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Best Classic Banana Bread: Easy One-Bowl Recipe

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This classic one-bowl banana bread is incredibly moist, tender, and easy to make. It’s the perfect way to use up overripe bananas and requires minimal cleanup.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 3 large ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 ½ cups or 340g)
  • ⅓ cup (75g) unsalted butter, melted
  • ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 ½ cups (190g) all-purpose flour
  • Optional: ½ cup (60g) chopped walnuts or pecans

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease your 9×5-inch loaf pan or line it with parchment paper, leaving a little overhang on the sides to use as handles.
  2. Mash the bananas. In your large mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until they are smooth with only a few small lumps remaining. You want about 1 ½ cups of mashed banana. Don’t over-mash them into a liquid; a little texture is good.
  3. Add the melted butter. Pour the melted (but not hot) butter over the mashed bananas and stir until combined. The butter will slightly cool down from the bananas, which is perfect.
  4. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Add the granulated sugar and stir vigorously for about a minute. This helps dissolve the sugar and creates a glossy mixture. Then, crack in the room-temperature egg and add the vanilla extract. Stir until everything is well incorporated and smooth. This is the point where you want to make sure there are no streaks of egg white.
  5. Add the dry ingredients. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the wet mixture. Then, add the flour. Use a gentle hand here. Stir with your wooden spoon just until the flour disappears. A few small streaks of flour are okay—over-mixing will develop the gluten and make your bread tough. The batter will be thick and slightly lumpy. If you are adding nuts or chocolate chips, fold them in now.
  6. Pour and bake. Scrape the batter into your prepared loaf pan and spread it into an even layer. Bake for 55-65 minutes. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. The top should be a deep golden brown and cracked in the center. If the top is browning too quickly after 40 minutes, tent the pan loosely with aluminum foil.
  7. Cool. Let the banana bread cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Then, use the parchment paper overhang to lift it out of the pan and transfer it to the rack to cool completely. This is the hardest part—waiting. But slicing it while it’s warm will result in a crumbly mess.

Notes

Don’t over-mix the batter. Use a scale for accuracy. Check your baking soda. Let it cool completely. Room temperature ingredients matter.

Nutrition

Keywords: banana bread, one-bowl banana bread, easy banana bread, classic banana bread, moist banana bread

Find it online: https://elaraeats.com/best-classic-banana-bread-easy-one-bowl-recipe/