The Story:
Maybe I am weird, but I dream of perfect banana bread. You know the kind you can get a beautiful slice of from a bakery or a little coffee shop? Bread that is dark, dense and moist and exploding with flavor…
Well, I did a little banana bake-off this week. I found two highly reviewed recipes and gave them both a shot. The first one was really good, but the second was pure heaven (I’ve since found the best banana bread recipe ever). You can get the first recipe at All Recipes, and there is a photo of it below.
I found the second recipe at All Recipes as well, but I did alter it a little.
Be a sure to check out my updated post for The Best Banana Bread!
Ingredients:
2 eggs beaten
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ cup oil
1 ¼ cup mashed ripe bananas (I used 2 medium, 2 small)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cup sugar
1 ¾ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 340 degrees.
2. Prepare your loaf pan by cutting a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom, then grease the sides of the pan.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs.
4. Pour milk into a measuring cup, not quite measuring 1/3 and add lemon juice to the milk to let sit for 2 minutes.
5. Add oil to eggs and beat again. Add milk and vanilla and beat again.
6. Mash bananas thoroughly and add to eggs, oil and milk.
7. In a separate bowl, sift sugar, flour, baking soda and salt together. Slowly stir into wet ingredients. Mix only until incorporated.
8. Fold in walnuts.
9. Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour and 20 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
10.Let cool for 30 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and turn pan over to release bread. Put in an air-tight container, the container will steam, but this helps to keep the moisture in.
Love this banana bread? See this updated recipe for my Banana Bread!
And don’t forget about my Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread!
I ♥ Banana Bread! Stop by my blog and give mine a try – I think you may like it!! – Katrina
http://inkatrinaskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/02/coffee-shop-banana-streusel-muffins.html
Banana Bread speaks to me and it has to be full of flavor and be moist. Glad you posted this recipe. Will definitely give this a try.
The Souper
This was delicious!!! It tasted almost like the one from Starbucks 🙂 thanks so much for sharing!! I also made German chocolate and pineapple carrots cupcakes and they were both great!!
Thanks again!
This is a great recipe! I’m making it for the 2nd time! It is a lot like Starbucks, which happens to be my favorite! This is now my GO-TO recipe for banana bread! So delicious & super moist making it the best I’ve had & made! Thanks for sharing!
I found that even 1 hr 10 min over baked it. Anyone else?
Do you think these would work as muffins? 🙂
Yes, I think it will!
Lizzy,
May I use almonds instead of walnuts?
Thanks in advance.
Of course! Make sure you chop them up or use slivers, whole almonds may be a tad too crunchy 🙂
OMG!!!! This bread is SUPER DELICIOUS!!! I’ve made 2 batches (muffins and I used cake pan) I HIGHLY recommend this recipe.
I’ve received Lots of compliments.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!
Oh good! It really is AMAZING
Great recipe! I’ve found that this makes 2 loaves but it might be that I’m at 8,000+ feet in elevation. Everything bakes differently up here. I also baked it at 350 for an hour and fifteen minutes. Perfect!
hi, i have been making these cakes and they are a hit! do you have an idea on the shelf life of this cake?
It always depends on HOW you store them and the humidity of the place you live. But you can always freeze it and then give it a day to thaw before eating. I’m making some of this today!
will freezing it affect the moistness of the cake?
It shouldn’t too much. Just seal it up in a container or freezer bag!
Thank you for sharing this great recipe! This is now my go-to banana bread recipe. I love it because it is so dense. I omitted the nuts and substituted half the oil with applesauce. I also didn’t mash the bananas all the way so I had some bits of it in the bread.. AMAZING!!
What do you mean by “1/3 cups milk (minus one teaspoon?)”
Confused by the minus teaspoon part…
Ha, don’t worry about that! This is an old recipe, here is the updated one! http://www.yourcupofcake.com/2012/07/the-best-banana-bread.html
Amazing. Usually all my cakes remain gooey in the center and burn on the edges. This one was perfect! Thanks from uae
Seriously the best banana bread recipe! I made it the second time today, and it’s just DELICIOUS! I reduce the oil to 1/3 cup (it turned out a little oily the first time) and my banana bread was also ready at 1hr – 1hr 10 mins
I love this bread I really do. BUT watch out for another incredible banana bread recipe coming to the blog. It’s incredible as well, but a little more… fancy.
Trying this today. I’m not going to lie…my grandmother is probably rolling in her grave because i’m trying another recipe but I can’t resist! Yours has fewer steps and seems to have beautiful results. Thank you!
At long last I found a fantastic banana bread. I reduced the sugar a bit and added some choc chips which came out very well. Thanks for sharing.
How long would I cook for mini loaves and would i decrease my cooking temp? I have a pan that makes 8 mini loaves at a time and hole about 1 cup.
It totally depends… maybe about 25 minutes?
This banana bread is amazing! I made it into muffins and it was perfect! Thank you for sharing.
Banana bread is a sure winner in my house! It’s easy to make and oh-so rewarding!
I love banana bread 🙂 and this recipe is the best – so delicious!
Hey Liz! love your blog so much! Just a question, I accidentally left my oven on “warm” instead of “bake” for about half the time!! Is there a huge difference? Also, is it worse to use a toaster oven over a regular large oven?
Just made it…. And will make it again!! I added cranberries and chocolate chips too!
I just made this to prepare for my labor & delivery bag, being induced on Monday, and it is AMAZING!!
Just finished mixing the ingredients and the loaf in the oven. Can’t wait to taste it. Only difference is don’t like big pieces of walnut so using crushed them.
omg
Just wondering, how do you know when the cake is done?? Is there a certain color or something to look for? Thanks!
Just poke a knife or a toothpick into the middle and see if it comes out clean! I’ll sometimes cover the top of mine with foil if I’m afraid it’s getting too brown, but every oven is different!
I use this recipe every time I make banana bread, and every time it is absolutely delicious! Sometimes I just put a layer of chocolate chips on top instead of mixing it into the batter, it’s like a chocolate-y crust!
Love that idea! I crave this bread ALL THE TIME, it’s delicious.
I am making this recipe now for the first time. It is in the oven as I am typing. I just used butter in stead of the oil and flaked almonds in stead of the walnuts. Hope it does not change the outcome too much!
Lizzy I just made your banana bread recipe today and I must say… Even with the subtle changes that I made (i.e. left out 1/2 cup of sugar, used lime juice instead of lemon juice (didn’t have any) and used 1tablespoon of nutella on top of them, oh, and made muffins instead of bread) this is a real keeper. Thank you so much for posting!!!
Oh and in case your wondering…I signed up so that I can try more of your recipes. If this is that good I’m sure that there are quite a few other things I absolutely need to try on here.
can the walnuts be optional?
Of course!! You can use chocolate chips instead or nothing at all!
I got to admit, this is the best banana bread ever! My husband loved it, he was so upset I gave half to others, so here I am making another batch this weekend, just for him :D.
thank you so much for the recipe!!! I would definitely suggest anyone to try it out, I even added some raisins along with the walnuts came out great!!!
I typically fail horribly at trying to bake any type of goodies. I cant even bake home made chocolate chip cookies. Nevertheless i still try and it is with absolute amazement this Bana Bread recipe turned out fantastic. My husband and co workers who i shared with all agreed it was the best they had ever tasted. So i absolutely recommend this recipe.
I made this recipe twice now and it is truly the best I’ve ever tasted. On one batch, the only thing I changed was that I added a dusting of brown sugar on top before baking. I personally preferred it over the batch I made without that addition. This recipe came out rich, dense, and moist. Thanks for sharing!
Has anyone tried using honey instead of sugar?
I have made it with honey, but I only swap out part of the sugar for honey!
I make this bread a couple times a week. One time I didn’t have lemon juice, but did have liliko’i, so substituted and it worked fine. The first of this week after making two loaves of this bread, I had some whipping cream and pudding, so I made the whipped cream and folded it into the prepared coconut pudding. It sure was a good topping for the warm banana bread.
What is the size of the loaf pan?
Thank you for your recipe, very delicious very moist, definitely making mini loaves to share for the holidays.
I have been looking for the perfect banana bread. Yours looks and sounds good. If I do not want to add in nuts, do I need to readjust the ingredients?
Nope! I make them without nuts occasionally and nothing needs to be adjusted!
I made this with gluten and without gluten and both were great i added about 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to it because i love how it brings out the flavors in alot of different things but over all this recipe was amazing i dont like dry banana bread so how moist it was is a major bonus to me.
This is my all Time favorite banana bread! I’ve also added chocolate chips and walnuts to it (reduce the sugar to about a cup). This bread is super moist and always get compliments when I have made it for gatherings!
I’m baking them right now and smell delicious. I just wanted to ask, is the batter
Supposed to be so high in the loaf pan.? Feel like I had enough batter to make
Two loafs. What size loaf pan should we use?
Thanks for sharing your recipe! It was amazing!
I did add a bit of grated nutmeg and 1 tbsp molasses. Therefore 1 tbsp less granulated sugar.
very good. This is the first BB recipe on Pinterest that I have really liked. I will probably use a little less sugar next time but this is really good. Thanks.
I have made this banana bread many times! Always delicious! A family favorite!
Recipe looks so good thanks