This easy 4 banana bread recipe creates a delicious banana bread… with extra banana flavor. Stuck with four very ripe bananas? You could make a “regular” banana bread recipe that uses 3 bananas and freeze the 4th ripe banana… where it will lie forgotten for months in the freezer! Or you can make delicious 4 banana bread… and have no leftover & forgotten mashed bananas.
Key Ingredients – 4 Large Soft Ripe Bananas
Given hectic lifestyles & dealing with your busy family, sometimes you forget about the bananas sitting on the counter. By the end of the week, you might find yourself with four very ripe bananas that no one really wants to eat. Due to their soft mushy texture, the ripe bananas might not be right for placing on your children’s breakfast cereal. However, they are perfect for making banana breads!
You can make a traditional banana bread that usually uses 3 ripe bananas. But then you are left with one extra banana that might go to waste. The solution?? Make a banana bread with 4 bananas.
Therefore, I have created a nice “emergency” 4 banana bread recipe that uses 4 large ripe bananas. It allows you to make a moist banana bread without wasting any of your ripe bananas. FYI – Ripe bananas (soft with many black & brown spots on the yellow exterior) have much more banana flavor than unripe hard yellow bananas.
However, if you have only 4 medium or small ripe bananas, please see the tips section lower down the page. It has a method to make up for the smaller quantity of mashed bananas.
Recipe Sections
4 Banana Bread Recipe – Walnuts or Chocolate Chips are Optional
Ingredients
- 4 – Bananas (ripe & LARGE sized) – 460 grams – Use 2 cups of mashed bananas to be exact
- 1/2 Cup – Vegetable Oil – 115 milliliters – Use a neutral tasting vegetable oil such as corn or canola
- 2 – Large Eggs
- 1 Cup – Light Brown Sugar (packed) – 215 grams
- 2 Cups – All Purpose Flour – 240 grams
- 1 Teaspoon – Vanilla Extract – 5 milliliters
- 1 Teaspoon – Baking Soda – 5 grams
- 1 Teaspoon – Baking Powder – 4 grams
- 1/2 Teaspoon – Salt – 3 grams
- Optional – 1/2 Teaspoon – Ground Cinnamon – 1.5 grams
- Optional – 1 Cup – Chopped Walnuts – 115 grams
Servings – Roughly 12 slices
Equipment Needed – Measuring cup & spoons, mixing bowl, long wooden spoon, 9 by 5 bread pan, oven mitts, silicon spatula, cooling rack and an oven.
4 Large Bananas Should Equal 2 Cups of Mashed Bananas
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Mash bananas with a fork.
- Lightly beat eggs.
- Stir bananas, vegetable oil, eggs and brown sugar together. FYI – Mixing in the brown sugar now helps to completely blend the sugar (as it dissolves in the liquids) and allows you to spot any hard sugar lumps (that are easy to smash with a fork).
- Mix in remaining ingredients. Stir until the batter is fully mixed.
- Optional – If you want to enhance this 4 banana bread recipe, you can stir in 1 cup of chopped walnuts after you have mixed the batter.
- Pour the finished batter into a nonstick bread pan. Smooth out the top of the batter within the bread pan.
- Bake in the oven for 65-70 minutes or until golden brown.
- Take out of oven and let the banana bread cool down in the bread pan for 10 minutes. Do not remove the banana bread from the bread pan during this 10 minute cool down period. Use oven mitts as the bread pan will be very hot coming out of the oven.
- After 10 minutes, remove the banana bread from the bread pan. Place the banana bread on a cooling rack in order to completely cool. This cool down may take 1-2 hours.
- Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully & to avoid common banana bread problems. FYI – Given the higher moisture variability of 4 different sized bananas, please make sure to read the tips below on the “toothpick test” & thermometer test as well as the tip regarding the use of an aluminum foil tent (to prevent excess browning if you need to bake longer than expected).
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. We LOVE to hear from people who have enjoyed our recipes!! Jump to comment section
Other Bread Dad Sections
- Baking Tools – Baking sheets, etc.
- Bread Machines – My favorites
- Bread Making Books
- Bread & Dessert Mixes
- Baking Classes, Ingredients, etc.
Helpful Tips
- The tips below are designed to help banana bread “novices” and/or people with limited baking experience.
- Click on our “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include our tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
- This recipe is part of our series on easy Banana Bread Recipes.
- Benefits of banana bread with 4 bananas – If you use fully ripe bananas, it will have a little more banana flavor than many 3 banana breads. It will also be a little moister (but this can also be a downside as you need to make sure the banana bread is not underbaked). See tips below about “toothpick test” and thermometer test.
- Use RIPE bananas for the best results!! Perfectly yellow bananas look great but it also means that they are not fully ripe yet.
- Ripe bananas are soft and have many small brown & black spots on the exterior of the yellow banana peel. The natural sweetness of ripe bananas works best when making banana bread recipes.
- If you use unripe green or yellow bananas, your banana bread will come out bland (with little banana flavor). Unripe bananas are hard, have more starch and less sugar than ripe bananas.
- For the most accurate results, the 4 bananas should equal exactly 2 cups of mashed bananas. This will prevent the banana bread from being too dry or too wet. Too much moisture (too wet) can lead to the banana bread being under cooked.
- Try not to add more than 2 cups of mashed bananas or you will have added too much moisture to the banana bread and it might come out undercooked & mushy. If you add more than 2 cups of mashed bananas, you will probably need to bake the banana bread for longer than expected.
- Try not to use a lot less than 2 cups of mashed bananas, your banana bread might come out a little dry.
- FYI – 4 large-sized bananas equal roughly 1 3/4 to 2 1/4 cups of mashed bananas. In contrast, 4 medium-sized bananas equal roughly 1 1/4 to 1 2/3 cups of mashed bananas. Of course, banana sizes can vary greatly… and my version of medium and large-sized bananas may differ from yours!
- If you don’t have the 2 cups of mashed bananas (i.e. because you have only 4 medium sized bananas), you can make up the missing liquid by adding milk to top things off within the measuring cup. For example, if you have only 1 3/4 cups of mashed bananas, you should add 1/4 cup of milk. As long as the combined mashed bananas & milk equals 2 cups. FYI – Some people like to use yogurt or sour cream if they do not have enough bananas to equal two cups. However, only try to replace a small amount of missing bananas (i.e. 1/4-1/3 cup) as the liquid ratios will start to vary a lot and there will be a greater chance of adding too much or too little moisture (and this will cause the banana bread to be under or over cooked).
- If you prefer not to use milk (i.e. due to lactose intolerance), you can use applesauce as an easy alternative for the missing mashed bananas. They have very similar consistencies & moisture levels. Just add the applesauce to the mashed bananas until the total equals 2 cups in your measuring cup.
- Given the moisture variability of 4 different sized bananas (if you don’t use exactly 2 cups of mashed bananas), please make sure to read the tips below on the “toothpick test” & thermometer test as well as the tip regarding the use of an aluminum foil tent (to prevent excess browning of the banana bread top if you need to bake longer than expected). Please use the aluminum foil tent if you need to place the banana bread back in the oven again for longer baking (i.e. it was undercooked when taken out the first time because you used too much mashed bananas).
- Optional – This recipe helps you to create a delicious & moist banana bread. However, if you want to “enhance” this banana bread recipe, you can add 1 cup of chopped walnuts after you have completely mixed all of the other ingredients. Of course, always check for potential nut allergies before serving any banana breads that include tree nuts or peanuts. Do not add the chopped walnuts if anyone who might eat your banana bread has a nut allergy.
- Optional – If you would like to add chocolate chips instead of chopped walnuts, you can use 3/4 cup of MINI chocolate chips. “Normal” sized chocolate chips tend to sink to the bottom of this moist banana bread. Mini-sized chocolate chips tend to spread out better in the batter.
- Optional – If my bananas are not super ripe, I sometimes add a 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon in order to add a little extra flavor. However, if my bananas are fully ripe, I generally find that the banana bread doesn’t need any extra spices.
- Visitors – What additional ingredients (i.e. chopped walnuts) have you added to this recipe to make it more unique or special? Please post your ingredient additions in the comment section below. Your tips & suggestions are a great help to beginning banana bread makers.
- You should use a NEUTRAL flavored vegetable oil (i.e. corn or canola oil) in order to make this four banana bread recipe. Stronger flavored oils (i.e. peanut oil or olive oil) may negatively impact the banana bread taste.
- You can also use unsalted butter instead of vegetable oil if you want to add a slightly buttery taste to your banana bread. Just replace the oil with butter on a 1:1 basis.
- However, I find that vegetable oil creates a slightly moister banana bread because vegetable oil stays liquid at room temperature (whereas butter is a solid at room temperature).
- Alternatives to this 4 banana bread recipe – If you have 4 ripe bananas, you can also make our Vegan Banana Bread recipe (as it uses 4 bananas). Or you can make two loaves of our 2 Banana Bread Recipe (2 + 2 = 4).
- Of course, if you have 4 ripe bananas, you can always freeze one banana and make a regular 3 banana bread. However, that one frozen banana will take up space in your freezer and be forgotten for forever!
- The brown sugar adds a slightly richer flavor to banana breads (versus the use of white granulated sugar).
- However, you can use a 50/50 mix of brown & white granulated sugar if you want less brown sugar flavor.
- Do not remove all of the light brown sugar as the slight acidity of brown sugar helps to activate the baking soda. This ensures that the banana bread rises properly and that there is no baking soda remaining in the finished banana bread (which can have a slightly bitter taste if not fully activated/dissolved).
- Optional – Visit our Banana Bread Glaze page if you would like to learn how to add a vanilla or chocolate glaze to your banana bread.
- Use FRESH ingredients (i.e. baking soda and flour) for the best results. For example, if you use stale baking soda and/or baking powder, your quick bread will not rise properly and will be too dense. Baking soda & powder is best if used within 6 months of opening the container. Using baking soda from an open container (that has been deodorizing your refrigerator for months) will lead to subpar results. Old & hard baking soda/powder may result in rising problems and/or leave small bitter clumps in your quick bread.
- Store your ingredients (i.e. flour & sugar) in airtight containers to avoid “funky” flavors in your baked goods as well as to prevent contamination by moisture (in the air), dust, pests, etc.
- Do not overmix the batter or your 4 banana bread will come out dense and gummy. I never use an an electric mixer when making banana bread. It is too easy to overmix the batter with an electric mixer. Stick with a large spoon when mixing your batter.
- Do NOT use an electric mixer to mix your ingredients (when combining the wet and dry ingredients). Stick to an old fashioned wooden spoon. An electric mixer can overmix the ingredients and the banana bread will turn out rubbery & gummy.
- To prevent your bananas breads from sticking to the bottom of your bread pan (especially if you are using “sticky” ingredients such as chocolate chips), you should consider either “greasing” the bottom of the pan with butter or vegetable oil, using a cooking spray, using a nonstick pan or lining the interior of the bread pan with baking parchment paper.
- However, don’t grease the bread pan near the top of the pan. There will be nothing for batter to cling to as it rises. This could cause the bread top to collapse as it rises.
- Please use the suggested 9 x 5 bread pan to make this banana bread recipe. If you start using different sized pans, there is a greater potential for bread top collapses (potentially less bread pan “wall” support for the quick bread as it rises), different interior batter to exterior bread ratios (thus the need for different baking time lengths), smaller pans are more likely to overflow, etc.
- Use a metal bread pan (and not a glass bread pan) to make this 4 banana bread recipe. Glass pans bake faster than metal and can overbake this banana bread.
- This recipe is based on using a traditional oven (which most people have) and NOT a convection oven. Convection ovens blow air around inside the oven and this bakes things faster than in a traditional oven. Therefore, if you use a convection oven, this recipe is more likely to be overbaked.
- This doesn’t happen often but if the top of the banana bread looks too moist or under cooked, you should try the “toothpick test”. Gently push a wooden toothpick or wooden skewer into the top of the bread and see if any batter sticks to the toothpick. If batter is sticking to the toothpick then it hasn’t completely cooked. Place the bread pan back into the still hot oven for another 3 to 5 minutes. Make sure to wear oven gloves because the bread pan will be very hot. After the 3 to 5 minutes, remove the bread pan and test the quick bread again with a toothpick.
- Instead of the “toothpick test”, some people like to use a bread thermometer to test if their banana bread is done. Generally, a quick bread is done when the internal temperature reaches 200-205 degrees F. For more on using a thermometer to test your quick bread, you might like to read this King Arthur Baking article.
- Make sure that your oven has been completely preheated. If the oven has not been properly preheated, this quick bread could come out undercooked. Use an oven thermometer (i.e. one that hangs inside your oven) to check the interior oven temperature before baking.
- Portable oven thermometers are also great for telling if your oven temperature matches what you set on the oven temperature dial. Some ovens (esp. older ovens) can be off by 25+ degrees.
- If your banana breads suffer from over browning, it could be due to your oven running hotter than the dial temp (use a portable oven thermometer to check the internal temperature), using a glass bread pan vs a metal bread pan (glass pans cook faster than metal pans), using a convection oven vs a traditional oven (most recipes are designed for traditional ovens and convection ovens bake the exterior of a banana bread faster than traditional ovens), etc.
- Some people like to prevent over browning of their banana bread tops by placing an aluminum foil “tent” over the bread pan after the banana bread has been baking for roughly 40 minutes. They take a sheet of aluminum foil and bend it in half so it is shaped like a tent/triangle. This shape prevents the foil from touching the top of the batter during the baking process. Always wear oven mitts when placing foil over a hot bread pan.
- If you have a problem with a quick bread recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (i.e. using the correct oven temperature), using the correct amounts of ingredients (i.e. don’t eyeball the measurements versus using a measuring cup or accidentally add a tablespoon when a teaspoon is called for), using the correct ingredients (i.e. baking soda/powder versus yeast or all purpose flour versus bread flour), etc. Please don’t “wing” things with recipes.
- Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a hot oven and bread pan.
- For more delicious banana bread recipes (i.e. cranberry banana bread or blueberry banana bread), please visit Bread Dad’s sections on easy Banana Bread Recipes or Quick Bread Recipes.
- If you enjoyed this recipe, we would love to see a picture of your masterpiece! Please post a photo of it on Instagram and tag it with @BreadDadRecipes
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. We LOVE to hear from people who have enjoyed our recipes!! Jump to comment section
More Bread Dad Recipes
- Bread Machine Recipes
- Bread Recipes
- Banana Bread Recipe
- Quick Bread Recipes – Pumpkin bread, cranberry bread, etc.
- Cookie Recipes
Noteworthy Comments
For some of our best visitor comments, recipe variations and baking tips, please our Noteworthy Visitor Comments section. It has tons of useful suggestions.
Common 4 Banana Bread Questions & Answers
How many cups is 4 large bananas?
4 large bananas equal roughly 1 3/4 to 2 1/4 cups of mashed bananas. Of course, banana sizes can vary greatly… and my version of large-sized bananas may differ from yours!
How many cups is 4 medium bananas?
4 medium bananas equal roughly 1 1/4 to 1 2/3 cups of mashed bananas. Of course, banana sizes can vary greatly… and my version of medium-sized bananas may differ from yours!
How many bananas is 2 cups of mashed bananas?
2 cups of mashed bananas equals ROUGHLY 4 large bananas or 5 medium bananas. However, these are very rough estimates as banana sizes vary. After mashing your bananas, you will need to use a measuring cup in order to accurately measure the cup amount of mashed bananas.
Reference Sources
- Wikipedia, Banana
- Wikipedia, Banana Bread
4 Banana Bread Recipe (Extra Moist)
This easy 4 banana bread recipe creates a delicious banana bread… with extra banana flavor. Visit Bread Dad (BreadDad.com) for more easy banana bread recipes (i.e. chocolate chip banana bread, walnut banana bread & Greek yogurt banana bread).
Servings: 12 slices
Calories: 275kcal
Ingredients
- 4 Bananas (ripe & LARGE sized) – 460 grams – Use 2 cups of mashed bananas to be exact
- 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil – 115 milliliters – Use a neutral tasting vegetable oil such as corn or canola
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 Cup Light Brown Sugar (packed) – 215 grams
- 2 Cups All Purpose Flour – 240 grams
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract – 5 milliliters
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda – 5 grams
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder – 4 grams
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt – 3 grams
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Mash bananas with a fork.
- Lightly beat eggs.
- Stir bananas, vegetable oil, eggs and brown sugar together. FYI – Mixing in the brown sugar now helps to completely blend the sugar (as it dissolves in the liquids) and allows you to spot any hard sugar lumps (that are easy to smash with a fork).
- Mix in remaining ingredients. Stir until the batter is fully mixed.
- Optional – If you want to enhance this 4 banana bread recipe, you can stir in 1 cup of chopped walnuts after you have mixed the batter.
- Pour the finished batter into a nonstick bread pan. Smooth out the top of the batter within the bread pan.
- Bake in the oven for 65-70 minutes or until golden brown.
- Take out of oven and let the banana bread cool down in the bread pan for 10 minutes. Do not remove the banana bread from the bread pan during this 10 minute cool down period. Use oven mitts as the bread pan will be very hot coming out of the oven.
- After 10 minutes, remove the banana bread from the bread pan. Place the banana bread on a cooling rack in order to completely cool. This cool down may take 1-2 hours.
- Please read Bread Dad's tips section for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully & to avoid common banana bread problems. FYI – Given the higher moisture variability of 4 different sized bananas, please make sure to read the tips below on the "toothpick test" & thermometer test as well as the tip regarding the use of an aluminum foil tent (to prevent excess browning if you need to bake longer than expected).
Notes
This is a Bread Dad recipe and may not be copied or reproduced. Material on this website is copyright protected under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Legal Disclaimer
Nutritional estimate is based on a 4 banana bread without chopped walnuts. The nutritional information is provided using recipe tools such as WP Recipe Maker. These figures should only be considered as an estimate. They should not be construed as a guarantee of accuracy given visitors may use different serving sizes, ingredients, etc. See our legal disclaimer for additional nutrition disclosures.
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 275kcal | Carbohydrates: 43g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 27mg | Sodium: 240mg | Potassium: 198mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 65IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 44mg | Iron: 1mg
Your fantastic comments motivate us to write more easy & delicious recipes. Also beginning bakers learn a ton from your helpful suggestions, tips and amazing recipe variations.
Related Recipes
- Bread Machine Banana Bread
- Eggless Banana Bread
- No Butter Banana Bread
- 2 Banana Bread Recipe
- Vegan Banana Bread
- Walnut Banana Bread
Please leave a comment & recipe rating in the comment box below. Thanks!