What Makes A Good Banana Bread?
The answer is somewhat subjective due to personal taste, but for me, an ideal banana bread is a tad dense while remaining soft and moist. It should have a golden crust on the outside - not too dark - and the banana flavor should be knock-me-down strong. I prefer mashed bananas to sliced so that the texture of the banana is incorporated into the batter instead of the bread having oddly-textured chunks. And of course, chopped walnuts are the perfect finishing touch.
This easy banana bread recipe has all of those things. It's my all-time favorite.
How Do I Know If My Bananas Are Right For Banana Bread?
There's nothing sadder than banana bread that barely tastes like banana, and this is usually caused by using bananas that are green or yellow. You want your bananas to be very ripe or even overripe. You can leave your bananas on the counter until mostly speckled with brown spots, or you can place them on a baking sheet in a 300F oven until the peels are totally black. The ripeness of your bananas will make or break your banana bread!
Once you try my recipe for banana bread, you'll never need another one! Enjoy!
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The Absolute Best Banana Nut Bread
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 1 standard loaf 1x
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
- ⅓ cup white granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup sour cream
- ⅔ cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup very ripe mashed bananas (about 2 medium bananas) see notes
Instructions
- Grease and lightly flour a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside. Preheat oven to 350F.
- Cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
- In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix on low speed until a few flour streaks remain. Fold in the sour cream, bananas, and walnuts and stir gently until combined.
- Pour mixture into the prepared loaf pan. Bake on center rack of oven for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.
- Allow to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then carefully remove from pan and allow to fully cool on a cooling rack.
Notes
Do not use green or yellow bananas! In order to get the most banana flavor into this bread, the bananas need to be overripe, which means they need to be almost completely covered in brown spots. I like to wait until the bananas are past the point of where people would eat them normally - they should be very soft on the inside.
If you're in a hurry, preheat your oven to 300F, place whole bananas on a baking sheet and bake until the peels turn completely black.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 50 mins
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Jenna B.
I have made this bread at least 5 times. It is the best banana bread I've ever made, ever. Thank you for these recipes!
Erin
Yaaay thank you!