This is a fantastic banana bread: moist, sweet, and very easy to make. Roasting bananas makes them sweeter and ready to use, so you don't have to wait for bananas to ripen, you can make this quick bread even if you only have green, unripe fruit! It keeps well and can be frozen. The recipe is for a plain loaf, but you can add chips or nuts.
Have underripe bananas? No problem!
This is an old-fashioned banana bread recipe that uses everyday ingredients with the simplest trick to help banana bread lovers everywhere.
In my experience, baking banana bread involves finding overripe bananas in the market, in your fridge or wherever you keep them.
But what if you wanted to make banana bread right now and the bananas were all bright yellow and firm, even a bit green? Are you supposed to wait an entire week before you bake? You might not feel like it by then. Yes, life is tough.
By roasting bananas in the oven, you soften them and concentrate the flavor, making them ready for use.
Why use roasted or overripe bananas?
We all know that the best banana for this type of recipe is overripe, soft, mushy, barely fermented, and with spotted skin.
You probably wouldn't eat it raw, but it does make the best bread. The flesh is sweeter, and the banana flavor is more intense, which doesn't happen with very firm bananas.
Enter this recipe for roasted banana bread.
Roast your underripe bananas, and half an hour later, you have soft, sweet bananas ready to be used in this recipe, banana cake or banana muffins.
Ingredient list
- Bananas: this recipe uses roasted bananas, but you can also use overripe ones.
- Oil: I like to use sunflower, but I've made it with olive oil and coconut oil with great results.
- Buttermilk: what if you don't have fresh buttermilk? You can buy buttermilk powder and prepare it as needed. Homemade buttermilk, made with lemon juice, is another option and I added it to the recipe card.
- White granulated sugar.
- Light brown sugar.
- Eggs: fresh, large.
- All-purpose flour.
- Salt.
- Baking powder and baking soda: make sure they're not expired.
- Lemon juice: fresh is always better.
- Ground cinnamon: it's optional and you can add ¼ teaspoon to add another layer of flavor.
Quantities are listed on the recipe card towards the end of this post. The Ingredients page has more details and lists the brands we use.
How to roast the bananas
- Whole: simply bake them in a medium oven (350°F/180°C) whole, unpeeled. After a half hour or so, they will turn completely dark, almost black. It's not nice, on that we can all agree. But it's just the skin that is blackened. Inside it's soft and caramelized. You will understand the second you peel the banana how this changes everything.
- Without skin: you can also peel them, sprinkle them with some sugar (optional) and bake them in an aluminum pouch (a large piece of foil where you place the fruit and then close by lifting the edges and closing them together at the top) until soft and juicy.
Steps to make banana bread
I like some banana chunks to show; I feel they give the bread a good texture. But you can also mash them until smooth and chunk-free.
Sift the dry ingredients beforehand or have them measured and sift them directly over the batter (I do it this way).
Top Tip
Don't overbeat the batter after you add the flour mixture. I like to use a spatula to integrate it well. If you use an electric mixer make sure you beat at low speed and *just* until combined.
A tablespoon of sugar is sprinkled just before baking and it makes a wonderfully crunchy topping! You can also top it with a raw banana cut in half, like we do for the chocolate chip banana bread recipe.
Kitchen Notes
- Organization: read the recipe first and ensure you have ingredients at the correct temperature, utensils and equipment needed, and enough workspace. This will make the process so much easier.
- Baking time: consider that all ovens and pans are different, even if they look similar. The baking time in my recipes is as accurate as possible, but it might take you more or less time. You can use a thermometer(like the OXO oven thermometer) to check that your oven is at the right temperature. I recommend keeping track of how your oven works and what tiny details you might need to adjust.
- Bananas: roasting them means you can use very firm or even greenish bananas and the flavor will be amazing. Besides roasting them whole in the oven, you can also peel them, sprinkle with some sugar and bake in a aluminum pouch until soft and juicy.
- Oil: you can use any vegetable oil. I use sunflower or coconut but I've used canola, and even olive oil.
- Storing: as with most banana bread recipes, it tastes much better a day after it's baked. Keep it at room temperature for no more than 2 days, well covered or wrapped. If the environment is too hot, refrigerate after a day. It freezes well, well wrapped. Defrost at room temperature, unwrapped. I recommend warming it or toasting it before eating.
- Add-ons: ½ cup of chocolate chips, walnuts or pecans, white chocolate chips or other nuts can be added to the batter.
- Butter: use it instead of oil. The same volume, that is half a cup or 115g. Cream the soft butter with the sugars for 2-3 minutes, add the eggs one at a time, then the banana with the buttermilk and vanilla, and finally the sifted dry ingredients.
Related recipes you might like:
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Roasted Banana Bread
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Ingredients
- 2 cups 280g all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup oil, I use sunflower
- ½ cup 100g granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed, 100g brown sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 cups coarsely mashed bananas, 3 or 4 depending on the size
- 2 tablespoons buttermilk, or use 2 scant tablespoons milk and 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- Drops of vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon extra sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Grease one 11x4-inch (27x9cm) loaf pan.
- Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC).
- Place unpeeled bananas on a baking tray and roast until the skin turns completely dark and the inside is lightly soft to the touch, around 40 minutes. Let cool and mash.
- In a bowl sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a bowl beat eggs with sugar until they start to thicken.
- Add oil in a stream and beat until completely incorporated.
- Add bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla. Mix well.
- Add flour mixture in 2 parts and mix with a spatula until well combined.
- Pour into prepared pan.
- Sprinkle the top with granulated sugar.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes or until tester inserted comes out clean.
- Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes.
- Invert and cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.
- Store, covered, at room temperature, for 3 days. If the room is too warm I suggest keeping it in the fridge after the second day.
Notes
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Complete Book of Baking
Rich says
Hello ,
I am wondering if you can also use the banana skins in this recipe. Have you tried incorporating the whole banana?
Paula Montenegro says
Hi Rich, I haven't but from what I know they're edible. I would try blending or processing some of it and seeing how it affects the texture of the bread.
Allison says
We loved this recipe! The sugar sprinkled on top was a nice extra touch.
Paula Montenegro says
Happy to know that Allison! Have a great week.
Cate Chapman says
Hi Paula,
In one place it says to use oil. In another place, butter is recommended. Should the butter be melted to add in a stream just as the oil is added?
Thank you.
Cate
Paula Montenegro says
Hi Cate! You can use oil or butter. I rewrote it both in the post and the recipe card notes so it's easier to understand. The butter can be used soft (creamed with the sugars as you would in a cake) or melted. I find that room temperature butter makes for a less dense bread than melted.
Cate says
Thank you. I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Margi says
Hi Paula,
So nice to be able to get your excellent recipes in my email now.
I have one question, you said to bake this banana bread in an 11x4 inch pan……I only have 9x5 and 10x4&1/2 inch loaf pans. Would either of them work for your suggested baking time?
Paula Montenegro says
HI Margi! Both will work, but I think I'd go with the 10x4.5
Jill Swartz says
Excellent. My daughter has been after me to try roasting the bananas and I just haven’t taken the time to do it!!! Huge mistake-this is WAY better than any other banana bread I have ever made.
Paula Montenegro says
So happy to hear that it turned out so well Jill! Happy baking!
Sarah Kellas says
I do think roasting the bananas is what makes this particularly awesome. Note: don't think that using older bananas means you ought skip the roasting. While roasting does speedily ripen less ripe fruit, with already over-ripe ones it straight up caramelizes them into a dulce de leche like creamy banana-ness.
I will never use bananas without roasting them in my baked goods again! Thanks for sharing!
Paula Montenegro says
That's great to know Sarah! I'll definitely try it next time. Have a great day.
Abbe@This is How I Cook says
Love the roasting of the bananas. And I love the simplicity of the recipe. Sometimes when too many ingredients are added you forget you are eating banana bread!
The Ninja Baker says
Sooo interesting and of course, everything you make looks amazing. P.s. Roasted oranges sounds great, too =)
Paula Montenegro says
Thanks Kim!
Renee Diak-Witek says
Love the idea of roasting the bananas. Got to be a whole new flavor. Thanks
Renee Diak-Witek says
I love the idea of roasting the bananas. Can't wait to try this.