Buttermilk Banana Bread (2024)

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4.64 stars (331 ratings)

Mar 17, 2008353

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

Yield: 12 Servings (1 large loaf)

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 50 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

4.64 stars (331 ratings)

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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!

Author: Mel

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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posted on March 17, 2008 (last updated November 15, 2022)

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353 comments on “Buttermilk Banana Bread”

Megan G — August 11, 2023 @ 10:01 am Reply
Delectable. I baked mine in a dark non-stick donut pan. Took roughly 13-14 minutes. So good! Due to other comments about bananas, I made sure to weigh my bananas instead of just throwing in three, and discovered that two of mine were sufficient. I think adding a third would have definitely thrown off the recipe.
Heather — June 28, 2023 @ 6:31 pm Reply
I’ve tried so many banana bread recipes and this one is the BEST. I’ve made it lots of times and it never fails.
Debbie Dee — March 27, 2023 @ 8:28 am Reply
I made this banana bread yesterday, and decided to go with the option of more banana/less sugar in the Cook’s Notes. I also had buttermilk powder, so I just added 4 T of the powder to the dry ingredients and the equivalent amount of water (instructions on the buttermilk powder package says to do this).
Also, I made this in my bread machine. I thought it turned out pretty well, considering this is not really a bread machine recipe! I don’t believe anything needed to be changed for the bread machine.
Thank you so much, Mel!
L — January 31, 2023 @ 12:43 pm Reply
Is this the same recipe as the unspeckled banana bread you posted on Instagram last February?
- Mel — January 31, 2023 @ 9:47 pm Reply
  Yes!
Tina — October 30, 2022 @ 7:59 am Reply
Hi Mel,
This is the second time I make this banana bread and yesterday I was really careful not to over mix the dough but it turned ot very heavy very far from light moist texture. Any clue what I might doing wrong?
- Mel — October 31, 2022 @ 1:45 pm Reply
  Hi Tina, how do you measure your flour? Do you weight it on a scale or use a measuring cup? It’s possible you might need to use less flour if the bread is turning out heavy and dense.
Simon — August 31, 2022 @ 10:36 am Reply
This is my favorite banana bread recipe, I have made it 1 million times, but the cooking time is way too low, it usually takes about an hour and five minutes.
Becky — August 13, 2022 @ 11:57 am Reply
Has anyone tried baking this recipe in mini bread pans? If so, how long did you bake them for? Love this recipe!
- Mel — August 16, 2022 @ 11:40 am Reply
  Yes, I do it all the time! I check them after about 24 minutes.
Katelyn Moss — June 25, 2022 @ 9:46 am Reply
I always have trouble with my banana bread being raw in the middle. What am I doing wrong?
- Mel — June 28, 2022 @ 11:03 am Reply
  Hi Katelyn, what kind of pans are you using? Are they dark coated pans? You might try lowering the oven temp by 25 degrees and baking for longer.
Kate — June 10, 2022 @ 8:08 am Reply
This is the BEST banana bread recipe and probably the most forgiving recipe in history. Last night I was going to make a triple batch and use Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flour in it for the first time and all of the sudden I could only find 2 (larger than standard) of my like 6 bread pans…GAH, I was scrambling! But I kept working through it and made them fit in the 2 pans nicely–the batter seemed much thicker than usual but it had been awhile since I made the recipe and just kept going. Fifteen minutes into baking, I was called near my baking area of the kitchen by chance and saw MY BOWL OF MASHED BANANAS still sitting on the counter!! I yanked the 2 pans out of the oven, poured them into the bananas, stirred well and threw them back in the oven. They came out beautifully and taste as perfect as every other time before!
Also, the best tip I ever got from Mel was for scratch buttermilk using half sour cream and half water—I use so many of her baking recipes and I share that with anyone/everyone at any chance I get!
Kerri — March 21, 2022 @ 7:57 am Reply
This is the most delicious banana bread. My whole family loves it. The texture is wonderful and so is the flavor.
E — November 28, 2021 @ 6:55 pm Reply
We do muffins, makes 12 large muffins. Baked at 350 for 25 mins.
Substituted:
3/4 c honey
4 bananas,
2 c kamut.