Banana bread comes together in one bowl: mash three overripe bananas, stir in melted butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla, fold in plain flour and bread soda, then bake in a 2lb loaf tin at 180°C (160°C fan) for 50 to 60 minutes.
Search "how to make banana bread recipe" and most results share those same steps. Yet the loaves they produce range from soft and moist to heavy and dry.
The gap comes down to three choices: the fruit, the flour and the spatula.
Getting those right is harder in Ireland than it should be. Most recipes online are American, written in cups and °F, with baking soda and all-purpose flour that you then translate at the shelf.
This easy banana bread recipe is written the way you bake here: grams, °C, plain flour and bread soda.
It mixes in one bowl with a wooden spoon, so there is no electric mixer to wash and no butter to cream. Hands-on time is about 15 minutes.
Banana Bread Ingredients and What Each One Does
The bananas are the recipe. Use overripe bananas, the ones with skins that are mostly brown and a smell you notice across the kitchen, because the starch has turned to sugar and the fruit is soft enough to crush with a fork. Super ripe fruit brings sweetness and moisture with it.
If yours are still yellow, put them unpeeled on a tray at 150°C for 15 to 20 minutes until the skins turn black, then let them cool.
Melted butter gives a tender crumb. You can use softened butter instead, as long as you cream it with the sugar first.
Salted butter works as well as unsalted; if you use it, add only a pinch of salt in place of the half teaspoon.
Reach for light brown sugar, which adds more moisture than white sugar and gives the crust a caramel note. Caster or granulated sugar will do if that is what you have. Take the eggs out of the fridge early so they are at room temperature, because cold eggs can make melted butter set into flecks.
Plain flour gives the bake its structure. Bread soda, which is bicarbonate of soda and the raising agent in Irish soda bread, does the lifting. Bananas are slightly acidic, and that acidity switches the bread soda on, so you need no buttermilk or lemon juice. Vanilla and cinnamon round out the flavour, and because only 1 teaspoon of vanilla goes into each bake, a bottle goes a long way.
If you are checking this against an American recipe, 1 cup of plain flour is about 125g and a half cup of butter is 113g, so the amounts here sit close to what you will see there.
Every linked ingredient below is stocked at Kate's Kitchen, the food shop in Sligo, if you want to see exactly what to buy.
Easy Irish Banana Bread
Prep: 15 minutes | Bake: 50 to 60 minutes | Makes: about 10 slices
Ingredients
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3 overripe bananas (about 300g peeled)
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110g butter, melted and slightly cooled
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150g light brown sugar
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2 large eggs
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1 tsp vanilla extract
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200g plain flour
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1 tsp bread soda (bicarbonate of soda)
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½ tsp salt
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½ tsp ground cinnamon, optional
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100g chopped nuts or chocolate drops, optional
Method
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Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.
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Mash the bananas in a large bowl until mostly smooth.
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Stir in the melted butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until glossy.
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Add the dry ingredients and fold until the flour just disappears, then fold in any nuts or chocolate.
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Transfer to the tin and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
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Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely.
The ingredient list is short, so most of the decision-making sits with the flour.
Which Flour Should You Use for Banana Bread?
For this recipe, use plain flour with bread soda, and keep self-raising flour for when you want a lighter bake that eats more like a cake.
Banana bread made with plain flour has the dense, moist crumb most people picture, because bread soda is the only raising agent and you control how much goes in. Self-raising flour has the raising agent built in, so the bake rises higher and the crumb turns springier. To try it, swap it in for the plain flour weight for weight and keep the bread soda. The organic self-raising flour is a good place to start, and the full flour range has plain, wholemeal and gluten-free options if you want to experiment.
If another recipe calls for self-raising flour and you only have plain, add 1 teaspoon baking powder to every 100g of plain flour. Do not swap bread soda and baking powder measure for measure, because bread soda is far stronger and the amounts are not interchangeable.
How to Make Banana Bread Recipe Step by Step
A simple banana bread recipe like this one is six steps, and the oven does most of the work.
Heat the Oven and Line a 2lb Tin
Set it to 180°C (160°C fan) and let it reach temperature before the tin goes in. Grease a 2lb loaf tin, about 20 by 12.5cm, and line it with baking paper so the bake lifts out cleanly. In American recipes this is a loaf pan.
Crush the Bananas Until Mostly Smooth
A fork is all you need. Stop crushing while a few small lumps remain, because they bake into soft pockets.
Mix the Wet Ingredients in One Bowl
Because the butter is melted, nothing needs creaming. Stir it in, then the sugar, eggs and vanilla, and beat with a wooden spoon until the mixture looks glossy.
Fold in the Dry Ingredients Without Overmixing
Sprinkle the flour, bread soda, salt and cinnamon over the top and fold with a spatula until the flour just disappears. Stop there. Every extra stir develops gluten and tightens the crumb, which is a common reason a bake turns out dense. Fold in any nuts or chocolate now.
Bake the Batter for 50 to 60 Minutes
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Bake time varies between ovens, so start checking at 50 minutes. It is ready when it is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no wet batter. If the top darkens before the middle sets, cover it loosely with foil.
Cool in the Tin Before Slicing
Fresh out of the oven, the crumb is still setting and tears if you cut it. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then lift it onto a wire rack and wait until it feels cool to the touch for clean slices.
Follow those steps and most bakes come out well; the ones that do not tend to fail in the same few ways.
How to Keep Banana Bread Moist and Not Dense
Even the best banana bread turns out dry, dense or sunken when one of four things goes wrong.
Underripe fruit is the first, and it leaves the crumb pale and firm; the oven trick above fixes it.
Too much flour is the second, and it is a common reason for a dry, crumbly slice. Scooping flour straight from the bag packs it in, so weigh it in grams instead.
Overmixing leaves a tight, rubbery crumb, and the folding step above prevents it.
Last, the oven. A bake that sinks in the middle is usually underbaked or had the door opened too early, so keep it closed for the first 45 minutes and put the tin in the centre.
For a moist banana bread that stays soft for days, take it out as soon as it passes the doneness test above, because the bake keeps cooking in the hot tin. For a super moist crumb, stir 2 tablespoons of sour cream or natural yoghurt in with the wet ingredients. It works fine without it.
What Are 4 Easy Banana Bread Variations?
Keep add-ins to 100g so the batter still bakes through, and use the same base for all four: chocolate chip, nuts, gluten-free flour and muffins.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
To add chocolate chips, fold them in with only a few turns so the batter stays thick enough to hold them. Dark chocolate drops give a bittersweet edge, milk chocolate drops keep it mellow, and white chocolate drops push it towards dessert.
Walnut or Pecan Banana Bread
Chop 100g of walnuts or pecans and fold them in for crunch. Toast them on a dry tray at 180°C for 5 minutes first, until they smell nutty. American recipes call this version banana nut bread.
Gluten-Free Banana Bread
Swap the plain flour for gluten-free plain flour, weight for weight. The crumb breaks more easily, so let it cool completely before you slice it. If you are baking for someone with coeliac disease, check the label on every ingredient, including the bread soda and vanilla. The gluten-free collection has more flours and mixes to try.
Banana Muffins
The same batter makes about 12 banana muffins. If you bake in muffin tins, line them with paper cases, fill each about two thirds full and bake at the same temperature for 18 to 22 minutes, until the tops spring back when pressed.
However you bake it, there will probably be leftovers.
Can You Freeze Banana Bread?
Yes, banana bread freezes well and keeps for up to 3 months. Cool it completely, wrap it tightly in baking paper, then in foil or a freezer bag. Slices thaw in 20 to 30 minutes or go straight into the toaster, and a whole loaf needs about 3 hours on the counter, still wrapped.
Wrapping it warm traps steam and turns the crust soggy, so wait until it is fully cool.
Bananas that ripen faster than you can bake can be peeled, chopped and frozen in a bag too. Defrost them, drain off the liquid and use them as normal.
How Long Does Banana Bread Last?
Homemade, it lasts 3 to 4 days on the counter, wrapped in foil or in an airtight tin. The fridge adds a few days, up to a week, but it tends to dry the crumb, so save it for a warm kitchen. Cut slices as you go so the rest stays moist, and throw it out if you see mould or smell anything sour.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers on bananas, butter and eggs, plus one question about what banana bread is.
Can You Use Two Bananas for Banana Bread?
Yes. Two bananas give a milder taste and a slightly drier crumb, so add 2 tablespoons of milk to the wet ingredients and check the bake at 45 minutes.
Can You Swap Butter for Oil in Banana Bread?
Yes. Swap the melted butter for about 90ml of sunflower or rapeseed oil and stir it in at the same stage. The crumb tends to stay soft for longer. You lose the buttery flavour.
Can You Bake Banana Bread Without Eggs?
Not with this recipe, which depends on its two eggs for structure, so removing them changes the result. An egg-free version needs a different recipe, usually with a little milk added, and it bakes up denser.
Is banana bread a bread or a cake?
Neither, strictly. It is a sweet bread raised with bread soda instead of yeast, which makes it a quick bread, the same family as Southern cornbread. The stirred batter gives a denser, moister crumb than a sponge. Banana loaf is another name for it, while banana cake usually has more sugar, a lighter texture and often icing.
Baking Ingredients for Banana Bread in Ireland
The next time a bunch of bananas turns black in the bowl, you will already know what to do with it. If your cupboard is missing anything on the list, you can pick up the flours, sugars, bread soda and extracts in one order from the baking collection at Kate's Kitchen.
