Buttermilk Banana Bread
Looking for the perfect banana bread recipe? You’ve found it! This buttermilk banana bread is delicious with its a wonderful buttery crust!
This banana bread is my all-time favorite of it’s kind.
In fact, it is the only banana bread recipe I’ve made in years.
Unlike the dark-flecked variety of banana bread (which is delicious in it’s own right), this bread is light, both in color and texture, and it has a wonderful buttery crust that is my favorite part.
I’ve played around with the recipe, messing with the amount of sugar/bananas, so check out the notes in the recipe to see what works!
Buttermilk Banana Bread
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113 g) butter, softened
- 1 ½ cups (318 g) sugar (see note)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup (about 226 g) mashed bananas, I use about 3 average sized bananas
- 4 tablespoons buttermilk (see note)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ¾ cups (249 g) flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Grease and flour 1 large loaf pan (9 1/4 X 5 1/4-inch) or whatever combination of pans you’d like (several commenters have said this recipe works great made into muffins or smaller loaf pans).
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, bananas, buttermilk and vanilla until the batter is well mixed. Add in the flour, baking powder, salt and soda. Mix until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Notes
Buttermilk: here is a guide for making your own buttermilk
Sugar: oftentimes, I’ll decrease the sugar to 1 cup, increase the bananas to 1 1/2 cups and the bread still turns out extremely moist and delicious!
Serving: 1 Slice, Calories: 263kcal, Carbohydrates: 44g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 9g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Cholesterol: 52mg, Sodium: 181mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 28g
Recipe Source: from Aunt Marilyn
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Fantastic Banana Bread! I’ve never liked the brown bits in mine and I love having a recipe without it.
Just made this the other day and I think I have FINALLY found the keeper recipe for banana bread! Moist, light and delicious!! Thank you for another great recipe to add to my collection!
I made this bread but I always like to monkey around a little with recipes. I added a sprinkle of cinnamon. In place of the four tablespoons of buttermilk I used one tablespoon of powdered buttermilk with four tablespoons of leftover juice from sweetened canned pears then decreased the sugar by 1/4 cup. Had some unrefined coconut sugar left from a Christmas recipe so sprinkled some on top of the loaf after it baked for 15 minutes. Sooo good. Light, moist and full of flavor. Thank you
Hi Mel,
Since I am the owner of a brand new Therma-Pen I would like a finished temperature instead of the old toothpick trick. I use this when baking your white bread and have never had a failure.
Jim
I have made Banana bread for years, nothing beats this recipe. Excellent. Light in colour and has a lovely soft texture. My bananas were not “black and half dead” instead soft and still light in colour. So I chose to chopped them up and then added into the mixture, mixing until just combined. Family and friends loved it.
My nieces and nephew came to visit yesterday. As they were leaving one asked if I could bring them muffins, banana muffins. The others quickly chimed in their agreement. A loooong time ago I made this recipe when they were over and it resonated with them. This recipe is that good.
I made this recipe the first time and have never looked back. It’s so versatile. I mostly make it as muffins. I bake them for about 20 minutes. I always use white whole wheat flour. As Mel suggests, I use a light hand when measuring and don’t over mix. If my bananas are very ripe (have brown spots) I reduce the sugar to 1 c. In most cases I only have two bananas and I never add anything else to try and reach the 1 c of mashed bananas. My muffins are moist and perfectly baked! This recipe really is the best.
I was v careful with my measurements, used real butter, right pan, etc.. yet, my bread was still wet. It was still edible for me….aka Cookie Monster. I did cut back on the sugar, per your tip, and increased the banana. I was using a clear glass square 8 x 8 pan so I dropped heat to 325. Any suggestions on what could have gone wrong would be v appreciated. FYI, my cream cheese banana bread did the same thing 2x. HELP.
Hey Trisha, maybe I’m oversimplifying, but it sounds as though you might need to bake longer.
MEL F/U: TRISHA A. HERE… FORGOT to tell you, I am a novice baker. My “can do everythang friend”..lol, tried the above bread that I made. She let me know that it was perfect. I guess my family and I just don’t care for the super moist. She gave me tips to modify recipe. Big TY.
Hi, I know this is an old post, but I would suggest using a different baking pan instead of your glass one. I used to bake brownies in my glass pan and they never cooked all the way through. Stopped using the glass pan, problem solved!
Hi Mel. I Made this banana bread today and it came out dark not light like yours in the picture. I wonder what could have happened. I followed the recipe exactly. Maybe I mashed the bananas too early?
Hmmm, that’s odd, Mara – as it’s the combination of baking soda and other ingredients that give it a light color. Did the bananas darken quite a bit before using?
We love this so much. My toddler loves the buttery crust so much that she eats the entire outside of her piece of bread before eating the inside! 🙂 Super easy to make, I just let my kitchenaid mash the bananas for me.
I always use SUPER ripe bananas (to the point where they’re almost GROSS). I also use 1/2 Splenda and 1/2 real sugar, and I use half whole wheat flour and half white.
I do find that you have to bake this a good 5+ minutes longer, even if the bamboo skewer comes out clean, I’ve had SUPER wet bread as a result if I don’t cook it for about 60 minutes. Done as muffins, too, and loved them! (I also never have buttermilk on hand and always use the vinegar/milk trick) If I have leftover bananas, this is the ONLY thing we make with it!
Best banana recipe by far. My go to recipe. Every. time. I love it cold after it’s been in the fridge for a while.
Hands down the best banana bread ever! Search over. No need for any other banana bread recipes. Thank you for making our culinary dreams come true Mel! 🙂
I’ve made this several times within the last 6 months. Needless to say, I LOVE it.
I’m considering using the recipe to make a cake for my daughter’s birthday. Have you made a cake with this yet?
I haven’t – sorry!
I’ve fallen in love with this buttermilk banana milk. It is the most delicious banana bread I’ve eaten so far. And will continue baking them whenever I feel like eating it or as gifts to friends who loves banana bread.
This.
Perfect for gifts. And it is the only banana bread my husband will request me to make. Thank you Mel for the wonderful recipe.
I halved the sugar and thought this was delicious!!
This is the only kind of banana bread I make now! It is so good!
I don’t consider myself to be a great baker–but I was blown away by how yummy this bread was. The recipe is super easy to follow. I did have to let it cook a little longer than suggested, but it was worth the wait. I froze the loaf to have it as fresh as possible for our camping trip breakfast and it turned out perfectly. I just can’t wait to make this bread again. The recipe may lead to doubling the amount of bananas I purchase each week!
I actually HAVE ended up buying more bananas than usual just to let them get “old” so I can use them for this recipe! HAHAHA
Best banana bread recipe ever! I’ve made it multiple times and have a double batch cooling right now. Thanks for this awesome recipe!
May I sub white whole wheat flour? Should I sift a few times to get a lighter texture? Would I use the same amount as AP flour?
Please advise.
Thanks so much!
Yes, you could use white whole wheat flour. I’d probably use the same amount – just measure with a light hand (don’t pack it in the measuring cup).
Great! Thank you!
I too have been looking for a light banana bread recipe and have experimented to try to accomplish this. I am simply delighted to find this wonderful recipe from Mel’s Kitchen.
Delicious recipe – BUT – I reduced the amount of sugar to just 1 cup and thought it was quite sweet done this way. I also sprinkled the top before baking with Demerara sugar, to give that wonderful sweet crunch. AND, I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour with 3/4 cup of unbleached white flour. PLUS, I added 1 cup of toasted chopped walnut pieces. For the buttermilk, I used 1 T non-fat milk and 3 T non-fat Greek yogurt. The bread also needed more time in the oven, but that could just be my oven. Also, just a tip – when I have bananas on hand that have become overripe, I put them, unpeeled in the freezer. When I have enough for a recipe, I let them defrost, again in the skins, then cut off the top and just squeeze out the insides. Very easy!
BOO HOOOOOOO!!!
I don’t know what I’m doing wrong! 🙁 This is now the THIRD time I’ve made this, b/c I’m desperate to get it right b/c the flavor is out of this world.
But every single time I make it it comes out looking beautiful and lightly browned, the toothpick is clean, and then as it cools, it collapses, falls flat, and when I cut it it’s dense to the point of having the texture of being undercooked (when I know it’s not b/c the toothpick test!) 🙁
I usually double the recipe – is there an ingredient I should be MORE than doubling to handle a doubled recipe? I didn’t think so, but maybe I’m missing something.
I know you write “mix well to combine” so I do mix my batter a lot with my mixer after adding dry ingredients… but that wouldn’t really do it, would it? Should we be mixing it like a brownie batter? Until there’s just a few lumps? I can’t see overmixing be the reason for totally flattening it, though… if anything it would add airy bubbles, right?
Don’t get me wrong- it’s fabulous and my family gobbles it up, mushy center and all. But I wish wish wish I could get it right!
I’ve made it with splenda and with regular sugar- both flattened for me.
I use your buttermilk hack of using vinegar to regular milk – could this somehow be an issue?
Hey Jennifer – if it’s mushy in the center, that makes me think that it needs more baking time. Have you tried increasing the baking time by a few minutes? And I think you might be right about the mixing – try mixing a bit less. I usually mix until combined – right in the middle of mixing until there are no flour spots but not mixing for several minutes. Does that make sense?
I am in the same boat on this one. For the life of my I don’t know what I am doing wrong. The middle of my bread is always mushy and uncooked. If I leave it in longer to make sure the middle is done, then the rest of it is WAY over cooked and dried out. I even tried putting in less banana in case that was causing it.
What kind of pan are you using, Krissy? Glass? Metal?
Jen, How do you measure the flour? The way the flour is measured can affect the way your baked goods turn out (dense & heavy).
If you don’t have a scale and want to use a standard measuring cup, make sure your flour is very aerated. This is similar to sifting flour.
During storage, flour settles. You want to aerate to make it very light. So, either shake your container, or take a spoon and mix up the flour.
Never stick your measuring cup into the bag or container of flour and “scoop up a cup. To properly measure flour using a measuring cup, use a spoon and sprinkle the flour into the measuring cup. That will get you pretty close to the actual weight measurement of a cup of flour (125 grams). Continue sprinkling in the flour, until your measuring cup is full. The flour will be light and airy and look very similar to sifted flour. Using a Butter Knife, run the knife across the measuring cup and level the excess flour back into the container or bag of flour.
Hope this helps you. Happy baking!!
I usually make banana bread with very ripe bananas (almost completely black, it is how my mother taught me!) But I was wondering if with this recipe you use very ripe bananas as well, or just bananas that are soft enough to be mashable? The extremely ripe black bananas kind of gross me out, I would like to try something else! Thanks!
I often use bananas when they are all yellow (no green at all) or just starting to get spots on them.
Do you use salted or unsalted butter?
Thanks!
Salted. 🙂
Well Mel, THIS IS A FIRST! 1] I’ve never cared for banana bread 2.] I’ve never made a recipe a 2nd time without changing something. Well, both of those have gone by the wayside. I LOVE this banana bread and I made it true to your recipe the 1st and 2nd time without any change whatever. What’s this world coming to anyway??
Haha, so glad you loved it!
I’ve been making this bread about twice a month for the last few months and it turns out awesome every single time. Thank you for another amazing recipe!!
I am hoping that you can solve a mystery that’s driving me crazy. How come this banana bread comes out so light with no dark spots of banana like “traditional” banana breads? Even your recipe with sour cream looks darker in the photos, but this turns out lovely and golden every time, even with similar ingredients. I don’t know enough baking science to figure it out! Help!
I’m pretty certain (although not positive) it has to do with the fact that there is baking powder AND baking soda in the recipe (unlike the sour cream banana bread recipe that only has baking soda). From what I’ve read, it has something to do with the chemical reaction. But..I could be way off, too. It’s my best guess after having looking into the issue myself years ago. 🙂
My loaf has cooled and I dug in for the taste…it’s good. No, mines did not dome but it did not sink either. Turned out golden brown, nice and moist. Thank you Mel for sharing your recipe. I will make this again.
I’ve made this a few times and it is fabulous! I’m thinking of making it for our girls camp to go along with yogurt parfaits. I’m feeding 145 people. How many loaves would you suggest? I hope to make them all up ahead of time and freeze them. camp is just a month away now.
I usually get about 10 slices so, I’d count on about 15 loaves? You could cut thinner slices and maybe get by with 14.
So good! I didn’t have a large bread pan, so I made 1.5 of the recipe to make two-8×4 inch pan loaves. 350 degrees for 45 minutes. I also took your advice to decrease the sugar and increase the banana. Perfect! Thanks for this recipe!
I made this again today and it was just as good as the first time! For those interested, I made muffins this time. Oven temp is the same at 350. I made 20 muffins (filling 2 1/2 muffin tins 1/2 way with batter) and baked for 18 min. Perfect!
Made these yesterday as muffins, as I didn’t have the right pan to bake the bread in. They where delicious, it made about 20 muffins that turned out super moist, buttery and I loved how light in colour they were, not at all dark-flecked…
Also, making them as muffins cut down quite a bit on baking time, it only took about 25mins for them to bake…we ate them hot from the oven with and without Nutella spread on top, and they were delish either way ! Thanks a lot Mel for another winner, I’ll be making these again for all the family !
This turned out great! I followed the recipe except I cut the sugar by 1/2 and doubled the vanilla. It was perfectly sweet and full of flavor. I let it sit overnight and just had a slice for breakfast. It’s the best banana bread I’ve ever made. I’m at 7,000 feet so I’m happy anytime a baked good turns out well. This was a perfect use for my leftover buttermilk.
After making this dozens of times, I just had to say thanks! 4x-ed the recipe this morning! We love it. {We love all your recipes really!}
This is the BEST banana bread of all time! I did cut the sugar down to 1 cup and I added 1 cup of raisins. I bake this in four little pans and the results are gorgeous.
Mel, could you please supply the Nutritional analysis for this recipe?
Many thanks.
Hi Carol – glad you like the bread! I don’t have the nutritional info but you can google online nutritional calculators to help you figure it out.
Hi Mel, I’ve made this bread before and it’s delicious! I just made a double batch and after I put them in the oven realized that I used 2 one pound loaf pans rather than a 9×5. Do you think this will affect how the bread turns out? I know it will probably need more time to cook but I’m hoping it doesn’t overflow.
They were 10 minutes into cooking and looked dangerously close to overflow so I removed enough from each pan to fit into a mini loaf pan. I hope it doesn’t ruin the final outcome of the bread.
This is by far the best banana bread I have ever made! I can always count on your recipes to be a hit! Thanks for making me a great cook Mel!!
I just made this and love the taste and texture of this bread. I used bananas that were just a day past regular ripeness, as the older ones are just too sweet for me. I also split the recipe between two smaller loaf pans and added pecans, that we candied with a little brown sugar and butter to one, and left the other without. They turned out fantastic! Thank you for a much lighter tasting recipe than most I’ve found.
Hands down, my new favorite banana bread recipe. I usually at least double the batch so I can freeze a loaf or two. I slice the loaf, place about 4 slices in a sandwich bag, then place multiple filled sandwich bags in a larger bag, and freeze them. It makes for easy snacks or breakfasts. Thanks for providing such trustworthy recipes!
i made it yesterday…and it is really delicious..this going to be on my favorite banana recipes collection ^^ , thank you so much Mel for sharing it
Hi, Mel! I’ve recently found your blog and it’s AMAZING! Recipes are so easy to follow yet sooooooo tasty! THANKS FOR ALL OF THEM!
The only thing is I live in Spain and we don’t use the cups measuring -and it is completely unknown here… So, could you please post any measures aquivalences or tell me a trustful site so that I can convert them myself? THANKS!
Hi Francella – I’m not an expert at converting cups into weight measures (although I do sometimes include ounce measurements in recipes here and there). I haven’t used an online source but you might try googling a conversion calculator – I know there are several out there. Good luck! Sorry I’m not more help.
As I have said before, I love this site and you are awesome!!!
So this is not meant to be critical in any way… Just FYI
this page:
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/buttermilk-banana-bread/
has two links:
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/my-favorite-cheesecakeever
and
http://melskichencafe.com/2008/01/my-moms-fabulous-lasagna.html
that do not work.
Thanks for letting me know Barry! I took those links out.
Mel this is such an amazing banana bread recipe – I made this for brunch for myself and my partner and, as usual when it comes to your recipes, I am just wowed. I followed your directions to the T and the bread turned out perfectly – moist and slightly golden. Better than any banana bread I’ve ever had before.
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful recipes with us – I can honestly say your blog is the reason I love to cook and bake!
Thanks, Hayley!
I’ve been making this bread for awhile now and it gets amazing reviews. I decided to doctor it up a bit and used half brown sugar and threw in some chocolate chips with a drop or two of vanilla bean paste. It was awesome!
This banana bread was one of the best recipes I’ve ever tried!
Hi Mel, I have just made your banana bread. I got 6 muffins, a small loaf, and a bigger loaf. I just tasted a muffin while HOT and it is very moist and love the texture. It is different from any I have ever made. I just was never much for the dark banana bread for some reason.
I was also looking at your whole wheat bread recipe. I grind my own wheat too. I don’t use wheat gluten. Would dough enhancer work similar to the gluten? I need some vitamin C also.
Charlotte Moore – I don’t use dough enhancer and so I don’t know anything about it – it might be worth looking around online to see if gluten and dough enhancer can be used interchangeably.
My family *loves* banana bread; we are lucky if a loaf lasts 24 hours. I was out of the yogurt needed to make our standard loaf, and remembered I had pinned this recipe. I didn’t have buttermilk, so used a milk/vinegar sub. It is absolutely delicious! My son has a school pal over, and they are devouring it! Hoping there is some left, because I have a feeling it will taste even better tomorrow morning.
Thanks for a great recipe!
HI Mel,
I came to your site for a tried and tested banana recipe. I have a little tip for sweet breads. Did you know that if you spray a loaf with cooking spray, then sprinkle granulated sugar into it (similar to the flour, tap it around to cover the surface) then you get a wonderful crust with a bit of a caramelized sugar coating it? Mmmmmm. Try it sometime, I think you’ll like it. I use it especially with banana bread. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Mel,
Love, love this banana bread recipe and have made it before so I don’t know why I just noticed this now. The recipe says it makes one large loaf but at the end of the recipe, it says to divide the batter? Thanks for clarifying.
Linda
Linda Turco – Thank you for bringing that to my attention. It is fixed now. I think the original recipe I got from my Aunt made two smaller loaf pans but I don’t have that size of loaf pan so I make it in one large.
Yum! Had to bake for an extra 30 mins and ended up turning off the oven and just letting it sit in there for 10 mins after the extra 30. Maybe I’ll try in two pans next time. But I love the beautiful brown loaf look! Added chocolate chips and subbed milk with a few squirts of lemon juice instead of buttermilk. So tasty!
Hey Mel – I’m a big fan of your site! Almost all of our recipes have been from you in the last four months or so – and it has been so encouraging to me to know that we have SO MANY more options for dinners in our home since I was in a dinner-RUT. I’ve also taken a liking to your menu plan template and it has saved us HUNDREDS of $$$! I know this because The last two weeks I didn’t make a plan (too busy!) and ended up spending 3x as much as normal at the grocery store AND we still ended up ordering pizza and chinese takeout because of no plan. *sigh*
Anyway, Just wanted to drop a note saying I made this last night, but didn’t have buttermilk – instead used Whole Milk, and I added about 1/2 cup of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. It was aaaahhhh-mazing!
I promise I’ll try it next time I buy buttermilk, and leave out the chocolate chips – but I am positive this is the only recipe I’ll be using for banana bread!!
Hi Amy – thanks for the comment! I’m so happy the menus are helping you out and glad the bread worked out (yum on the chocolate chip factor!).
Just made this, subbing coconut oil off the butter. Would NOT recommend it! Apparently some other commenters have had success with this, but mine turned out lacking. It needed more salt, due to lack of salted butter. The texture was weird and chewy and it definitely took longer to cook. It’s still edible, but I say, if you’re going to make this recipe, stick with butter my friends!
I made this and the cream cheese banana bread and it was just amazing. All your recipes rock I can’t wait for the gluten free one-we are going gluten free because of my child’s medical needs. But I had one more question, I tend to throw away 95% of my buttermilk because it spoils and it’s not cheap. Can you freeze buttermilk and thaw it later to use?
Cearrow – Unfortunately I don’t have a gluten-free banana bread recipe. Sorry! As for the buttermilk. Yes, you can freeze buttermilk.
This recipe converts to gluten free wonderfully! Just do a direct swap of the flour for rice (brown or white) flour. It works amazingly! And gluten eaters are never the wiser!