thermometer is the most certain way to see if the bread is fully cooked. Measure at the center of the bread to see if it reached 200F° internal temperature.

How to Store Banana Bread

Baked banana bread can be kept at room temperature, in the refrigerator, or frozen. Bread can also be sliced or stored whole.

If you know you will eat it within a couple of days, you can easily store it at room temperature for 2-3 days. Just make sure to cover it air-tight so it doesn’t dry out.

In the refrigerator, it’ll stay good for 5-7 days when kept in an airtight container.

How to Freeze Banana Bread

Make sure that banana bread is cooled completely before freezing.

Bread can be sliced or frozen whole. Quick sweet breads are more moist, so I like to place a slice of parchment paper in between each slice to keep them from sticking together.

Place bread in a large zip-lock freezer bags and let the air out. Place the bag in a freezer.

You can also wrap bread in saran wrap first, before placing it into a freezer bag, to ensure that no air gets to the bread.

Defrost the bread on the counter top. Slices of bread will take minutes to defrost.

More Easy Quick Bread Recipes

Cherry Streusel Bread

Zucchini Bread

Biscoff Cookie Pumpkin Bread

Toasted Coconut Blueberry Bread

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