Method
- 3 large, very ripe bananas (about 1¼ cups mashed)
- ⅓ cup melted unsalted butter, slightly cooled
- ¾ cup sugar (½ cup if you prefer a less sweet loaf)
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- A pinch of salt
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
Notes
Quick takeaways before we start:
- Use bananas that are deeply speckled or fully black. Underripe fruit is the single biggest reason banana bread tastes flat.
- Aim for about 1 to 1¼ cups of mashed banana per loaf. Much more than that, and you’re baking a pudding, not a bread.
- Baking soda, not baking powder, does the heavy lifting in most banana bread recipes.
- Stop mixing the moment the flour disappears. Overmixing is the real culprit behind dense, rubbery loaves.
- Let the loaf cool for a full hour before slicing. Cutting too early can make a perfectly baked loaf look raw in the middle.