Easy Banana Bread

This is the best banana bread recipe I’ve made. The brown sugar and cinnamon make a huge difference! You’ll need three super ripe bananas for this amazingly moist and easy banana bread.

I’ve tried many banana bread recipes, but this one with a batter made with butter and brown sugar is the best. It’s my family’s favorite, and many of our readers agree, calling this their forever banana bread!

I love the incredibly moist texture and rich buttery banana flavor. Our recipe makes one loaf, but since I’m always sad when the last slice disappears, I usually double everything to make two. For muffins, take a look at our easy banana muffins!

Key Ingredients

• Bananas: For the best banana bread, use very ripe bananas. I’m talking brown and speckled bananas. They are sweeter and make the baked bread soft and moist. If you have unripe bananas and can wait a day or two, place them in a brown paper bag and set them aside in a warmer part of your kitchen.
• Flour: I use all-purpose flour, but this recipe works with whole wheat or white whole wheat flour (whole wheat makes the bread a bit denser). A few readers have used 1:1 gluten-free flour in our recipe with success.
• Baking soda: Helps the bread rise and brown nicely.
• Salt, vanilla extract, & cinnamon: Add flavor to and make it taste amazing. 
• Butter: Makes the best banana bread and adds a buttery, rich flavor. You’ll melt your butter for this easy banana bread recipe. We use olive oil when making lighter banana bread, which I love, but I still give the edge to butter on taste.
• Brown sugar: Makes our bread flavorful and moist. You can swap other sugars, but you banana bread will not be as moist.
• Eggs provide structure and stability to the bread. We use two eggs. To make this recipe egg-free, use 2 flax eggs or aquafaba.

How to Make Banana Bread

We call this easy banana bread for a reason. It’s so simple to put together. To start, whisk together your dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Toss your ripe bananas into a bowl and mash them with a fork. There’s no need for a stand or electric mixer when mashing bananas, especially if they are nice and ripe.

When the bananas are mashed, whisk in melted butter (yum), brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. I love the brown sugar and butter combination and they are why this bakes to be so moist. We use the same ingredients when making banana muffins and banana pancakes.

Fold in the dry ingredients until you no longer see streaks of flour, and then add extras like chocolate chips or nuts. I’m adding walnuts to the batter in the photos. We also have this chocolate chip banana bread with a variety of chocolate in the batter to make it extra delicious.

Bake banana bread in a preheated 350°F oven until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, usually taking 55 to 65 minutes.

To tell when banana bread is done, bake it until the top is golden brown, and a thin knife (like a pairing knife) inserted into the center comes out clean. If you have an internal thermometer, you can check the temperature by inserting it into the center, and it should read close to 200°F.