Easy Banana Bread Recipe

Banana bread is classic comfort food that is warm, and moist, and fills the house with an irresistible smell. This super soft and fluffy bread has the best mix of vanilla, banana, and cinnamon flavors that will make you instantly fall in love with this recipe. You can eat banana bread for breakfast, as a snack, or pack it to go for lunch. 

This easy banana bread recipe is my husband’s favorite. He would eat a slice of my banana bread with his morning coffee every day if he could. Banana bread also makes an excellent homemade present for the holidays since it is delicious, easy to make, and looks beautiful all wrapped up. One of the best parts of making this recipe is that it is so easy you don’t even need to get out the kitchen aid! 

Tips for The Best Banana Bread

• Always make sure to use an overripe banana since they are sweeter and have a more robust banana flavor. Just make sure there aren’t any black spots on it.
• Once your bananas start changing color and getting soft, you can either use them or freeze them for later. To save the bananas, peel them and put them in a Ziplock bag. Keep them in the freezer to use whenever you want. 
• You can even freeze the bananas without peeling them. Just run the entire bananas under warm water and use a knife to peel them when you want to use them.
• You do not need a kitchen aid mixer for this recipe. You can use a bowl to mix the ingredients.

What Can You Add to Banana Bread?

You can essentially add whatever you want to banana bread. Popular add-ins include chocolate chips, blueberries, zucchini, raisins, or whatever you feel would taste good.

I personally love to add cinnamon since it brings a sense of warmth to the banana bread. Walnuts are also my go-to addition since they add texture and flavor to the bread. This recipe is also slightly tangy since I like to use yogurt to bind the batter together. But you can also substitute it with sour cream.  

How to Quickly Ripen Bananas?

If you don’t have any overripe bananas, you can easily help speed the process along. There are two main ways you can ripen a banana. The first is the paper bag method. If you place the bananas in a brown paper bag, the bag will trap the banana’s ethylene gas. Ethylene gas is the natural plant hormone that bananas release as it ripens. This gas helps speed up the ripening process when exposed to fruits. The paper bag method will make the bananas ripen in about a day or two. If you have a single ripe banana, you can also add it to the bag to make the bananas ripen really quickly.

The second method to ripen the bananas is to bake them in the oven at 300 degrees F until they turn black. This should take about 15-20 minutes. Once the bananas are cooled, you can peel them and use them for banana bread!