Banana nut bread, in general, is a popular food due to its simplicity and deliciousness. You’ll often find this type of bread at grocery stores, bakeries, and coffee shops, as it makes a great accompaniment to coffee. However, while you can buy some banana nut bread at the store, homemade banana bread will taste fresher and allow you to customize the flavor.

The bread is an easy food to make at home. You also likely already have all the ingredients in your cabinets, so you could save money by making it at home. Let’s look at what you need to make banana nut bread and how you can make a freshly-baked loaf at home.

What Is Banana Nut Bread?

Although its name tells us that banana nut bread is a type of bread, the consistency is similar to a dense cake. It’s essentially a type of quick bread, which means it uses a leavening agent like baking soda to rise rather than yeast. It also means you can cook it right after making the batter rather than waiting for it to rise like with bread dough.

Banana nut bread contains typical baking ingredients like flour, sugar, and eggs, but it gets its name from the addition of mashed bananas and nuts, such as pecans or walnuts. The bananas are what make the bread so moist. 

A quick bread like this is perfect for breakfast, as a dessert, or can serve as a delicious sweet snack. Some people eat it plain, or you can spread butter on it.

Follow this classic banana nut bread recipe to learn how to make a banana bread loaf in the comfort of your own home.

Banana Nut Bread Ingredients

Before reading through the directions for this easy banana bread recipe, you need to head over to your cabinets to assess if you have all the required ingredients. If you’re missing anything, head to your local grocery store because the bread won’t taste right, even if you’re only missing one item. Baking is like chemistry.

You will need the following ingredients to create your homemade banana bread. Read our recipe!

Banana Nut Bread Recipe

Although its name tells us that banana nut bread is a type of bread, the consistency is similar to a dense cake. It’s essentially a type of quick bread, which means it uses a leavening agent like baking soda to rise rather than yeast. It also means you can cook it right after making the batter rather than waiting for it to rise like with bread dough.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 1 hr

Total Time 1 hr 10 mins

Course Appetizer

Cuisine International

Servings 2

Calories 419 kcal

Ingredients

  

• 1¼ cups All-purpose white flour
• 1 cup Sugar (use ¾ cups if you don’t want it sweet and 1 ¼ cups if you want it sweeter)
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1 teaspoon Baking soda
• ½ cups Softened unsalted butter (one full standard-sized stick of butter)
• 2 eggs
• ½ teaspoons Vanilla extract
• 3 Ripe bananas however many it takes to make 1 cup of mashed bananas
• ½ - 1 cup Chopped nuts (use walnuts to make a banana walnut bread loaf, or use pecans)(use walnuts to make a banana walnut bread loaf, or use pecans)

Instructions

 

• Lightly grease a loaf pan with some butter. You can also use parchment paper to line the pan to make cleaning easier.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have multiple oven settings available, you should set it to the bake setting.
• Combine your flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl and set it aside for later.
• Put your softened butter and sugar into another bowl and mix the two ingredients with a hand mixer or a standing mixer until they turn into a creamy texture.
• Add your vanilla extract and eggs to the creamy butter and sugar mixture. Mix until the ingredients are fully combined.
• Mash your bananas until you get a lumpy consistency. Pour the mashed bananas into the butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg mixture. Mix everything gently, so you don’t purée the bananas.
• Grab the bowl of dry ingredients and begin adding them a little at a time into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Mix it all until everything is fully combined and your banana bread batter forms.
• Chop up the nuts of your choice into small chunks. Do not finely chop them because there won’t be much of a crunch when the banana bread bakes. Add the chopped nuts to your banana bread batter and gently incorporate them.
• Pour the banana nut bread batter into your greased loaf pan. Bake it in the oven for 55 minutes to an hour.
• To check if the bread is ready, stick a toothpick into the middle of the loaf. If it comes out clean, you can take the banana bread out of the oven. If there’s batter on the toothpick, put it back in the oven for a few minutes until your toothpick is clean.
• Allow the banana nut bread to cool off for a few minutes. Then slice it and enjoy!

Keyword banana nut bread, banana walnut bread, homemade banana bread

Tips & Tricks for Banana Nut Bread

Here are some tips and tricks to remember when making banana nut bread.

• If you’d rather have muffins, line muffin pans with baking cups and fill each one halfway. You’ll only need to cook the muffins for about 20 to 30 minutes. Put the toothpick into the largest muffin to check if they are ready to come out of the oven.
• If you want your banana nut bread to be slightly healthier, you can replace the butter with applesauce. Replace the 1/2 cup of butter with a 1/2 cup of applesauce.
• If your bananas aren’t ripe enough, peel them and place them in the oven for a few minutes until they turn brown.

Nutrition Information of Banana Nut Bread

Nutrition information can differ based on what nuts you use and whether you use applesauce over butter. Here are the general nutrition facts for one slice of banana nut bread:

• 419 calories
• 22.2 grams of fat
• 71 milligrams of cholesterol
• 404 milligrams of sodium
• 51.7 grams of carbohydrates
• 2.7 grams of fiber
• 30.8 grams of sugar
• 7.8 grams of protein
• 12 micrograms of vitamin D, 24 milligrams of calcium, 2 milligrams of iron, and 230 milligrams of potassium

Bananas are a great source of potassium, and enjoying a potassium-rich diet can help prevent cardiovascular issues.

Concluding Thoughts

Banana nut bread offers the perfect amount of sweetness you’ve been craving. Luckily, you don’t need to be an experienced baker to make this great-tasting quick bread. Try this banana nut bread recipe out the next time you’re heading to a party, or you’re just craving some banana-flavored, nutty deliciousness.