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Best Banana Bread Recipe Ever

Best Banana Bread Recipe Ever

The best banana bread recipe ever--great for gift giving!

Best Banana Bread Recipe Ever

This banana bread recipe is very straightforward and easy. The only thing that might might be a little strange is the buttermilk; most people don’t tend to have that on hand and don’t really want to but a whole container for just a 1/2 cup in a recipe. The alternative is to make the banana bread with sour milk. Not hard, you just add a tablespoon of vinegar to your measuring cup, then fill the rest of the way with milk and let it curdle for a few minutes. But more on the sour milk in a minute!

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I do read your comments, dear readers! The wonderful part about this recipe is that it’s flexible. Add some cinnamon, a handful of cranberries (my mother loves to do this), chocolate chips, or whatever else excites you.  You can actually split this into two smaller loaves if you like; I just think it’s best baked in one giant loaf. We’ve made it in cake pans and as muffins and mini muffins, too. Go crazy! But be sure to adjust the baking time if you change the pan size.

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Best Banana Bread with Sour Milk Recipe

Best Banana Bread with Sour Milk Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Amazingly moist and full of flavor banana bread! There is a way around buying a whole quart of buttermilk for one use in this recipe. Pour a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar into a measuring cup then fill up to the half-cup mark before starting the recipe. The vinegar sours the milk, and is a great substitution for buttermilk.

Ingredients

  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste (buy it here)
  • 3 mashed bananas
  • ½ cup buttermilk or sour milk
  • 2 c flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ cup chopped nuts

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer; add eggs and mix well. Add sour milk (or buttermilk), vanilla and bananas to mixture. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and blend well. Bake in 1 loaf pan (I like this one!) for 70 minutes.
  2. Adjust your time down if you're baking in small pans. The smaller the pan, the shorter the cook time. Muffins in this recipe take about 25 minutes. I suggest checking your bread every 5 minutes after 25 minutes to see if a toothpick comes out clean if you aren't using a standard loaf pan. Once the toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, the bread is done!
After you’ve got your bread baked and cooled, it’s time to decorate them up for gift-giving! See how I used some cellophane bags and stamps to make perfect little gifts below!

If you love this banana bread, my ZUCCHINI BREAD (click here) is another must-try!

Make cute tags for your banana bread gifts with cardstock and baker's twine

Packaging Banana Bread for Gift Giving

Materials:

There are so many different loaf pan varieties out there; and lots with pretty print on the sides for whatever holiday you’re gift giving at! You’ll just want to bake your bread in a container the recipient doesn’t feel like they have to return. I made that mistake once–sending little mini loaves out into the world in pretty little porcelain loaf pans. Every one of them came back!

I like to slip the loaf pans into a cellophane bag and add a little tag to them. With a pretty loaf pan, the decorating the gift part is easy!

 

For my tag, I really just had a lot of fun going through my box of scrapbook punches. You don’t have to take all these steps; leaving out one or two details won’t deter from your pretty package!

 

Make cute tags for your banana bread gifts

Bread Tag Instructions

Cut two 1×4 pieces of cardstock. Punch one edge with an edge puncher; punch the other with a hole puncher. Punch or cut a heart out of your choice of colors of cardstock, and punch a hole near the middle of the heart.

Layer the two 1×4 pieces of stock on top of each other and add the heart, lining up all the holes. String through with baker’s twine.

Make cute tags for your banana bread gifts with a custom stamp

Use your Expressionery.com stamp to put your name on the 1×4 paper, then tie around the neck of your cello bag. It’s the perfect little decoration for a loving little gift!

Don’t forget to pin the banana bread recipe for later!

The best banana bread recipe ever--great for gift giving!

Thank you toExpressionery.com for sponsoring this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and I adore the high quality of their products!

Paula Biggs

Owner at Frog Prince Paperie
Paula Biggs is a party planner, DIY crafter, and owner of Frog Prince Paperie, where you can find hundreds of party, craft and lifestyle ideas.

Denise Lewis

Tuesday 22nd of August 2023

My husband loves banana bread. I saved this recipe many years ago. I’ve made this recipe and I’ve tried some others over the years but I always come back to this one. It’s just like we like it. I really think this is the The Best Banana Bread!

Paula Biggs

Sunday 1st of October 2023

Thank you so much for the kind words!! I love that it's your go-to as well. My husband and I just celebrated 24 years (!) and can't believe we've been making this same recipe that long! It's so nice to hear so many others get the same joy out of this banana bread recipe. :)

Judy

Tuesday 20th of June 2023

Banana Bread looks so good.

Emma

Sunday 31st of July 2022

I only have oat milk on hand. Would that work for this recipe? I imagine oat milk doesn’t “sour” the same as dairy milk.

Linda Harbison

Sunday 24th of April 2022

Thank you for sharing your recipes. This one looks delicious. Can you substitute sour cream for the buttermilk?

AJ Gurr

Sunday 9th of July 2023

@Paula Biggs, @Linda Harbison I have been subbing sour cream nearly every time I've made this recipe and it seems to work great. The recipe my mom had growing up said "buttermilk or sour cream" and I've never seemed to have an issue.

Paula Biggs

Monday 25th of April 2022

I've never tried with sour cream in this particular recipe! I don't know what the reduction in liquid would do to the moisture of the bread, but sounds like a fun experiment :)

Mary

Friday 8th of April 2022

I make banana bread all the time. This one was a hit! So moist and delicious! I use lemon juice to sour my milk, but that is the only thing I changed. Delicious!

Paula Biggs

Monday 25th of April 2022

So glad it was a hit for you! I like that there are many different ways to sour the milk--I'm always about using what I have on hand to cook and bake!

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