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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
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 Video
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.
Looks amazing! I have never had blueberry/banana. I will be trying this!
This recipe is amazing! I made extras and gave it to neighbors and friends, and everybody raved about it. Next time, I think I will try to decrease the butter and sugar a little bit to try to make it a little healthier. Because it’s more like an incredibly delicious dessert as is!
The final product is DELICIOUS. Love the lower amount of sugar. I used an 8.5″ x 5″ x 2.5″ pan instead of 9″ x 5″ x 3″ though and those missing half inches caused it to overflow so definitely use the right sized pan haha. I also found it took almost twice as long to bake than the recipes states. Because of these things I almost gave up, but I’m glad I didn’t. It’s so yum. Next time I’m adding less cinnamon sugar to the top though. I dumped a few tablespoons of dry sugar off the top after it had baked.
One thing I’m a bit confused about though is the amount of blueberries. The recipe calls for 2 cups but in the blog post/description above the recipe Dorothy mentions “a healthy 1 cup of blueberries”… so is it 1 or 2 cups?
I made this hoping to take over to my son’s tomorrow but I won’t be. I won’t ever coat the pan with sugar again. By time the bread was done, the sides and bottom were burnt. After slicing the bottom and sides off the taste was fine.
I notice this happens if my oven is too hot. Do you have an oven thermometer? It can also happen if you’re using a glass pan, where it gets super done on the outside but isn’t done inside, so it ends up burning the outsides. I recommend metal pans.
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