After coming home from a weekend vacation I was greeted by a bunch of rotten bananas (in the words of Athena, my 8 year old). More commonly known by the rest of us as super ripe, at their prime, ready to bake bananas. Perhaps most normal people wouldn’t find this exciting – I was totally ecstatic.
Banana bread it would be. All my usual banana bread recipes call for 2-3 bananas. I decided I was going to use all five bananas in one pop – there would be no marathon baking festivities on this day.
So I found a recipe with great reviews using five bananas and a stick of butter – sounds right up my alley. As all quick breads go, dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another and stir until just combined. Do not over mix – I can never stress that enough. Quick breads are pretty much fool proof – the only way to mess them up is to over mix or majorly over bake – so don’t do either. Spoon the batter in your greased loaf pan and sprinkle with some crushed walnuts. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean – your looking at 60 -70 minutes. I pulled mine out of the oven at 65 minutes, but it should have been left in for a few extra minutes.
That’s it. Easy, delicious bread loaded with banana flavor. Rest assured, the five bananas in this bread make it super moist and perfectly dense.
So go ahead and buy a bunch of bananas and put them away just for this recipe. It’ll probably be quite sometime (next vacation, perhaps) until I have 5 overripe bananas in my house again…I look forward to it.
Thanks for reading and Happy Baking : )
-Amanda-
Recipe adapted from Shelley Albeluhn at allrecipes.com
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/banana-banana-bread/Detail.aspx
"5 Banana" Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 cup butter at room temp
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs beaten
- 5 large bananas extra ripe
- 1 tablespoon crushed walnuts optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Grease/spray a loaf pan.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- In another bowl, mash bananas. A fork works wonderfully.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.
- Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.
- Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just till combined. Do not over mix.
- Pour/spoon batter into prepared loaf pan.
- Sprinkle walnuts on top of batter.
- Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Let bread rest in loaf pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to cool.
- Enjoy : )
- Recipe adapted from Shelley Albeluhn @ allrecipes.com
YUM! I love banana bread! Gotta make some soon. 🙂 Looks delicious!
Thanks Trish! I’m constantly playing around with quick breads – it’s as close as I can come to freestyle baking : )
I made this and put chocolate chips in it. Came out moist and delicious.
Made 3 loaves yesterday. Changed up a couple things…
For 2 of the loaves I used 3/4 white wheat flour 1/4 wholemeal. I also used sunflower oil instead of butter, in the same amount. I didn’t add any walnuts.
Worked well! Delicious.
The other loaf I made gluten free. 2/3 GF flour mix (maize, tapioca, rice) and 1/3 almond meal. Also used sunflower oil. Reduced the sugar by a 1/3 on this one. No walnuts. Partner really likes it. Says I can be reduced sugar further next time.
Have saved the recipe and will use as a base again. Thanks!
Likely a dumb bachelor mistake but… at what point do you do something with the butter/sugar you creamed? 🙂
I had 3 bowls (arguably 4 for whisking eggs, but let’s assume not).
1) my solids
2) mashed bananas+eggs
3) creamed sugar
I make (1), (2), (3), put (2) in (1), bake, and … use (3) for icing?? Sorry in advance if this is (probably) obvious.
Hi! You know what…you’re right…this is a little confusing.
It’s written as:
In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
In another bowl, mash bananas. A fork works wonderfully.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.
Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.
Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just till combined. Do not over mix.
Sooooo…it’s:
1) Flour/dry ingredients
2) small bowl – mash bananas
3) creamed butter/sugar
Then add bowl 2 and (whole) eggs into bowl 3. Mix. Then bowl 3 into bowl 1.
Perhaps it would be less confusing if I just listed ingredients as “5 bananas, mashed” and skipped the whole bowl 2 confusion.
Or did I just make it more confusing. Lol.
Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I think I can help demystify the confusion 😀
Generally, you want to cream together butter and sugar, then add the eggs to the creamed mixture and stir without breaking the emulsion.
Then add your bananas to the creamed mixture and stir.
Now you have 2 bowls, one wet, one dry.
Add wet to dry and combine.
Hope this helps 😀
I didn’t think it was confusing. You were clear about not over-mixing after the flour was in the batter & other important details. I got everything mixed in, one way or another & it came out great. Thanks!
I just made this “5 banana banana bread”… It is the best banana bread I’ve ever made.ive’ve warmed it with a little butter …DELISH…and tonight I’ll have a piece with a little vanilla ice cream…YUM !!! I’ll definatly be making this again and again…thank you
Yay! So glad you enjoyed it! Sounds delicious with some vanilla ice cream! Thanks so much for stopping by Marianne – Happy Baking ♥
hi there,
how much is 2 cups of flour in g? I used the conversion 1 = 340 x 2 and it seemed too much for the mixture so it was a waste! sorry novice baker here…
1 cup of all-purpose flour is approximately 120 grams. So you would use about 240 grams of flour in this recipe.
Sorry for the mix-up – hope this helps for next time 🙂
This is my family’s favorite banana bread recipe! I make it in a bundt pan and bake for 40 minutes. Delish!
So glad you enjoyed it! I bet it’s wonderful in a bundt pan – I’ll have to try it soon!
Thanks for stopping by Holly 🙂
I used the recipe…totally didn’t find the instructions until after I grew impatient and just did what I thought sounded right from the rest of the story. (Apparently I was scrolling right past them on my phone). My very “whatever” process was throwing everything powdery in one bowl, and the rest in another. Turned on the mixer for the wet stuff, fork mixed the dry stuff, and then slowly poured dry stuff into the mixing bowl. Followed the recipe to a T. Royally deviated from the process…lol
Anyway, the house smells good. We’ll see what’s what in about 20 more minutes.
Hi Glenn!
I’m sure the bread turned out well! The only thing you can do to mess up the mixing process of a quick bread is overmixing. There’s plenty of room for freestyling 🙂
Hope you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for stopping by!
We were also faced with very ripe bananas – 5 !
Followed your recipe, swapping out all purpose flour for gluten free plain flour and baking soda for gluten free baking powder and put in a round 9″ cake tin, baked for 60 mins.
OMGoodness, we cut it into one inch strips and smear of butter, absolutely delicious, even my one lad who hates bananas tried it and said yum yum more please.
Thank you, definite hit and only 1/4 left !
I’m already being asked when am I making it again.
Wonderful! So glad to hear you all enjoyed the recipe and love hearing that your gluten-free version turned out scrumptious!
Thanks for stopping by Chelle 🙂
How were you able to swap baking soda and baking powder? They are totally different ingredients that do completely opposite things…
I had an impulse purchase of an 18 mini loaf pan the other day for 10 bucks, I’m using your recipe as a base ( Added and subtracted a little here and there) I was only able to fill 14 of the pans about half full which should be ok but I’d like to fill the darn thing. I might have to write a seven banana recipe. The last recipe I tried only got me to 1 dozen but was fantastic. I cannot give it a rating quite yet it’s almost done but I guess you’re supposed to let it cool
I’m wondering how the omission of baking powder still works with this recipe. Not that I’m doubting the recipe because I’ve made it five times and it is the best banana bread I have ever made, so thank you for the recipe.
I’m living with my in-laws for a season and found the freezer half full of old bananas. I’m gluten free, so I adapted the recipe just a bit. I have made 4 batches of muffins and mini-muffins and they only last a few days. Everyone loves them! And I cleaned out the freezer! Thanks. This was exactly what I was looking for.
This is so good. I looked for something to do with my bananas that always seem to go bad fast and I ran across this recipe. Thanks it’s great.
Absolutely the BEST evet banana bread! Recipe is perfect as is or easy enough to play around with. And its a fun recipe to make with and for kids. I’ve even added flax and/or other seeds/nuts. Thank you for your baking brilliance!
I made 2 of these today using 10 bananas. Came out perfect. Thank you!! Wish I could post pictures.
Came out great! But I only needed 40 minutes to make mine. I am glad I checked on it, otherwise the bread would have burnt anytime beyond that.
Excellent recipe! Best banana bread I’ve made in a long time! Leaving it in the oven for a few extra minutes helps and adding chocolate chips is even better!
Oh my gosh hi! I had 5 bananas and the standard recipe calls for only 3 bananas. Google led me to your recipe! It was very good bread! Thank you!
What size is your loaf pan? I have two and I’m not sure which to use. I have a 9 x 5 x 2.50 and a 9.25 x 5.25 x 2.75 not sure!
I am sure either pan would be good but I would chose the larger of the 2
I used 2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour and this was the best gluten-free quick bread I ever made! I also added 1 cup buttterscotch chips, 1 tsp vanilla, and a little extra cinnamon and nutmeg. This recipe really was quick and easy, and so delicious!
If you want to go a little crazy, spread softened cream cheese on a slice…. heaven!
It’s a great recipe.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
I cannot believe I actually baked an edible banana bread/cake.
I messed up (company happen to come just as I was making it) and mixed eggs with brown sugar. I thought …what the heck, I’ll just continue. I added the butter and kept on mixing, then, added this mixture to dry ingredients.
Poured that into too big of a baking pan, baked at 350 F for 45 minutes and all came out PERFECT!? Moist and baked.
I always had issues with baking banana or pumpkin “things” where the bottoms were dense and unbaked.
I like to bake but it never case to amaze me HOW do people come up with some recipes. 5 Bananas are right up my ally.
Thanks again. Happy holidays 🙂
This was a great way to get a LOT of overripe bananas on-hand, out of my kitchen without wasting anything :-)The recipe was delicious and everyone in my family loved the outcome! I’ll be using this recipe again and again for sure! Thanks!
Fool proof recipe for” Deliciousness” !! Today was my second time making it, quick and easy and super moist. Thank you!
Yummy turned out perfect, so perfect I had to hunt down more overripe bananas today .This time I’m making 2 loaves
Useful, tasty recipe for taking care of a lot of overripe bananas. I ended up forgetting to add the eggs and it still turned out well!
I was so happy to find a 5 banana banana bread recipe and was juggling my 3 young kids while making this that I forgot to add the brown sugar. It was still delicious and I usually prefer mild sweet flavor anyway!
great recipe. have made the ‘original’ recipe for years (didn’t dawn on me at first that this was a tweaked version:)) and it’s pretty damned good. like usual with banana bread i used oil instead of butter (so a cpl of TBSPs less) and if bananas ripe enough, cut back a bit on the sugar. didn’t here, though, and the extra sweetness was nice.
loved the spice mix – and just because, i also added a pinch of clove and ginger.
i was going to put in 6 large bananas, but am glad i didn’t since this was perfect; anything more would’ve made it goop…and would have taken a year to bake.
thanks!
i added dark chocolate 50g from a 85% chocolate bar. it was delicious
I made this yesterday with 5 veeerryyy old bananas and some chopped toasted pecans. I had doubts because the batter looked “loose” but lo and behold this ended up being the best banana bread I have ever had! I will save this recipe thank you!!!
I used 1 cup regular flour and 1 cup buckwheat, plant based margarine and substituted the eggs for applesauce. Voilà! Excellent use of 5 very ripe bananas! Thank you.
I made this veganized this morning. I used coconut oil instead of butter, and Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer. It turned out fantastic!
This 5-banana bread recipe is perfection! I’ve made it twice now and have doubled the recipe each time to make two large loaves (One for me. One in the freezer to have handy for thank-you gestures)… I mix a little with a mixer at the end and then mind the direction ‘not to overmix and just spoon mix at the end.
I cut the walnuts over the batter with kitchen shears so they’re nice and chunky. With the walnut on top only, it adds just a little texture and nut flavor. The inside of the loaf is just this stand-alone, ultra-moist, intense banana flavor.
A local market sells bags of over-ripe bananas for 99 cents …This recipe is a keeper, for sure.
This is a great recipe! I happened to have 5 bananas lying around and went with this recipe based on previous reviews. I made the recipe with almond flour instead of all purpose to make it gluten free, just for fun. And omg. I need to put this in the freezer so I don’t eat it all in one sitting… A+ recipe and super-easy process. Thank you!!
I love that you use a whisk and a fork—-I’ve been a fork user in baking all my life! Thanks for having this experience, which was similar to mine and why I searched “5 banana bread recipe.” Yay!
Hands down the best banana bread recipe I’ve ever used. The only change I made was that I used less sugar, which is just a personal preference. The bread came out SUPER moist and delicious. Husband said it’s the best banana bread he’s ever eaten. I’ll only be using this recipe from now on!
Perfect used used 6 banana and mixed as instructed … has a pretty glisten after cools
Really nice, not too sweet. I baked it in a 7X11 inch cake pan for less time. We ate it as a snacking cake. Yum! To save a bowl, I just added broken up banana pieces to the butter, sugar, egg mixture and let the mixer do the work.