Easy Banana Bead
Packed With Banana Flavor
Emma Fontanella’s Easy Banana Bread
About Easy Banana Bread
This is my favorite banana bread recipe. It’s made with brown sugar, yogurt and roasted nuts, and a special trick to develop extra banana flavor. And it stays soft for days.
I designed this banana bread recipe so you make it using an air fryer. That’s right, air fryers aren’t just for chicken nuggets and fries. However, of course the entire recipe will work just as well in a regular oven. I’m giving you instructions for both, so you’re covered, however you like to bake!
Now, we all know that air fryers can make food crispy, but we obviously don’t want that for banana bread! So, I’m going to show you how to achieve a result that’s super moist and delicious. I think it’s amazing you can get results like this in an air fryer; and with air fryers getting bigger, many can now fit loaf pans.
If you like this banana bread recipe, there are lots easy, cozy treats in my cookbook, Simple Pleasures, including my perfect chocolate chip cookies, amazing chocolate muffins, crackly top fudge brownies, chewy vanilla sugar cookies, and a big selection of super quick microwave mug treats!
The banana bread bakes perfectly in a regular oven or in an air fryer.
This recipe really is stress-free and fool-proof. Anyone can make this. What makes it so easy is we’re going to use a blender to make the batter. That way, your banana bread will come together in just a few seconds with no fuss and no mess.
I’m also going to show you how you can customize your banana bread with mix-ins. That way you can get creative and really make this your own. You could use chocolate chips, or chunks of white chocolate, or even some chopped up holiday candies!
In this version I’m going to use nuts as my mix-in. This is my perfect banana bread, made with chopped, roasted walnuts and a hint of cinnamon. I love a slice with a cup of coffee on a chilly day.
Enjoying a slice of the finished banana bread!
Why is banana bread called bread and not cake?
Here’s the truth – banana bread is cake! It’s not bread so let’s not pretend it is. The reason it’s called banana bread is because it’s baked in a loaf pan that’s designed for baking loaves of bread.
What is banana bread made from?
Banana bread (which is actually a cake, not a bread!) is made from all the ingredients you find in cakes. That is: butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and baking soda. Then for flavor, of course bananas are added, along with optional ingredients for extra flavor like ground cinnamon. It’s common to add mix-ins such as walnuts, pecans or chocolate chips.
Is banana bread healthy or unhealthy?
Banana bread isn’t either healthy or unhealthy. If you make it yourself using good ingredients and eat it in moderation, it’s delicious as part of a balanced diet. It’s not a weight loss option, though!
What does banana bread taste like?
With the right recipe, banana bread should taste of bananas! If the recipe has mix-ins such as nuts or chocolate chips, you will also taste those. Banana bread should have a dense, moist texture.
INGREDIENTS
½ cup (75g) nuts - I like walnuts or pecans. (The nuts are optional. Use whatever mixing you prefer, e.g. chocolate chips, chunks of white chocolate. Or leave them out if you like.)
7 tbsp (100g) unsalted butter
2 medium ripe bananas, about 8oz (220g) in total
1 (5oz / 140g) container plain Greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
¾ cup (150g) brown sugar
1½ cups (200g) all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
INSTRUCTIONS
Bake the bananas to develop banana flavor (optional)
If you’ve got bananas that are brown and spotty like in the photo below, you can skip this step if you want.
If your bananas are over ripe with lots of brown marks and spots, you can skip this step.
The riper the bananas, the more flavorful your banana bread will be. If you’re working with bananas that aren’t overripe, I’ve got a quick trick to make the bananas ripen in minutes.
You could put them on a tray and roast them in the oven, but I prefer using an air fryer for this. It heats up way faster than a regular oven, and it speeds up the ripening, too. Just pop them in at 350°F (180°C) until they’re a deep, dark color and soft to the touch.
The baked bananas should soft and squishy to the touch. When they’re soft like this, you can be sure they’ll have develop good, strong banana flavor.
One thing to keep in mind is that they might darken on the outside before softening up inside, so check to make sure they’re nice and squishy.
Roast the nuts (optional)
If you’re using nuts as a mix-in, you want to roast them to really wake up and develop their flavor. They’re a hundred times more delicious this way—unroasted nuts are pretty bland.
The easiest way to do this is to pop them on a baking sheet or air fryer basket and put them in your air fryer preheated to 350°F (180°C). Because of the way air fryer fans are designed, they’ll only take about 5 minutes to roast.
You’ll know when the nuts are roasted because they’ll have developed a dark color and they’ll smell incredible.
Of course, you can use a regular oven too. Bear in mind it can take 20 minutes or more to roast nuts in a regular oven. Either way, you’ll smell them when they’re ready!
Take the nuts out of the oven and turn them out onto a chopping board. I like to chop mine quite finely, but the size of chop is completely up to you.
I like to chop the nuts quite finely for banana bread like this; but you can use whatever size pieces you prefer.
We do this step before making the batter, so the nuts have time to cool while you’re combining your ingredients.
Preheat your oven or air fryer and prepare the pan
If you’using a regular oven preheat it to 350°F (180°C). If you’re using a large capacity air fryer, preheat to 340°F (170°C). If your air fryer has a smaller capacity, use a lower temperature of 290°F (140°C).
Grease and line the loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving about 1 inch (2.5cm) of overhang at the ends of the pan.
Please note If you’re using a small air fryer, or you loaf tin is close to the heat source, cut of the overhangs of parchment paper, to avoid the risk that they’ll burn.
Please note Make sure to use a loaf pan that fits in your air fryer! Remember, you can use a regular oven if it won’t fit in your air fryer.
Melt the butter
In a large bowl, melt the butter in the microwave.
Allow the butter to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before proceeding with the recipe.
Blend the wet ingredients
Adding the wet ingredients to the blender. Yes, sugar counts as a wet ingredient!
To a large blender, add in this exact order: bananas, yogurt, butter, vanilla, eggs, and sugar. Blend on high for 8 to 10 seconds or until smooth.
As soon as it's smooth, stop mixing; other-wise, the cake will collapse once baked. It's important to use a large blender because of the large volume of batter in the recipe.
Blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients
Adding the dry ingredients to the blender
Add the flour, baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon. Pulse the blender on and off at medium-high speed for 5 to 8 seconds (no more than this).
After blending, you should still have some unmixed ingredients. This is what you want so do not continue to blend!
At this point, you'll most likely have some unmixed ingredients on the sides or bottom of the blender jug. Do not continue to blend.
Instead, use a spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the blender jug to finish combining all the ingredients.
We do this because it's important not to over-blend the batter at this stage; otherwise, your banana bread will end up with gluey streaks.
Finish incorporating all the ingredients by using a spatula
Bake the banana bread
I like to make a line in the batter using a chopstick. This will encourage the banana bread to develop a nice even crack along the top as it bakes.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. To help ensure that the banana bread develops an even crack along the top as it bakes, I like to make a line in the batter with a chopstick (see photo above).
The banana bread baking in the air fryer. Notice how the even crack along the top is developing nicely.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes. (Do the toothpick test. If the toothpick comes out clean, the banana bread is ready.)
Please note After 20 minutes, check if the banana bread is starting to darken too much, you can cover it with some foil or lower the temperature.
Allow the banana bread to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then loosen the sides from the pan using a spatula.
Loosening the sides of the banana bread using a spatula.
Remove it from the pan using the parchment paper and allow to cool completely, ideally on a rack.
Allow the banana bread to cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into it.
Serve
A slice of the finished banana bread
Cut into slices and serve.
Make Ahead & Freeze
When cool, store the banana bread in an airtight container or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 3 days.
To freeze, wrap the cooled banana bread tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 1 month
Watch the video for more tips
Hi! I’m Emma Fontanella. Here you’ll find trusted, tested recipes to satisfy your baking addiction and carb cravings. Learn more…
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