Banana Bread
Updated December 28, 2025
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
- Total Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 65 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
FOR THE BREAD
¼ pound cool butter (1 stick), more for greasing pan
¾ cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 ⅓ cups very ripe bananas (about 5)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
FOR THE TOPPING
3 tablespoons chopped walnuts or pecans
1 tablespoon granulated or coarse sugar
⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
Nutritional analysis per serving
43 grams carbs; 56 milligrams cholesterol; 292 calories; 3 grams monosaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 12 grams fat; 2 grams fiber; 202 milligrams sodium; 5 grams protein; 18 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Using electric mixer, cream butter until smooth and fluffy. Add sugar and cream together 2 minutes more. One at a time, mix in eggs. Mix in bananas until only small lumps remain.
- Step 2
Stir dry ingredients together and mix into banana mixture just until combined. Pour into prepared pan. If making topping, stir ingredients together and sprinkle over batter.
- Step 3
Bake about 55 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack and let cool completely before wrapping tightly for storage.
Private Notes
Comments
If your bananas aren’t very ripe, you can place them on a foil covered baking sheet in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 300 until the skins turn black. It releases the sugar and makes them perfect for baking.
My new go to recipe. Add a teaspoon of vanilla, reduce brown sugar to half cup, and swap out half of white flour for whole wheat. Yum.
I used this metric conversion
110g butter
100g brown sugar
2 eggs
500g bananas - 3 large
240g self raising flour
Grind of sea salt
Topping
30g flaked almonds
20g brown sugar
Shake of cinnamon
Delicious banana bread ! Added cinnamon and vanilla to the batter and doubled the topping recipe !
the best banana bread recipe i’ve come across! i used mark bittman’s recipe today bc i didn’t have enough bananas for this one and it wasn’t nearly as good. will definitely be using it next time i have enough bananas!
I just made this for a neighborhood get together and everyone loved it! I kept hearing: Barbara made this… only had 3 bananas so added a cup of big frozen blueberries and 2 pouches squeezable applesauce to make up the fruit volume. Poured 2 Tbsp melted salted butter on top and sprinkled with turbinado sugar. Was done through at 50 minutes. Needed to sit in the pan to cool a bit longer, as it almost fell apart when I tried to flip it onto the rack. After it cooled I wrapped tightly in foil and refrigerated for a couple 3 hours before slicing, served at room temp. Best banana bread I’ve ever made!