Banana Bread

Prep 15 min
Total 2 hr 20 min
Ingredients 10
Servings 16

Our members give this classic banana bread recipe near-perfect ratings—and we think you’ll love it, too. It only takes 15 minutes to mix up the batter for this easy recipe, and then it’s ready for the oven. We love the addition of chopped walnuts for some extra crunch. Once it’s cooked this bread takes about an hour to cool, but if you can’t wait quite that long before digging in, we won’t tell. MORE+ LESS-

By Pillsbury Kitchens

Updated January 16, 2020

Ingredients

3/4

cup sugar

1/2

cup butter or margarine, softened

eggs

cup mashed ripe bananas (2 medium)

1/3

cup milk

teaspoon vanilla

cups all-purpose flour

1/2

cup chopped nuts, if desired

teaspoon baking soda

1/2

teaspoon salt

Steps

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1

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom only of 9x5- or 8x4-inch loaf pan with shortening or cooking spray. In large bowl, beat sugar and butter with spoon until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. Stir in bananas, milk and vanilla until well blended.
2

In small bowl, mix flour, nuts, baking soda and salt. Add to banana mixture all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour into pan.
3

Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator.

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Expert Tips

It’s important to grease just the bottom of the loaf pan, so the batter can climb evenly up the sides of the pan to create a nicely rounded top crust. And remember to just mix up the batter until the dry ingredients are moistened—a few streaks of flour are okay. Overmixing will cause the loaf to be dense, with tunnels running through it.
To ripen bananas quickly, place in a brown paper bag at room temperature for 1 to 2 days.
When the loaf is fully baked, the top should crack—that’s a hallmark of moist-crumbed quick breads.
Use this base recipe as a starting point for other snack loaves. For Applesauce Bread: substitute 1 cup applesauce for the mashed bananas and stir ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon into the flour mixture. Berry-Banana Bread: stir in ½ cup sweetened dried cranberries into the flour mixture. Banana-Chocolate Chunk Bread: Stir ½ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate bar into the flour mixture, skipping the nuts.

Nutrition Information

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 Slice

Calories: 170
Calories from Fat: 60

% Daily Value

Total Fat: 7g; 10%
Saturated Fat 3g 16% Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol: 40mg; 14%
Sodium: 200mg; 8%
Potassium: 90mg; 3%
Total Carbohydrate: 25g; 8%
Dietary Fiber 0g 0% Sugars 11g
Protein: 3g

% Daily Value*:

Vitamin A: 6%; 6%
Vitamin C: 0%; 0%
Calcium: 0%; 0%
Iron: 4%; 4%

Exchanges:

1 Starch; 0 Fruit; 1/2 Other Carbohydrate; 0 Skim Milk; 0 Low-Fat Milk; 0 Milk; 0 Vegetable; 0 Very Lean Meat; 0 Lean Meat; 0 High-Fat Meat; 1 1/2 Fat;

Carbohydrate Choice

1 1/2

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

More About This Recipe

Our favorite dessert recipes are ones that can pass for breakfast, too. Extra points if they use ingredients you probably already have on hand! That’s why banana bread is one of our staples. It’s so versatile, so easy and arguably, the most popular type of quick bread out there (though we love a good loaf of pumpkin bread, too)! All you need are a few pantry staples and some ripened bananas to make this moist, cake-like bread. If you’re bananas for banana-flavored treats, let your bananas get extra-ripe before baking, with brown skin and fall-apart peels. Then work them into this no-fail banana bread recipe, or try your hand at some of our other banana desserts!