Best Banana Bread Recipe in the World

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This is the Best Banana Bread Recipe in the entire world – I promise! It’s my mom’s banana bread recipe and I’ve been making and eating this my entire life. The quick bread is soft and fluffy with perfect banana flavor – you’re going to LOVE it.

whole banana bread overhead photo with crack down the middle.

BEST Banana Bread in the Whole World

I make a lot of banana bread. Every single banana bread recipe or banana muffin on this site has been based off of one recipe: my Mom’s. It’s one of those recipes I’ve eaten my whole life.

I have to say, I think it’s the best banana bread recipe, ever. And while I love all my variations, I still love the original recipe the best.

Why you’ll love this recipe

It’s SUPER easy with banana in every bite
Stays moist for days
Has a nice long crack down the center and tons of banana flavor.
Is a bit crunchy on the outside and super soft on the inside
Banana bread is the perfect way to use up overripe bananas – and it’s so easy to make. You’re going to love my mom’s recipe.
She has two simple things she does that makes her bread stand apart: the milk and the pan.

Banana Bread Ingredients

The worlds best Banana Bread (no kidding) is a simple quick bread recipe. “Quick Bread” is bread that doesn’t have yeast (as in, it’s quicker to make it because it doesn’t need to rise).

Bananas: You need to use overripe bananas for this. They should be nice and brown spotted – my mom calls them tired bananas.
Butter: you can use either salted or unsalted (see recipe notes).
Sugar: Granulated sugar goes into the bread AND my mom uses it on the pan – one of her secret tips!
Sour Milk: Basically, sour milk is the same thing as buttermilk. Back when this recipe was written, I’m figuring that milk went sour more than it does now, but if you don’t have sour milk sitting around, don’t worry, you can make your own.

Click to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!

How to make the BEST Banana Bread Recipe

Make your sour milk and let it sit for 5 minutes.
Cream together room temperature butter and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy.
Option 1: Add bananas, eggs, baking soda, and milk to a blender and blend until smooth. Mix the wet ingredients into butter mixture with the all purpose flour.
Option 2: Mash your banana, then mix mashed bananas into the butter and sugar mixture with the eggs, baking soda, milk, and flour.
Mix until the mixture is smooth. You can use a hand mixer or a stand mixer.
Add to the pan and bake. Mom’s tip: grease and sugar your pan. Spread butter or shortening all over the loaf pan and then, instead of using flour, use granulated sugar to coat.

Recipe Swap: Sour Milk

This is a banana bread recipe with sour milk! Basically, sour milk is just buttermilk but since we rarely have that around, and milk doesn’t go bad like it used to, here’s what to do:

1/2 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice + 7 tablespoons milk or nonfat milk
1/2 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice + 7 tablespoons nondairy milk
7 tablespoons buttermilk

The acidity in the sour milk (or vinegar or buttermilk) active the baking soda, making the bread rise.

Substitutions + Additions

Butter: I use unsalted butter but my mom always uses salted. If you’re using salted butter, reduce salt by 1/4 teaspoon.
Oil: You can substitute vegetable oil, but make sure to use the salt in the recipe in that case (oil doesn’t have salt in it).
Flour: substitute half whole wheat flour (so 1 cup each whole wheat and all-purpose) if you want. Make gluten free banana bread using 1:1 All-purpose gluten-free flour (such as Bob’s Red Mill teal bag).
Milk: You can use buttermilk or regular/lowfat/nonfat cows milk with 1 tsp vinegar, or even nondairy milk (any kind) with 1 tsp vinegar.
Add 1 cup of your favorite mix-ins for a new flavor banana bread: chocolate chips, nuts to make banana nut bread, chopped candy, even pumpkin spice!
Top this with cream cheese frosting – cream cheese goes so great with my banana bread recipe.

Expert Tips

Did you know you can freeze bananas? Whenever my ripe bananas get too much so, I just throw them in the freezer (peels and all). Then I defrost them on the counter to make banana bread or cake whenever I want.
The sugar pan coating gives an amazing crunchy sweet crust to the bread. To get the amazing pan effect for this bread you grease the pan with butter or shortening, then you add some sugar and move the pan around so that you coat all the greased parts with sugar. Add the batter as you normally would and bake. Note: do NOT try and sugar your pan using a cooking spray instead of butter or Crisco.
I don’t normally use vanilla but you can add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract if you want.
You know banana bread is done when it is dark golden on the top and there will be that nice long crack running through the center. The crack is my favorite part! You know it’s done when a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs from the center of the crack.

FAQ

How do you store banana bread?

It won’t last long because you’ll eat it fast, but store it covered on the counter. If you’re like us, it’ll be gone in a day.

How do you freeze banana bread?

You can slice the cooled loaf and freeze the slices in sandwich baggies. Then pop one into a lunchbox for a yummy mid-morning snack.

Can you make muffins with this recipe?

This recipe also makes great mini loaves or muffins. I’ve done them all. Just adjust the baking time.

How do you mash bananas?

This recipe calls for blending them but you can also just mash the bananas with a fork and add them to the recipe that way. Or, use your mixer to mash them!

How do you keep banana bread moist?

The bananas and eggs in the recipe help keep it moist, along with the sourness/acid combination from the baking soda and sour milk. Don’t over bake it for ultimate moist bread and keep it wrapped well so it doesn’t dry out.

Can you make this banana bread recipe gluten free?

Simply substitute 1:1 gluten free flour for the all purpose flour.

Should I use baking soda or baking powder in banana bread?

This recipe is written for baking soda, which is activated by the sour milk and helps the bread rise and be nice and soft and moist.