Breakfast,  Recipes,  Snacks,  Sweets

Best Banana Bread

March 14, 2019 / 14 Comments

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I have tried several different banana bread recipes. We have liked them all, but this one is by far the best! Dustin told me to not make any more changes to it and to make it like this from now on. It is perfect every time! It’s a little crisp on the outside, but oh so moist on the inside! My favorite way to eat banana bread, is warmed up and slathered with butter.

This banana bread has butter (my addiction), sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking soda, salt, sour cream, banana’s, and walnuts (it’s up to you if you want to add those or not). I have made this recipe with walnuts, plain without walnuts, and also with chocolate chips. Dustin’s favorite is the one with walnuts, and I love that one and the one with chocolate chips too. I guess it depends on what you’re in the mood for and what you have in the pantry to work with.

Same Banana Bread Recipe, but with chocolate chips substituted for the walnuts. YUM!

I buy bananas often, and it’s funny because I really don’t even like bananas all that much. I do, however, love banana bread! I know, I must be so weird, but it’s true. Dustin and Austin both love them though, and when the leftover bananas they didn’t eat start to get overripe, I make sure they don’t go to waste. I usually make banana bread (obviously), banana muffins, or I freeze them if I’m not ready for either at the time.

To freeze bananas, make sure you peel them first or you will have a gross mess when you thaw them back out. Cut off any really bad places, leave them whole or cut them into pieces, place them into a freezer bag, and freeze! Easy peasy! Freezer bananas are also great for making smoothies. Just grab what you want and toss them in with your other smoothie ingredients. Overripe bananas have more flavor.

How to tell when a banana is overripe: If it is soft and pale brown, or darker on the inside too, then it is considered overripe. It’s no longer good to just eat it by itself, but it’s great for baking or to use in smoothies. Once it turns black, it has gone completely bad and you don’t want to use it at all. Just throw it in the trash.

Let’s get to how you actually make this heavenly banana bread! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. While that’s heating up, melt your butter and mix it with your sugar. I used my KitchenAid stand mixer for all of this, but if you don’t have one, you can just mix in another bowl or use a hand mixer instead. No big deal.

Melted butter and sugar.

Add the eggs and vanilla extract next and mix well, scraping the sides as needed.

Eggs and Vanilla.

Now it’s time to whisk the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. So grab the flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix those together.

Dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt.

Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. This is what it should look like:

Dry ingredients combined with wet ingredients.

Add in the sour cream and mashed bananas next. Mix until just combined. This is what will make this banana bread so moist and tasty!

Adding the sour cream and bananas.

Now we are ready to stir in the walnuts!

Adding the walnuts!

Once you have those mixed in, you are ready to put the banana bread mixture into the pan to bake. Spread it evenly into a well greased loaf pan. My loaf pan is 8.5×4.5×2.5 inches. If you need a good loaf pan, this one is similar to mine and it’s nonstick and dishwasher safe. My two favorite things when it comes to cookware. You can also use a 9×5 inch pan if that’s what you have.

Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Can’t you just smell it already?? When it is finished baking, cool it in the pan for at least 15 minutes before cutting into it. It pops right out of the pan! I like to put mine on a wire cooling rack to finish cooling before wrapping it and storing it. I also like to cut slices and wrap them in plastic wrap for Dustin to take to work as part of his breakfast or a snack. He loves it!

But not before cutting myself a slice first! YUM!

Is your mouth watering yet? If you try this recipe, I would love to hear from you and read what you think about it in the comments!

What’s your favorite way to eat banana bread? Do you like it plain? With walnuts? Chocolate chips? Or is there another way you eat it?

Hope you enjoy!

Print Recipe
5 from 1 vote

Best Banana Bread

Easy, delicious, moist banana bread!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time55 minutes
Cooling Time15 minutes
Total Time1 hour 20 minutes
Course: Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: banana, bananabread, banananutbread, bestbananabread, breakfast, dessert, easybananabread, sweets, walnuts

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter melted
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 2 overripe bananas mashed
  • 3/4 cup walnuts chopped

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  • In your mixer bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar together.
  • Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix well. 
  • In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. 
  • Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.
  • Add in the sour cream and mashed bananas and mix until just combined.
  • Stir in the chopped walnuts.
  • Spread evenly into a greased loaf pan and bake for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
  • Cool the loaf in the pan for at least 15 minutes, before removing and cutting into it.

Notes

If you would like to make banana muffins instead of banana bread, you can use the same recipe. The only thing that will change, is the pan you use and the cook time. Just follow this exact recipe, and then bake in muffin cups for 20-25 minutes.
Recipe adapted from tinaschic.com.

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14 Comments

    • Brittany

      June 17, 2019 at 12:58 pm Reply

      Thanks Jenna! The sour cream really does give it something extra. It makes it more moist in my opinion. I’ve made it without it before, and I definitely prefer it with the sour cream. Thanks for reading!

  • Nikki

    June 17, 2019 at 3:04 am Reply

    Ohhh I love banana bread and since this was right in front of me I’ve printed it out and believe I will be making some this week. I wanted to mention to you something about the freezing of the bananas. Yes, the do get messy when you freeze them when they are thawed out, but what I do is freeze them whole with the skin on and then when I want to use them I thaw them out and just cut the end of the banana off with a scissors and just squeeze the mushy banana out. It is super easy!

    • Brittany

      June 17, 2019 at 1:01 pm Reply

      Thanks so much, Nikki! Oh, I have never tried that before when freezing bananas! Thanks for sharing your tip. I will have to try that. I hope you love this recipe as much as we do!

  • Trish

    June 17, 2019 at 4:17 am Reply

    I am so excited to try this. We lost my family recipe that everyone LOVED when my grandmother’s home flooded. We have been searching for a replacement since then. I am sincerely hoping this will be the one. Her recipe called for maraschino cherries and walnuts. We didn’t like those, so we went with chocolate chips too. I hope it works well.

    • Brittany

      June 17, 2019 at 1:04 pm Reply

      Hey Trish! Thanks for reading. I’m so sorry about your grandmother’s home flooding. I know that had to be devastating for her, but I hope she is okay. My husband prefers banana bread with walnuts, but I love the chocolate chips the best. I hope you love this recipe and it’s what you and your family have been looking for. We really love it, and I have tried several!

  • Kari

    June 17, 2019 at 2:44 pm Reply

    This looks amazing! I’m a sucker for banana bread so I’ll have to give this one a try! Thanks for sharing! Your pictures were excellent, by the way. 😀

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