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Blueberry Banana Bread is an easy banana bread recipe full of fresh blueberries and topped with a crunch cinnamon sugar topping. Cinnamon sugar is always a good thing, don’t you think? It’s one of the best blueberry breads EVER!
Banana Blueberry Bread Recipe
This Blueberry Banana Bread recipe is the softest and moistest bread and is also incredibly easy to make! It’s full of fresh berries (or frozen) and tons of banana flavor. I created this from my favorite banana bread recipe – my moms – and it’s EPIC.
I also put cinnamon sugar on the crust of this recipe, which is the best topping for any bread recipe. The blueberry and cinnamon sugar will always be a favorite pairing of mine that you need to try! If you have any overripe ugly brown bananas that need to be used…this is your recipe!
Ingredients Needed
- Bananas: Be sure to use ripe bananas – the more spotted the better! Bananas get sweeter as they get spotted and brown – so they’re perfect for baking.
- Blueberries: I prefer fresh berries in this recipe, but you can also use thawed frozen blueberries.
- Vinegar: Mixes with the milk to create sour milk, which helps the bread rise – the acid activates the baking soda.
- Milk: You can use any kind of milk or nondairy milk.
How to make The Best Banana Bread
- Preheat oven to 375°F and prepare your pan.
- Whisk together the all purpose flour with salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Set aside flour mixture. Mix milk and vinegar; set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, then mix in mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla, then add in dry ingredients and milk mixture.
- Fold in 2 cups blueberries. Pour into pans, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and bake until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean – the loaf will be golden brown.
Expert Tips
- Be sure to read the FULL recipe and tips before starting!
- If you are using frozen blueberries, be sure to thaw them first and drain them well.
- I like to sugar my pan – this is like greasing and flouring (where you add 1-2 tablespoons of flour to a crisco or butter greased pan) but instead of flour you use granulated sugar. This is optional but adds amazing flavor.
- You can use a stand mixer or hand mixer to make this recipe.
- This will also make 3 mini loaves – you can use 3 mini loaf pans in place of one large pan.
- Store banana bread wrapped in plastic wrap on the counter for up to 3 days or freeze it for up to 3 months.
FAQs
Yes! You can freeze this bread recipe in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Quick breads take a long time to bake, and that center crack in the middle is the last to finish. If your bread isn’t done all the way, the center might stay gooey, or the bread will fall as it’s cooling. If you notice the bread getting too brown, tent it with foil or reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Bread is done when a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the crack/very center of the bread.
Blueberry Banana Bread Recipe with Cinnamon Sugar Topping
Recipe Video
Equipment
Ingredients
Bread:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 7 tablespoons (105ml) milk (see note)
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar (see note)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (150g)granulated sugar
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter , softened
- 2 medium bananas (brown spotted, overripe)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (be sure to thaw and drain frozen berries)
Topping:
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a 9x5x3” loaf pan with butter and coat it with sugar. (You do this like you would grease and flour a pan. Grease it first, then add about 2 tablespoons sugar to the pan and move the pan side to side until the bottom and sides are coated with sugar. Do NOT substitute cooking spray for the butter. You can skip the sugaring and just use cooking spray, if you wish.)
- Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium or large bowl. Set aside.
- Place milk, vinegar, and vanilla extract in a measuring cup and set aside.
- Cream butter and ¾ cup sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer. Mash bananas with a fork and add to the butter mixture along with the eggs. Mix until chunky.
- Add the dry ingredients into the banana mixture along with the milk mixture. Mix until just combined (batter will be slightly lumpy). Fold in blueberries.
- Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over the top of the batter.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the bread. The edges will be a dark brown and there will be a nice crack down the center.
- Cool completely before removing loaf from pan, but you can cut slices from the pan after it’s cooled for about 15-20 minutes.
Recipe Notes
- My original recipe (and the video) shows blending the bananas, eggs, baking soda, milk, and vinegar using a blender. You can definitely do this, but I’ve started making my banana breads by just mashing the banana by hand and mixing everything in because it means less dishes.
- The top of the bread will get deep golden, but if you notice the bread browning too fast, you can tent the pan with foil or reduce oven temperature to 350°F. This happens in various ovens, depending on how the oven cooks.
- You can use fresh or frozen berries, but make sure frozen berries are thawed and drained.
- Basically this recipe calls for “sour milk” which I’ve separated as vinegar and milk. It’s essentially buttermilk – the acid in the vinegar activates the baking soda for a moist bread. You can use 7 tablespoons of buttermilk if you have it and omit the milk and vinegar. Don’t have vinegar? Use lemon juice instead. You can also use ANY kind of milk – dairy or nondairy)
- Pan sizes: a 9×5 pan is the best to use, although an 8×4 will work, but you’ll want to watch it to make sure it doesn’t get too brown on top before it’s done in the middle. You can also make this in 3 mini loaf pans or as 12 muffins.
Am I supposed to use 1 or 2 cups of blueberries? Your recipe isn’t clear. It’s in the oven now and I’ve just hit the hour mark and I it’s still raw in the center. I used 2 cups frozen berries so I’m wonder if that’s why.
I used 2 cups of frozen mini berries (I checked the recipe ingredients, it does say 2 cups). I know some people say it takes their bread longer to bake, the only thing I can think of is that the pan is smaller than the one I used. This banana bread (and every variation of them) always takes between 45 minutes to 1 hour, usually on the lower end of that, but there will be some variation because of type of pan and/or oven consistency.
The family and I loved this bread! I did have to cook mine for an hour also.Actually probably longer. After 50+ mins I stuck it back in the oven with a missing slice. I think it must be the frozen blueberries I used, even though I dried them like the instructions. I’ll try defrosting them in a strainer next time. Thanks
So glad you liked it! Could be the fruit, the pan, oven variations…I’ve had several instances where one bread took longer than another. It’s a mystery!
I fell in love with these! I do bake it almost every week now since blueberries are in season. I used almond milk instead of the sour milk. and still taste yummy! Co-workers and friends always request for me to bake it! Thanks for sharing it!
I also made this into muffins. 30 mins baking time was perfect.
My 3 year old, who usually just licks icing off of cupcakes and refuses non-icing muffins, went crazy for these and ate an entire muffin right after we took them out. I’m sure that it helped that she helped me make them, so she had a vested interest in trying them, but this recipe will now be in our regular rotation – thank you!
I made this as muffins and baked them for 30 minutes. I forgot the cinnamon sugar crust but they were great! Thanks for the awesome recipe!
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