Recipe

Easy Banana Bread You Can Make With Things from Your Cupboard

By Anna Stalsberg at University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Whether you are looking for a simple dessert or just a way to get rid of those bananas that are taking up space in your kitchen, look no further. Banana bread is a delicious treat that is easy to share, not to mention the fact that you can make it with simple ingredients like flour, eggs, and sugar. 

The only skills required to make this banana bread are stirring and cracking an egg, making this a perfect recipe for even the worst of bakers. There are also ways to customize the recipe to fit your own tastes by adding chocolate chips, walnuts, or other fun mix-ins. 

The recipe below is inspired by this baker, but the cooking times and ingredients have been slightly altered. 

Banana Bread

  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 25 mins
  • Total Time: 35 mins
  • Servings: 6
Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 overripe bananas
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • Pinch salt
  • Chocolate chips- optional
  • Chopped walnuts- optional

Anna Stalsberg

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Annie Pinto

Step 2

Mash bananas with a fork in a medium mixing bowl.

Anna Stalsberg

Step 3

Pour in melted butter. Stir.

Caroline Ingalls

Step 4

Add sugar, vanilla, baking soda, egg, salt, chocolate chips, and walnuts. Stir.

Msu Spoon

Step 5

Add flour. Stir.

Jocelyn Hsu

Step 6

Pour batter into a greased bread pan. Or, using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, drop equal size amounts of batter into a greased muffin tin.

Allison Curley

Step 7

Bake bread for 35-40 minutes or 25 minutes for muffins.

Helena Lin

Step 8

Serve warm, and enjoy!

Anna Stalsberg

Tips:

1. After pulling the bread or muffins out of the oven, I recommend letting them cool only slightly and then enjoying them while they are still warm. If there is still bread or muffins left over, store them in an airtight container, warming them up in the microwave before eating.  

2. Only use very ripe bananas when baking. If you are wondering whether or not a banana is ripe enough to use for banana bread, think of this simple rule: if you would still eat it by itself, it's not ready for bread (unless you just really like overripe bananas). The bananas I usually use look like this:

And that's it! Simple yet delicious, it's easy to fall in love with this easy recipe for banana bread. Happy baking!