MixovaNotify me

One bowl · 15 min hands-on · 55–65 min in the oven

Banana bread

Three very ripe bananas, 1½ cups of flour, one bowl and an hour in the oven. Moist inside, crackly on top — and below you can make it yours: two loaves or muffins, grams instead of cups, oil instead of butter, no egg.

Ingredients

Makes10 slices20 slices
Measure in
Oven

How ripe are your bananas?

Five bananas, from green to almost black

Just right — the recipe as written. Drag to match yours — the sugar follows.

Frozen bananas are perfect for this: thaw them in a bowl and use the liquid too.

  • 3very ripe bananas (about 1⅓ cups mashed)
  • unsalted butter, melted
  • white sugar
  • 1large egg, beaten
  • 1 tspvanilla extract
  • all-purpose flour
  • baking soda
  • a pinch ofsalt
Add-ins

Before you start

Steps

  1. Heat the oven

    Heat the oven to 350 °F, with a rack in the middle. Butter an 8½ × 4½ in (21 × 11 cm) loaf pan or line it with parchment.

  2. Mash the bananas

    Peel the bananas into a big bowl and mash them with a fork. A few lumps are fine — they bake into soft, sweet pockets.

    don’t mash it smooth ✓

  3. Stir in the melted butter

    Pour the melted butter over the bananas and stir until it’s mixed in.

    warm, not hot ✓

  4. Stir in the sugar and the beaten egg

    Stir in the sugar, the beaten egg and the vanilla until everything is mixed.

  5. Fold in the flour

    Stir the baking soda and the salt into the flour, so the baking soda spreads evenly. Tip it into the bowl and fold just until no dry streaks are left — 10 to 12 turns. Mixing longer makes it tough.

    Look at the batter: what do you see? — tap what you see

    Stop here — lumpy is right.

  6. Bake

    Scrape the batter into the pan and bake for 55–65 minutes, until a toothpick in the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs — or a thermometer there reads 200 °F.

    top browning fast? foil for the last 15 min

    Look at the top: what colour is it? — tap what you see

    Golden: time for the toothpick test.

    Poke a toothpick into the middle: what’s on it? — tap what you see

  7. Cool, then slice

    Leave it in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a rack. Slice when it’s barely warm. Wrapped, it keeps 3 days on the counter, a week in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer.

The recipe as written

Nothing changed yet — try two loaves, grams or riper bananas above.

Recipe card maker →Recipe scaler →Meal planner →

Other ways to make it

Banana muffins

  • 12 muffins · 20–25 minutes in the oven
  • Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cases.
  • Leave them in the tin for 5 minutes, then lift them out onto a rack. In a closed box they keep 2–3 days; frozen, 3 months.

Chocolate chip banana bread

  • + ½ cup chocolate chips
  • Fold in the chocolate chips with the last few turns.

Gluten-free banana bread with oat flour

  • 2 cups rolled oats, ground fine in a blender instead of the flour — gluten-free if the oats are; denser and moister

Banana nut bread

  • + ½ cup walnuts, chopped
  • Fold in the walnuts with the last few turns.

Eggless banana bread

  • 1 tbsp ground flaxseed, mixed with 3 tbsp of water instead of the egg — mixed 5 minutes ahead
  • Mix the flax with its water 5 minutes ahead: it thickens like egg white.

Banana bread with applesauce

  • ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce instead of the egg — denser and a little sweeter

Banana bread with yogurt

  • ¼ cup plain yogurt instead of the egg — moist, a little denser

Banana bread without baking soda

  • 1 tbsp baking powder instead of the soda — three times as much; a paler loaf

Banana bread with oil instead of butter

  • ¼ cup neutral oil (sunflower, canola) instead of the butter — softer and moister, less buttery