The smell of fresh-baked banana bread was one of the best things growing up. Have it for breakfast, a mid-day snack or dessert! This easy banana bread recipe was created out of necessity because my mom had NO baking experience whatsoever.
Her first and only attempt at banana bread resulted in a greenish-grey brick of dense, hard, dry inedible “bread”. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t measure, don’t add any leavener, and don’t even have a recipe to go by in the first place…. (Love you mom!)
In this easy banana bread recipe, I add my own twist with chocolate chips mixed into the loaf and walnuts sprinkled on top for crunch. Feel free to put your own spin on it. Change the nuts, add in cinnamon or vanilla, use different chocolate, use your imagination! This recipe adds a little extra banana to keep the bread moist as well. Let’s get baking!
Quick and Easy Ripe Bananas
Probably the most annoying part about making banana bread is waiting until your bananas fully ripen. When you have a major craving for some banana bread, I assume you would prefer it NOW instead of in a few days! Well with this little hack you can have fresh banana bread whenever your cravings strike. Just follow these simple steps:
- Preheat oven to 300°F and line a baking sheet tray with parchment paper.
- Lay your unpeeled bananas in a single layer on the sheet tray.
- Bake the bananas in the oven until the peels turn black all over. About 20-45 minutes depending on how ripe your bananas were to begin with.
- Remove bananas from the oven and let cool.
- Once cooled down, peel the bananas and mash for the recipe!
Tips for a Better Easy Banana Bread
- Mash your bananas well! Yes your banana bread should have plenty of banana flavor but you really don’t want big chunks of unmashed bananas in your bread do you?
- Like most baking recipes, don’t over mix the batter! All you need to do is simply fold the wet and dry ingredients together with a spatula. No stand mixer, hand mixer, or whisk required.
- Make it how you like it. Like I said earlier, I add walnuts and chocolate to mine. If you prefer pure banana flavor with no distractions then go classic and forget the additions. If you want a more toasted flavor with some crunch, just add the walnuts. Need more sweetness in your life? Chocolate.
- One last thing, please PLEASE either spray your loaf pan with a non-stick spray or rub it with some room temp butter. It’s no fun trying to get your beautifully baked banana bread loaf out of an ungreased pan.
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Other Dessert Recipes
Easy Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 4 ripe medium bananas
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp diamond crystal kosher salt
- 1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips optional
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts optional
- Non-stick spray as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In a large mixing bowl mash the 4 medium bananas. Add in the eggs, oil, and sugar. Whisk to combine.
- Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the wet ingredients. Use a rubber spatula to mix batter until just combined. You should not see any dry flour at this point.
- If using, add in the chocolate chips and mix until combined.
- Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray. Pour in the batter and let settle. Sprinkle the walnuts on top in an even layer.
- Bake in the preheated 375°F oven until the top is dark golden brown, 50 minutes to an hour. You can poke the center of the loaf with a toothpick to check for doneness. If the toothpick comes out clean then the loaf is done!
- Remove from the oven and let cool in the loaf pan for 20 minutes. To get the banana bread out of the loaf, gently flip it upside down onto a cutting board. Slice and enjoy!
