You can bake this 2 Banana Bread recipe if you happen have only two ripe bananas sitting around! It’s an easy and delicious banana bread recipe to make with simply pantry ingredients.
I’m sure everyone’s Mom has been making banana bread since the beginning of time. My Mom is no exception. I have a lot of banana bread recipes on the RecipeGirl site, but my Mom’s 2 banana bread recipe is my favorite classic banana bread.
The texture of this banana bread is never dry. It turns out to be super light, tender and moist. Sometimes I even cut down on the oil and use 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup applesauce instead of using a full 1/2 cup of oil in the bread.
If you want to try some different variations of banana bread, try my banana bread for one (where you only need one banana) or my Kona Inn banana bread (where you’ll need six bananas!)
Ingredients needed:
- Sugar: We use 1 1/2 cups of granulated white sugar for this recipe. You can change things up by adding 1 cup of white sugar and 1/2 cup of brown sugar. That will add some caramelization to the bread. Or you can choose to reduce the sugar amount slightly if you don’t like your banana bread quite that sweet.
- Oil: I recommend using canola or vegetable oil for the recipe. I haven’t tried using avocado oil, but if you are happy with using avocado oil in your baking recipes then it will probably be fine.
- Bananas: Use 2 ripe bananas for this recipe. The best bananas for banana bread are soft with brown and black spots on the banana peel. Don’t use green or perfectly yellow bananas. They won’t have enough sweet banana flavor for bread. Your bananas should be large enough to yield about 1 cup. If you don’t quite have enough for a whole cup, just pour some milk in there to compensate for what is missing. You can also use applesauce to fill up the rest of the cup.
- Eggs: Use large, room-temperature eggs for this banana bread recipe.
- Buttermilk: This is going to give your delicious 2 banana bread some great, tangy flavor!
How to make your own buttermilk: If you don’t want to buy buttermilk, it’s easy enough to make buttermilk at home. All you need is milk and lemon juice or vinegar. For this recipe, you’ll need 5 tablespoons of buttermilk. Put 5 tablespoons of milk in a glass. Add 3/4 teaspoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to the milk. Let it sit for a few minutes. The milk will curdle slightly, and it becomes acidic… which is what you’re looking for when buttermilk is called for in a recipe. - Vanilla Extract: Use the good stuff (not imitation). It makes a difference.
- The Basics: All Purpose Flour, Baking Powder and Baking Soda
- Nuts (optional): Some people really love nuts added to make a banana nut bread. They’re completely optional though. I suggest using chopped walnuts or chopped pecans.
How to make 2 Banana Bread:
This is a very easy banana bread to make. In one bowl, you’ll mix sugar, oil, mashed ripe bananas, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. In another bowl, you’ll mix flour, baking soda and nuts (if using).
Then you’ll combine the two and scrape the batter into a loaf pan. The bread takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to bake in the oven. Print the complete recipe at the end of this post.
Recipe Tips:
- The more ripe your bananas are, the sweeter your bananas will be. That means that your 2 banana bread will have more of a sweet banana flavor too.
- If you want to quickly ripen bananas that are still yellow, place them in a paper bag and store them in a warm area for a few days (the pantry or the top of the refrigerator are two good places).
- No need to use an electric mixer for combining the ingredients for your banana bread. Just stir everything together until the batter comes together. Too much mixing will result in a gummy-textured bread. You don’t want that!
- Consider adding some add-ins! Blueberries, shredded coconut, chocolate chips, raisins or even 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon would all be good additions to making the best banana bread.
How to store banana bread:
After you bake your banana bread, you should always wrap it with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out. If you keep in wrapped and refrigerated, you will extend the life of your banana bread by one week. If you’d like to freeze banana bread, wrap it well in plastic wrap and then place it in a freezer zip bag. Banana bread keeps in the freezer for up to three months.
Here are a few more banana bread recipes you might enjoy:
2 Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1½ cups granulated white sugar
- ½ cup vegetable or canola oil
- 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup chopped walnuts, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325℉. Grease and flour one 9×5-inch loaf pan.
- In a large bowl, combine the sugar, oil, bananas, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla; whisk together well. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and nuts (if using). Stir into the wet mixture and pour into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Notes
- *Use 1/4 cup applesauce and 1/4 cup oil to cut down on the fat. Still wonderful.
- *Nutritional information does not include the optional walnuts.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This was the banana bread recipe I was looking for – THANK YOU! It has a few simple ingredients that are always available to me (even though I had to make my own buttermilk by adding a little vinegar to whole milk). It is easy and QUICK to put together. It actually ROSE IN THE PAN and was not super packy. It tasted GREAT and my family enjoyed it immensely. AND, it saved those brownish-black trash bag bound bananas that give me such a guilt trip about wasting. I now buy as many bananas as I think we might eat with wild abandon, knowing that if we don’t finish them before they’re brown and mushy, we will fight over the first and last bite of them in this banana bread.
Printed and slipped into a page protector for permanent residence against the backsplash behind my mixer. <3
Great news!