Banana Bread
The spotted-banana send-off: one bowl, one loaf, the whole house smelling like a bakery.
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Join HomecookedIngredients
- 3 Banana
- 250 g Flour
- 150 g Sugar
- 100 g Butter
- 2 Egg
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Vanilla (optional)
- ½ tsp Ground cinnamon (optional)
- 60 g Walnuts (optional)
Method
- Heat the oven to 175°C (350°F).
- Butter a loaf tin all over so the bread releases cleanly.
- Mash the bananas in a large bowl until mostly smooth.
- Beat the melted butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla into the mashed bananas until combined.
- Fold the flour, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, and walnuts into the batter just until no dry streaks remain.
- Scrape the batter into the buttered tin and level the top.
- Bake until a skewer pushed into the center comes out clean, 50–55 minutes.
- Cool the loaf in the tin for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
Nutrition per serving
Estimated from ingredients; varies with exact portions and brands.
About Banana Bread
Banana bread is a quintessential American quick bread, the go-to use for bananas that have ripened past eating into deeply spotted and sweet. It's called a quick bread because it relies on baking soda rather than yeast, so there's no rising or kneading — just mashing, mixing, and baking. Overripe bananas are the whole point: their concentrated sugar and soft texture give the loaf its moist crumb and pronounced banana flavor, rounded out with vanilla, a little cinnamon, and walnuts for crunch.
The finished loaf is tender and dense in the best way, sweet but not cloying, with a browned crust and a fragrant interior that fills the kitchen as it bakes. The method is famously forgiving: everything comes together in one bowl, and the key restraint is folding the dry ingredients in just until no streaks remain so the crumb stays soft rather than tough. It's equally at home as a dessert, a snack, or a breakfast slice, plain or spread with butter. Yielding eight slices and needing little more than a fork and a bowl, it's the classic bake for turning forgotten fruit into something the whole house wants.
Banana Bread: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Banana Bread?
One serving of Banana Bread has about 336 calories, with 6g of protein, 53g of carbs, 12g of fat and 2g of fiber. These are estimates based on the ingredient amounts in this recipe and will vary with your exact portions and brands.
Is Banana Bread gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains Flour. You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for that ingredient to make it gluten-free.
Is Banana Bread dairy-free?
Not as written — it uses Butter. Swapping it for a plant-based alternative makes it dairy-free.
How long does Banana Bread take to make?
About 70 minutes start to finish, but only around 12 of those are hands-on — the rest is largely unattended cooking time you can step away from. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
Do I need every ingredient to make Banana Bread?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out vanilla, ground cinnamon, walnuts — they're optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Banana Bread make?
This recipe makes 8 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.