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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We love this recipe! Makes about 43 mini muffins and find they are ready in around 16 minutes.
This is my first time in 25 years of baking banana brad, seeing a pale lite colored crumb.
Did you bake in a clear glass pyrex loaf dish ? Crust is golden brown, crumb is pale like a yellow pound cake. I’m used to baking the usual coffee house molasses dark banana bread. curious , what is the difference. I’ve tried butter instead of oil and sour cream instead of butter milk. No change in dark color.
I think it has to do with the leavened. Using more baking powder and a bit of baking soda can produce a light crumb (and I’m sure the amount of acidity in the other ingredients makes a difference too). That’s just a theory but I think it might be part of it
Very tasty. Best cold, in my opinion. I will try to cutback on the sugar next time and try your suggestion of adding some more banana instead. This was a bit sweet, so more of a dessert instead of a snack for me. Mine also came out a bit wet and the top seemed to caramelize almost. Still absolutely delicious and definitely cooked through…just a damp bread for me (if that makes sense haha) so not sure what I did wrong there. Or is that the normal consistency for this recipe?
You could try adding a bit more flour, Megan – do you happen to live at high altitude?
Thanks for the help, I probably just didn’t add enough flour. I’m only 28m above sea level and I never have issues following your recipes (I’ve used many 😉 ).
This is still my fav banana bread after many years! Today I tried subbing 1 c of coconut sugar and 4 bananas. Instead of 1 1/2 c white sugar and three bananas. I also made them 12 very full muffins and they were delicious! They baked for 20 minutes and got a nice caramelized crust. Ate them when cooled completely and everyone loved them!
This banana bread is so good!
Best banana bread recipe I’ve ever had.
So good! This has been my one-and-only banana bread recipe since I found it a couple of years ago. My 9-year old son who swore he HATED banana bread even loves it. ❤️
Made this recently and doubled it because I had a lot of bananas. I liked the tip to decrease the sugar and increase the bananas. Really good
made this realey good will make it again thanks for sharing it
Yesterday, my kids insisted our overripe bananas were calling out to be made into this bread! So much so that my kids were distracted from doing their school work in the other room. So, for the sake of their education, I had to make banana bread! Haha!
After making this recipe several times, I have lightened the fat content with the following changes:
1) replace butter with applesauce and a few tablespoons olive oil
2) use half all purpose and half whole wheat
3) reduce sugar to 1 cup (if really ripe bananas, reduce sugar to 2/3 C)
Thanks Mel for an yummy recipe! My kids love the lighter no-fleck banana bread!
My family of six (four kids, 15-9) love this recipe. In fact, they insisted today that the overripe bananas were begging to be made into this bread – begging so loudly that they were distracting the kids from their schoolwork in the other room. Hahaha! Bananas are now mashed and baking in oven.
I make some pretty big alterations for health reasons:
1) substitute applesauce for butter and then add a few tablespoons of olive oil
2) use the reduced sugar amount
3) use half all purpose and half whole wheat
Despite the healthier ingredients, my kids still love it! They especially love this lighter colored banana bread without all the flecks.
Thank you for a great recipe!!
This has quickly become my favorite go-to muffin recipe to use up overripe bananas!
I should mention that I use the lesser amount of sugar that you mention in the notes…
Love your site! I have made so many great meals and today made your sour cream banana bread. It turned out perfectly. I weighed my flour and bananas as the recipe suggested and loved it. I wish you would put the weight amount for the bananas on this recipe.
Thanks,
Kendall
This recipe is nice! I love the texture, but it’s too sweet.. and I added just 1 cup of sugar.
This is our favorite banana bread! I use 1 heaping cup of sugar instead of 1 1/2 cups, use 1% milk with a bit of vinegar instead of buttermilk and never measure the bananas instead I just toss in 3 ripe bananas and it always turns out delicious! Thank you Mel!
This recipe is AMAZING! I generally am not a fan of traditional banana bread but these are different! Made them into muffins and they lasted only 2 days in my home! I was requested to make more today LOL .. thinking of adding peanut butter to a couple of the muffins . Anyone ever try adding PB? Any tips on it? How did it go?!
Update : made these into muffins and whipped up some homemade peanut butter frosting.. OH EMM GEE ! AMAZING ! I’m a sucker for the banana peanut butter combo! These will go fast!
Oh my I already have this in the oven and I wish I had checked the comments sooner! The PB sounds amazing! I’m so sad def will do that next time!
Made this today and it is so good! The only change I made was to use only 1 cup of sugar (kept all other ingredients the same, including bananas) and I think it’s plenty sweet. It’s my first time making banana bread without the usual spices and I really enjoyed the clean flavor. Plus using only 1 cup of banana made for a much fluffier bread than I’m used to – which I love! This is my new favorite and will be in rotation forever.
I have been making this bread for a while now, and we love it! This morning, I tried it as waffles as per one of the comments I read. I reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup, since the syrup is also sweet. They were perfect! We topped them with peanut butter and buttermilk syrup. Super yummy!
Haven’t tried it yet as I’m on 70 minutes of baking time and the center is still raw…
I had the same problem as Stephanie. 70 minutes of baking time and the center was still raw. Any suggestions, Mel? Change in oven temperature?
Hi Jane, what kind of baking pan are you using? Glass? Ceramic? Metal?
I had this issue today using a silicone bread pan. Took me over 80 minutes to get it to bake. I had to cover the top in tin foil to keep it from burning. I think with a different pan, or made into muffins, it would be fine. I love your cream cheese banana bread, by the way! Just switching it up because I had extra buttermilk on hand.
Hi Mel!
This is my all time favorite banana bread recipe EVER! I was thinking of adding a cup of sweetened coconut because one of the women I minister to, loves anything with coconut, as do I !!!
I was wondering if you’ve ever tried it with coconut ? I can’t remember if you’re a coconut lover or not, but I would say that you are, but I can’t remember?
Thanks Mel!
Linda T.
Hey Linda! I do love coconut! I haven’t tried adding it to this bread, but I definitely think it is worth a try!
I’ll let you know how it works out with the coconut after I try it. I’ll probably get to it in a couple of weeks
I hope you and family are doing well !
I made 3 foil loaf pans today..I had to bake them an extra 35 minutes in order for the middle to get done..BUT.. THIS IS MY DEFINITE GO TO RECIPE NOW FOR BANANA BREAD!! SOOOO GOOD! Everyone loved it! Thank you!
Made muffins with this recipe today, and they are unbelievably delicious!! I’m not an experienced baker and was delighted with how well they turned out! I doubled the recipe and it filled more than two muffin tins (we did the rest in our mini muffin tin, and those we obviously had to take out earlier but they were fun and yummy too). For doubling, I put in 2 cups of sugar instead of 3, but not extra banana, and used all whole wheat flour, and it was a perfect amount of sweetness and a wonderful texture. Thank you Mel!!!
Omg, the best banana bread I have ever made it was sooo good.
Uncooked middles FIXED!! Whoot! I made
this banana bread perfectly for years from the day it was posted way back in 2008- was a major staple for years and years – often doubling recipe . Then – to my horror – about 2 years ago, it started failing me every time. -uncooked middle and burnt tops as I tried to fix the raw middle. Assumed was my oven and spent many failed batches trying to fix the temp or rack etc. Just. Figured. Out. My. Problem. Googled the problem and learned that I was adding too much banana! Often was using 3 big bananas and often eve increasing to 1.5 cups banana (eyeballed) to decrease the sugar – and often throwing in the end of a brown banana as well to not waste it- ack. Today went back to actually measuring out exactly 1 cup of mashed banana for a single recipe (soo much less than I have been using !!) and was PERFECT!!! Baked all the way through ,tops not burnt – magic!!! Clearly I needed to remember to measure and not eyeball ‘3 medium bananas’!!!! So so happy!!
Thanks for the tip!
I also eyeball my bananas and sometimes it cools great and sometimes needs way longer
This must be the reason why!
This was the first light loaf of banana bread I’ve ever made! It was delicious. Thanks!
Make these today into muffins and they were so good!! So moist and soft with strong banana flavor. Definitely gonna make it again!
Great recipe and I always use the link to the directions for making the buttermilk by adding vinegar to the milk. I usually make the banana bread into muffins and I like to add chopped up dried apricots.
The best banana bread I’ve ever eaten.
I just made this recipe. It’s in the oven now. In addition to your ingredients I added some slices, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. I also added chocolate chips. I used gluten free flour and vegan chocolate chips! It smells ridiculous! hope it tastes great! Thank you! Idk how the rating thing works cuz there’s no numbers so I give it a 10 out of 10 so far!
Amazing. The Best Ever Banan Bread Recipe. Perfect as is. Do not change 1 thing.
Dudes. PUT THIS IN A WAFFLE MAKER. Seriously. You’re welcome 🙂
Has anyone else tried this? I’d like to try it. Thank you!
Hi, Mel! Your recipe has been a favorite of mine for years. I just wanted to tell you that for my one year old’s birthday today I made this into a cake for her – doubled the recipe to fit into two round cake pans. Then I topped it with browned butter frosting. Such an amazing cake! Thank you for all of your incredible recipes.
Oh my gosh, this bread is delicious! It’s like a cake. Always happy with your recipes, but this is truly wonderful! I had to add a little more time, probably because I had two loaves with a double recipe
What does it look like for you when you grease and flour a dish? I use cooking spray and then just kinda chuck flour at it! It’s kind of hard to get it on the sides…. How do you get the right amount of flour to stick on your dishes?
I grease and then pour in a tablespoon or two of flour and then shake it around the bottom and up the sides.
Mix:
1 cup shorting
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 cup all purpose flour
Mix together real good
I store this in my frigidaire, and use it all the time,it’s the greatest thing you ever used, every thing comes out,and nice and brown, perfect
Hi Mel! I’ve been reading through the comments and I saw that someone had a similar problem to mine when I made this. And from your reply I think it might be my pan. I followed the recipe as is and when I went to check it with a toothpick at 50 minutes the outside was absolutely beautiful, but the center was still jiggily batter. The only loaf pan I have is the 9×5 Wilton dark nonstick one. And my oven is a forced air oven, but usually when I am doing one of your recipes, I assume you use a conventional oven so I don’t use the forced air option and only use the bottom heat, which was the case here. When I saw that the center wasn’t done, I left it for about 20 or 30 more minutes (can’t remember which) and the center finally baked, but the outside got burnt. I had to cut off all of the sides and only serve/eat the center. How could I adjust the time and temp to fix my problem? Any ideas? Thanks for any help you can give me!!!
Hi Dalia – usually with dark, nonstick pans it helps to reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees (you’ll need a longer baking time usually). Also, you can tent the bread with foil if it looks like it is getting too dark on the crust.
Thanks for the advice, Mel!! It turned out soooo much better the second time! More moist and delicious! Will definitely be making this again!
We made these into about 18 muffins. We sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top before baking for 20 minutes. They are so yummy! Very sweet and fluffy. My kids spread Nutella on top and loved that too. Thanks for the lovely recipe!
I’ve made this two or three times now, following the recipe perfectly, or so I thought, but each time the middle has come out completely raw as if it was never cooked at all! What could I possibly be doing wrong?! I always have to cook it an extra half-hour or so! it still turns out tasting super yummy and it’s my favorite banana bread, I just don’t know what to do about that middle part.
Hey Kristen – so much could depend on your type of oven vs mine. Do you have convection bake? What kind of pan are you using? Really dark, nonstick pans can sometimes cook the outside and leave the inside raw (needing more time). Adding more time isn’t necessarily a problem as long as it’s not getting burned on the outside and it’s still moist.
It could be you’re using too much banana. Always measure, rather than relying on trying to figure out what “3 large bananas” mean. Hope that helps!
Delicious…. had 2 super ripe bananas and 2 fairly ripe bananas so I reduced the sugar to 1 cup, per your suggestion. How does the recipe turn out if you add nuts? I love pecans and walnuts – May throw those in next time.
A lot of people have added chopped nuts with great results!
Mel,
This is my all time favorite banana bread too, but the other day I added some cinnamon/ sugar mixture on the top before I baked it, and it was amazing! I made mini-loaves to bring to the women I minister to, and they all commented that the cinnamon/sugar put it over the top The cinnamon/ sugar and banana flavor was a perfect flavor match !!!
You should try it !!
Thanks for all the yummy recipes
Once again your recipes are the best. This banana bread is amazing. Best ever ❣️
So what makes this version of banana bread fleck-free??
I think it has to do with the baking soda/powder combo and the buttermilk.
I tried making this buttermilk fruit break and it came out amazing…A great recipe for kids as well
I made this bread on Friday and it is absolutely perfect! I did a double batch and lowered the sugar to 2 cups. I’ll be making it again soon!
This is the only recipe I’ve made since you posted it! It’s amazing!
Amazing. My family never fails to gobble it all up in one day. I use sour cream instead of buttermilk, double vanilla, and bake at 400, checking after 30 minutes. Another wonderful recipe from Mel’s kitchen!
Amazing. My family never fails to gobble it all up in one day. I use sour cream instead of buttermilk, double vanilla, and bake at 400, checking after 30 minutes. Another wonderful recipe from Mel’s kitchen!
Absolutely delicious Banana Bread. Have made it several times. Another PERFECT recipe.
I love this recipe, the banana bread came out moist and light. I cut the sugar to 1 cup and left the rest of the recipe alone. It came out sweet and very delicious.
I made this recipe as stated, using the option with more banana and less sugar. I found it to be a little bland and boring and prefer the usual dark banana bread. I made mine into cupcakes and ended up making the pineapple glaze from another recipe and sprinkling shredded coconut on top of Jazz them up. I still only really want to eat the embellished tops and not the rest of the muffin.
Amazing!!!!! This recipe for banana bread is spot on! Moist, tasty and light in color. I was afraid to try because it was light in color, however now it is my go to banana bread recipe!
Thanks for your website!
NOTES: I believe we had to cook for 1 hour in our electric oven. Also we made our own buttermilk.
This is the best banana bread ever! It tastes great and moist. 🙂