LovaCook
Desserts

Ultimate Banana Bread Loaf

Moist, buttery, unapologetically banana. The recipe I've been quietly perfecting for a decade.

Prep: 10 minCook: 55 minTotal: 1H5 minServings: 10 slicesDifficulty: Easy
Sliced banana bread loaf on a cooling rack with butter

Banana bread is one of those recipes everyone thinks they've cracked. This is mine — brown butter for depth, sour cream for tenderness, and enough bananas that you can actually taste them.

It's a close cousin of my banana walnut muffins. If you love one, you'll love the other.

Ingredients

  • ½ cup (115g) butter
  • 3 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1½ cups)
  • ¾ cup (150g) brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • ⅓ cup (80g) sour cream or Greek yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1¾ cups (220g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Heat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Line a 9x5-inch loaf tin with parchment.
  2. Melt the butter in a small pan, then keep cooking until it turns golden brown and smells nutty. Cool 5 minutes.
  3. Whisk the mashed bananas, brown butter, sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla in a large bowl.
  4. Sprinkle over the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Fold gently until just combined.
  5. Scrape into the tin. Bake 50–55 minutes until a skewer in the middle comes out with moist crumbs.
  6. Cool in the tin 15 minutes, then transfer to a rack.

Cooking tips

  • Blackened, sad-looking bananas are perfect for this. The riper, the better.
  • Brown butter is 4 extra minutes of work for enormous flavour payoff.
  • Freezes for 2 months — wrap slices individually and defrost as needed.

More like this

If you enjoyed this recipe, you'll find more of my favourite desserts recipes in the archive, or browse the full collection.

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