One Bowl Banana Bread
A classic one bowl banana bread recipe made with overripe bananas, brown sugar, butter, and walnuts for a delicious old-fashioned flavor with moist texture.
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Table of Contents
About One Bowl Banana Bread
Banana bread is a classic baked treat that has become a to-go for both enjoying and gifting, and for very good reason:
The natural sugars in bananas will caramelize as they bake, helping give this bread the deep, old-fashioned flavor that so many have come to love.
And better yet, banana bread is easy to make. This particular recipe can be made with only one bowl, meaning you can whip up a tastefully moist loaf of bread without decimating your kitchen.
Because really, who has time to worry about cleanup when you’ve got slices of homemade bread to devour?
How ripe should bananas be for banana bread?
Depending on your patience, bananas should be as close to completely black as possible. Or, at the very least, the bananas should be 70% black or more. Very minimal yellow should be showing.
How to ripen bananas
Ready to make some banana bread but don’t want to wait for the bananas to ripen on their own? No problem! You can speed up the process with near-identical results.
To ripen bananas:
- Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Note: The parchment paper isn’t required, but the bananas will leak a little during this process. The paper just makes cleanup a little easier.
- Lay the banans in a single layer on the baking sheet.
- Bake for about 40 minutes or until the skin of the bananas is a shiny black color.
- Let bananas cool for about 30 minutes before using. You can also toss them in the fridge to speed up the process.
Easy, right? And it actually works! If you’d like to see, this is what the bananas looked like before:
And this is what they looked like after:
How long does banana bread last?
Once prepared, this bread can be stored on the counter in a sealed container (or in plastic wrap) for up to four days. And like most homemade breads, the flavor of this loaf will intensify after one or two days.
After the fourth day, the texture of the bread may change as it begins to dry out. Banana bread can still be eaten on the fifth or sixth day, but you may want to toast the bread so it’ll be harder to notice any change in texture.
Can you freeze banana nut bread?
Yes, you totally can!
When stored in an airtight container or freezer bag, this bread will keep its “best” quality for about two or three months. After that point, the texture of the bread might change, but it will remain good for up to six months frozen.
Notes & tips for banana nut bread
- Not a fan of walnuts? No problem! You can either completely omit the walnuts in this recipe or you can replace them with an equal amount of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
- This recipe calls for toasting the walnuts for a deeper flavor, but it is completely optional.
- You can use either a 9×5 bread loaf pan or an 8×4 bread loaf pan for this recipe.
More great bread recipes
How to make one bowl banana bread
This next part is only a photo tutorial of the recipe steps. If you’re looking for the full recipe measurements and instructions, scroll down to Recipe Details.
Step 1 – In a medium bowl, start off by mashing the overripe bananas until smooth.
Step 2 – Add the melted butter to the bowl, then mix until it’s blended with the banana.
Step 3 – Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl: flour, light brown sugar, egg, vanilla, and baking soda, then stir well.
Step 4 – Gently mix in the walnuts, setting a few side if you’d like to decorate the top of the bread.
Step 5 – Spray a 9×5 bread loaf pan with baking spray, then pour the bread batter inside. If you had set any walnuts aside, sprinkle them on top of the batter.
Step 6 – Bake!
Step 7 – Serve and enjoy!
One Bowl Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 3 overripe bananas, peeled
- 1/3 cup salted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 egg, beaten
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×5 bread loaf pan with baking spray, then set aside.
- Optional step, for toasted walnuts: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread walnuts across baking sheet in an even layer. Bake in the oven for 8 minutes, stirring walnuts about halfway through. Once toated, allow walnuts to cool on baking sheet.
- In a medium bowl, add bananas. Use a potato masher or fork to mash bananas until smooth.
- Add melted butter to bowl, then mix until absorbed with the banana.
- Add the flour, light brown sugar, egg, vanilla, and baking soda to bowl, then mix until combined.
- Add walnuts to bowl and use a spatula to gently fold them into the batter. If desired, reserve a few tablespoon of walnuts to decorate the top of the bread.
- Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan. If decorating, sprinkle remaining walnuts across the top of the bread batter.
- Bake bread for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let baked banana bread cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
I do my best to provide nutrition information, but please keep in mind that I’m not a certified nutritionist. Any nutritional information discussed or disclosed in this post should only be seen as my best amateur estimates of the correct values.
