This moist banana bread is a one bowl loaf with a soft, close crumb, a deep caramel flavor from brown sugar and heavily speckled bananas, and a domed top that crackles a little when you slice it. Sour cream and melted butter keep it tender for days. Mixing takes 15 minutes, and the loaf bakes for about an hour.
How ripe should bananas be for moist banana bread?
Riper than you'd want to eat. As a banana ripens, its starch converts to sugar and its flesh softens, so a heavily spotted banana adds more sweetness, more flavor and more moisture than a yellow one. It also mashes into a smooth puree that disappears into the batter instead of leaving firm lumps.
| Peel | Inside | In the bread |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow with green tips | Firm, starchy | Bland, dry loaf with chunks |
| Yellow with a few freckles | Sweet but firm | Fine, a little mild |
| Heavily speckled, some brown patches | Soft and fragrant | The best balance of flavor and texture |
| Almost all black | Very soft, syrupy | Deepest flavor; works well if not moldy or fermented |
If your bananas aren't ready, baking them in their peels at 300°F for 15 to 20 minutes turns them black and soft. That helps them mash, but it doesn't develop much extra sugar, so the loaf will be milder. Freezing ripe bananas is the better habit. Thaw them in a bowl and use the liquid that seeps out too, since it's mostly banana sugar and water.
Why weigh the mashed banana?
Bananas range from about 90 g to 150 g of flesh each, so "3 bananas" can mean anything from a cup to nearly 2 cups of mash. That's the most common reason banana bread comes out uneven from one bake to the next. Too much banana makes a heavy, wet band through the middle that never quite sets. Too little gives a drier, cakier loaf with a faint banana taste.
This recipe wants 340 g of mashed banana, which is usually 3 large or 4 medium bananas. A few ways to get it right:
- Set the mixing bowl on the scale, tare it and mash the bananas straight into it.
- Mash with a fork or potato masher until mostly smooth with a few small lumps left for texture.
- If you're slightly over, eat the extra. If you're under by more than 30 g, make up the difference with sour cream.
Once the bananas are weighed, the rest of the batter goes into the same bowl, so there's only one bowl and a whisk to wash.
Melted butter vs creamed butter: which gives a moister loaf?
Melted butter. Creaming soft butter with sugar beats air into the fat, and that air gives a lighter, more cake like crumb, the kind you'd want in a lemon blueberry pound cake. Banana bread is better denser and moister. Melted butter coats the flour proteins, which limits gluten and keeps the crumb soft and slightly fudgy.
Let the butter cool for about 5 minutes after melting, so it's warm rather than hot. Hot butter can start to cook the eggs and gives a greasy batter. Whisk the butter, brown sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla into the bananas until smooth, then switch to a spatula for the flour.
Fold the dry ingredients in with about 15 strokes, stopping as soon as you can't see streaks of flour. Banana batter is thick and a bit lumpy, and that's what it should look like. Beating it smooth develops gluten and gives a tough, rubbery loaf with tunnels running through it. Fold in nuts or chocolate in the last couple of strokes.
Why does banana bread sink in the middle?
A sunken center almost always means the middle of the loaf wasn't set when it came out of the oven. The outside looked done, the steam inside was still holding the crumb up, and as it cooled the wet center collapsed. Other causes are too much banana, extra baking soda, or opening the oven door in the first 40 minutes.
Check doneness in more than one way. A skewer pushed into the very center should come out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter. The top should spring back when pressed, and the crack along the top should look dry, not glossy. The most reliable sign is temperature: an instant read thermometer in the center should read 200 to 205°F (93 to 96°C).
Glass pans and dark metal pans brown the outside faster, so the edges can overbake before the middle is ready. If the top is dark brown at 40 minutes, lay a loose sheet of foil over it and keep baking. Cool the loaf in the pan for 15 minutes, then lift it out by the parchment so trapped steam doesn't make the base damp.
Slicing, storing and freezing the loaf
Let the loaf cool completely on a rack before cutting, about an hour. A warm loaf compresses under the knife and looks gummy even when it's perfectly baked. Use a serrated knife and gentle sawing strokes for slices about 3/4 inch thick.
The flavor and texture are actually better on the second day, once the moisture has spread evenly through the crumb. Wrap the cooled loaf in plastic or store it in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. For longer storage, slice it first, put parchment between the slices and freeze them in a bag for up to 3 months, so you can toast one at a time straight from frozen.
A slice toasted in a skillet with a little butter makes a quick breakfast. Thick stale slices also work in place of brioche in brioche French toast, where the banana flavor goes well with maple syrup.
The recipe
Moist Banana Bread with Brown Sugar and Sour Cream
Ingredients
- 340 g (about 1 1/2 cups) mashed very ripe bananas, from 3 large or 4 medium
- 113 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled for 5 minutes
- 150 g (3/4 cup packed) light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 80 g (1/3 cup) full fat sour cream or plain whole milk yogurt
- 5 ml (1 teaspoon) pure vanilla extract
- 220 g (1 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour
- 6 g (1 teaspoon) baking soda
- 3 g (1/2 teaspoon) fine sea salt
- 1 g (1/2 teaspoon) ground cinnamon
- 85 g (3/4 cup) toasted chopped walnuts or 120 g (3/4 cup) chocolate chips, optional
Instructions
- Prepare the pan. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) with a rack in the center. Butter a 9 by 5 inch metal loaf pan and line it with a parchment sling that overhangs the long sides.
- Mash the bananas. Set a large bowl on a scale and mash 340 g of banana into it with a fork or potato masher until mostly smooth with a few small lumps.
- Whisk the wet ingredients. Whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla into the bananas for about 1 minute, until smooth and glossy.
- Fold in the flour. Sprinkle the flour over the batter, then the baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Fold with a spatula in about 15 strokes, just until no dry streaks remain, adding the walnuts or chocolate in the last few strokes.
- Bake the loaf. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, until a skewer in the center shows only moist crumbs and the inside reads 200 to 205°F; tent with foil after 40 minutes if the top browns quickly.
- Cool before slicing. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, lift the loaf out with the parchment and cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing.
Cook's notes
- For a crackly sugar top, sprinkle 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar over the batter before baking.
- Whisk the baking soda, salt and cinnamon into the flour first if your baking soda tends to clump, so no bitter pockets end up in the loaf.
- Two 8 by 4 inch pans or 12 muffin cups work too; muffins bake in 20 to 24 minutes at 350°F.
Moist Banana Bread questions
What's the difference between banana bread and banana cake?
Banana bread is mixed with melted butter or oil, uses less sugar and bakes in a loaf pan into a dense, moist crumb. Banana cake usually creams soft butter with sugar for a lighter, fluffier texture, has more sugar and is often frosted. Both use very ripe bananas and baking soda, but the mixing method changes the result most.
Do I need baking powder as well as baking soda in banana bread?
No. Bananas, brown sugar and sour cream are all slightly acidic, and baking soda reacts with that acid to lift the loaf. One teaspoon of baking soda is enough for a 9 by 5 inch loaf. Adding baking powder on top tends to make the dome rise high and then sink as it cools.
How do I use frozen bananas for banana bread?
Thaw frozen bananas in a bowl at room temperature for about 2 hours, or in the fridge overnight. Squeeze them out of their peels and keep the liquid that collects, since it carries most of their sugar and flavor. Mash and weigh everything together, aiming for 340 g, and the bread bakes the same as with fresh bananas.
How much chocolate or nuts can I fold into banana bread?
Up to about 120 g of chocolate chips or 85 g of chopped walnuts or pecans, roughly 3/4 cup, is plenty for a 9 by 5 inch loaf. More than that weighs down the batter and can make the center dense. Toast nuts at 350°F for 8 minutes first so they stay crunchy and taste fuller.
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