Quick breads are the perfect addition to brunch or a weekend breakfast. This is the best way to use up extra bananas!
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❤️ Why you'll love it
- Who doesn't love an easy recipe for banana bread?
- It freezes well for several months.
- The addition of buttermilk and brown sugar keeps this recipe super moist and delicious.
If you need to use up some brown, overripe bananas that the family won't touch this is your new favorite recipe!!!! It's so easy to make and freezes well.
Banana bread with buttermilk and brown sugar is extremely moist. It's got just enough sugar that it's sweet, but not too sweet.
Trust me, you'll get rave reviews! It's our favorite banana bread.
🧾 Ingredients
This is the best banana bread recipe ever. The buttermilk, oil, and brown sugar give it a fantastic texture and the super ripe bananas give it tons of flavor.
🔪 Instructions
- Blend wet ingredients together.
- Carefully stir in dry ingredients.
- Fold in chocolate chips and pecans if using.
- Spoon into loaf pans and bake. Cool on rack for 15 minutes or so before removing from pans and slicing.
🥫 Storage
You can store most quick breads, wrapped well in plastic wrap or in an airtight container, on the counter for up to 2 days.
You can also freeze for up to 3 months.
My favorite way to freeze banana bread is to let it cool completely, slice, and then freeze with parchment paper or wax paper between the slices.
That makes it so easy to grab just one or two pieces at a time without thawing the entire loaf.
🧑🏻🍳 Baker's notes
⭐ Expert Tip: Don't over-stir the batter. It will be thick and a little lumpy.
- Measure your flour by lightly spooning it into the measuring cup then leveling it off with the back of a knife.
- If you have a lot of ripe bananas mash them with a little lemon juice to keep them from turning brown. Freeze in 1 cup sized portions.
- Really ripe bananas give it a strong banana flavor but you can add 1 teaspoon of banana flavoring if you want more.
- Be sure to mash the bananas really well. I will usually pulse them in the blender a little to get them really smooth. I don't like biting into chunks of banana in my banana bread.
- Don't over bake or it will be dry. Bake just until moist crumbs cling to a toothpick or cake tester. The interior temperature will be 200F if you use an instant read thermometer.
- Always let the loaf cool completely before slicing or it may crumble.
- Substitute walnuts, macadamias, or other favorite nuts for the pecans.
- Add ½ cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips for chocolate chip banana bread.
- You can make banana muffins with this recipe. Fill prepared muffin pans ¾ of the way full and bake at 375F for about 15-20 minutes.
If you toast the pecans the flavor is so much better! Just put the chopped pecans on a cookie sheet and bake at 350F, stirring often until they become fragrant.
💡Great Idea: Use the smaller loaf pans to make this moist banana bread to give as gifts.
👩🍳 FAQs
The secret is twofold - 1). Use super ripe bananas. 2). I use half oil and half melted butter. Oil keeps the banana nut bread moist while the butter gives it flavor - best of both worlds!
Yes! Pour it into a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and bake as directed!
Figure on about ½ banana puree from every large banana, or ⅓ cup for every medium one. This measurement doesn't have to be precise... a little over or under isn't a problem.
If the bananas are bubbling or moldy they're too ripe - other than that use your own judgement.
>>Your leavening was out of date or had weakened for some other reason (baking soda or baking powder weakens with age or moisture).
>>You may have mis-measured.
>>You may have over mixed.
>>The batter was too wet - the consistency of the batter can change depending on how ripe the banana is. If it's too wet it will weigh the bread down and it won't rise.
>>If it sunk in the middle it wasn't cooked through.
You may also like this Dutch apple bread or vanilla bean scone recipe for a delicious brunch!
This buttermilk banana bread recipe is simple to make - you'll just need to make sure you don't over-mix the batter because it will make it tough. The texture is almost like pound cake.
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Buttermilk Banana Bread
Equipment
- loaf pan
- stand mixer
- electric hand mixer
Ingredients
- ½ cup oil light vegetable oil
- ½ cup butter melted, room temperature
- ⅔ cup buttermilk
- 2 cups banana mashed
- ½ tablespoon lemon juice
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups white sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅔ cup pecans optional
- ½ cup chocolate chips optional
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Grease and lightly flour 2 loaf pans.
- Beat the oil, butter, eggs, vanilla, both sugars and buttermilk until well blended.
- Beat in the banana and lemon juice.
- Mix the flour, baking soda and salt and stir into the banana mixture until well blended.
- Add the chopped pecans (and chocolate chips if using) and gently stir into the batter by hand.
- Spoon into two greased loaf pans and bake at 350f for 1 hour or until a toothpick stuck into the center of a loaf comes out clean. *IMPORTANT oven times vary from place to place and oven to oven... Start checking at the 50 minute point!
- Cool in pans for 15 minutes then gently turn out and finish cooling.
- Dust cooled loaves with Confectioner's sugar.
Notes
- Measure your flour by lightly spooning it into the measuring cup then leveling it off with the back of a knife.
- If you have a lot of ripe bananas mash them with a little lemon juice to keep them from turning brown. Freeze in 1 cup sized portions.
- Really ripe bananas give it a strong banana flavor but you can add 1 teaspoon of banana flavoring if you want more.
- Don't over bake or it will be dry. Bake just until moist crumbs cling to a toothpick or cake tester. The interior temperature will be 200F if you use an instant read thermometer.
- Always let the loaf cool completely before slicing or it may crumble.
- Add ½ cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips for chocolate chip banana bread.
- You can make banana muffins with this recipe. Fill prepared muffin pans ¾ of the way full and bake at 375F for about 15-20 minutes.
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