Banana Bread Recipe
How to make banana bread if you’re just learning to bake and cook.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 medium/large or 4 small ripe bananas
- 1/3 cup yogurt or buttermilk (if you don’t have either on hand, put 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice into your 1/3 cup measuring cup, then fill the rest with milk and let sit for five minutes before adding to the recipe)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Optional add-ins (add about 1/2 cup each of whatever you are using): Chopped nuts, shredded coconut, chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease a bread loaf pan with butter, covering the entire inside surface of the pan.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. (These are the “dry” ingredients.)
- In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter in the microwave (30-45 seconds on high should do it). Add the bananas to the melted butter and mash using a potato masher, pastry blender or fork. Add the sugar, yogurt, and vanilla and mix very well. (These are the “wet” ingredients.)
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Using a spatula gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring just long enough to fully mix everything together, but no longer than that. If you are adding nuts, coconut, and/or chocolate chips, add those in when you’re about halfway through mixing the dry and wet ingredients together.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45 – 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into in the center of the loaf comes out clean. The cooking time will probably be closer to 60 minutes, but start checking for doneness around the 45-minute mark.