Description
Banana bread captures the warmth of home baking with simple, comforting ingredients that blend together perfectly. Grab those ripe bananas and create a delicious loaf that makes your kitchen smell amazing and your taste buds sing.
Ingredients
Scale
Main Ingredients:
- 3 medium-large (4 if small) Bananas
- 1 ½ cups All-purpose flour
- 1 cup Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- ½ cup Butter
Supporting Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon Baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
Optional Add-ins:
- ¾ cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips or nuts
- 1 tablespoon All-purpose flour
Instructions
- Warm your oven to exactly 350°F and prepare a standard loaf pan with butter and light flour dusting.
- Cream ½ cup softened butter with 1 cup sugar in a large mixing bowl for about 2 minutes until smooth and fluffy.
- Mash 3-4 overripe bananas thoroughly and mix them with 2 beaten eggs into the butter-sugar mixture.
- Whisk 1 ½ cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and ½ tsp salt in a separate medium bowl.
- Gradually incorporate dry ingredients into wet mixture, stirring gently until just combined.
- Pour 1 tbsp vanilla extract into batter and mix carefully without overstirring.
- Optional: Dust ¾ cup chocolate chips or chopped nuts with 1 tbsp flour, then fold into batter.
- Transfer batter to prepared loaf pan, filling about ¾ full to prevent overflow.
- Slide pan into preheated 350°F oven and bake for 55-65 minutes.
- Check doneness by inserting a toothpick into bread’s center – it should come out mostly clean with minimal crumbs.
- Remove bread from oven and let it rest on a wire rack for minimum 20 minutes.
- Carefully extract bread from pan and slice when completely cooled.
- Store bread covered at room temperature for 3-4 days to maintain freshness.
Notes
- Overripe bananas create the most delicious, moist banana bread, so let those brown bananas sit on the counter until they’re super soft and spotted.
- When mixing dry ingredients, whisk thoroughly to prevent clumps of baking soda that could create uneven texture in your bread.
- For gluten-free adaptation, swap all-purpose flour with a quality gluten-free blend and add an extra egg to help bind the batter.
- Chocolate chips or chopped walnuts make excellent mix-ins, but toss them in flour first to prevent sinking to the bottom of your loaf during baking.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Breads
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 8
- Calories: 245 kcal
- Sugar: 19 g
- Sodium: 160 mg
- Fat: 11 g
- Saturated Fat: 6 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 4 g
- Trans Fat: 0.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 33 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 40 mg