How to Make Banana Bread
Banana bread is the recipe you make because the fruit bowl forced your hand, and it is nearly impossible to ruin. Three very ripe bananas — black-spotted, soft, almost embarrassing — one bowl, and about ten minutes of actual work. The recipe below is the plain classic version, fully open. Under it you'll find the variations people ask for most, and a widget that will rebuild the loaf around whatever you actually have in the cupboard.
The short answer
Banana bread takes about 1 hour 15 minutes: roughly 15 minutes to mix and 55–65 minutes to bake at 350°F in a 9x5-inch loaf pan. One loaf of about 10 slices needs 3 very ripe bananas, 1/3 cup melted butter, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt and 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour. The step that decides the texture is folding the flour in only until it disappears — a smooth, well-mixed batter produces a tough loaf. The bananas should be heavily spotted to nearly black; underripe fruit makes the loaf bland and gummy.
How to Make Banana Bread, step by step
- Mash three very ripe bananas in a big bowl — the browner the better.
- Stir in melted butter, then sugar, egg and vanilla.
- Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the top and mix them in evenly.
- Fold in the flour and stop the moment it disappears. Overmixing makes it tough.
- Bake at 350°F for about an hour, until a skewer comes out clean.
Classic One-Bowl Banana Bread
Serves 10 · 1 hr 15 min total · ≈215 cal per slice
Ingredients
- 3 very ripe bananas (about 1 1/2 cups mashed)
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9x5-inch loaf pan.
- Mash the bananas in a large bowl until mostly smooth — a few lumps are fine and make for better texture.
- Stir in the melted butter, then the sugar, beaten egg and vanilla.
- Sprinkle the baking soda and salt evenly over the surface and stir them through. Doing it this way avoids soda pockets.
- Add the flour and fold just until no dry streaks remain. The batter should look shaggy, not smooth — this is the step that decides whether the loaf is tender or rubbery.
- Pour into the pan and bake 55–65 min, until a skewer in the centre comes out with a crumb or two but no wet batter.
- Cool in the pan 10 min, then turn out onto a rack. Slicing it hot will tear it.
Macro note: Swapping half the sugar for mashed banana drops it to roughly 180 cal a slice and makes the loaf denser and moister.
Frequently asked questions
How ripe do the bananas need to be?
Heavily spotted to almost fully black. Green or barely-yellow bananas have not converted their starch to sugar yet, so the loaf comes out bland and gummy. In a hurry, bake unpeeled bananas at 300°F for 15–20 minutes until the skins blacken, then cool and use.
Why did my banana bread sink in the middle?
Almost always underbaking or too much leavening. Test at 55 minutes with a skewer in the dead centre — the edges set long before the middle does. If the top browns before the inside cooks, tent it with foil for the last 15 minutes.
Can I freeze it?
Yes, and it freezes better than most bakes. Cool completely, wrap the whole loaf or individual slices tightly, and freeze up to 3 months. Slices thaw at room temperature in about 30 minutes.