Banana Bread Glaze (Chocolate & Vanilla Recipes)

This banana bread glaze recipe allows you to easily create a chocolate or vanilla glaze that can be poured over the top of your favorite banana bread. It is a fun way to turn “regular” banana bread into something special. You can also use this easy glaze recipe to add glazes to other quick breads such as pumpkin bread, cranberry bread, etc.

Vanilla Banana Bread Glaze

My glaze recipe uses powdered sugar (confectioners sugar). Powdered sugar is a very quick method to make a nice glaze or frosting. You just need to add liquid (i.e. milk) to the powdered sugar & any other dry ingredients (i.e. baking cocoa powder) and whisk them together in order to create a simple & effective glaze. Unlike a glaze made with regular granulated sugar, you don’t have to warm up a confectionary sugar glaze on a stovetop. In my opinion, powdered sugar is easier to make into a glaze than granulated sugar.

This banana bread glaze recipe is pretty simple and should take you roughly 5-10 minutes to prepare and clean up. FYI – You will find a printable and “pin-able” recipe at the bottom of this page.

Recipe Sections

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Helpful Tips

Key Ingredient – Powdered Sugar (Confectioners Sugar)

Ingredients – Vanilla Banana Bread Glaze

• 1 1/2 Cups – Powdered Sugar (Confectioners Sugar) – 165 grams – This sugar should be sifted. This results in a smoother glaze with less lumps.
• 1 Tablespoon – Butter – 14 grams – The butter should be melted for easier mixing.
• 1/2 Teaspoon – Vanilla Extract – 2.5 milliliters
• 3 Tablespoons – Milk – 45 milliliters

Ingredients – Chocolate Banana Bread Glaze

• 1 1/3 Cups – Powdered Sugar (Confectioners Sugar) – 145 grams – This sugar should be sifted. This results in a smoother glaze with less lumps.
• 3 Tablespoons – Unsweetened Baking Cocoa Powder – 15 grams
• 1 Tablespoon – Butter – 14 grams – The butter should be melted for easier mixing.
• 3 Tablespoons – Milk – 45 milliliters

Servings – This glaze covers the top of one complete 9×5 banana bread.

Equipment Needed – Sugar sifter (optional), measuring cup & spoons, large mixing bowl, whisk, large spoon, wire cooling rack and baking tray/sheet.

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Chocolate Glaze – Confectioners Sugar & Baking Cocoa Powder

Instructions – Vanilla Banana Bread Glaze

• Optional (but Recommended) – Sift the powdered sugar (confectionary sugar). FYI – Sifting the sugar removes any small clumps of sugar and allows you to make a smoother glaze. In my opinion, a glaze looks better without lots of small lumps.
• Add the sugar to a large mixing bowl.
• Melt the butter and add to the mixing bowl.
• Pour the vanilla extract into the mixing bowl.
• Pour the milk into the mixing bowl. FYI – I like to add 2 tablespoons first (of the 3 called for in the recipe) and start mixing. I will then add the remaining milk one teaspoon at a time (3 teaspoons equals 1 tablespoon) until I reach my preferred level of glaze consistency. Use less liquid (i.e. only 2 or 2 1/2 tablespoons) if you want a thicker frosting-like glaze.
• Use a whisk to mix all of the ingredients. Stir until all of the wet & dry ingredients have been blended together.
• Place your already baked & cooled banana bread on a wire cooling rack. The cooling rack should be placed on top of a baking tray/sheet. FYI – The baking tray/sheet (under the cooling rack) catches the “run-off” from the glaze after pouring it on the banana bread.
• Use a cup or large spoon to gently pour or drizzle the glaze on top of the banana bread. Pour the glaze slowly onto the banana bread top (don’t just dump it on!) in order to avoid large amounts of the glaze from running off the sides of the banana bread.
• Let the glaze cool for up to 30 minutes to harden.
• Please read the tips section to avoid common glaze mistakes.

Instructions – Chocolate Banana Bread Glaze

• Optional (but Recommended) – Sift the powdered sugar (confectionary sugar). FYI – Sifting the sugar removes any small clumps of sugar and allows you to make a smoother glaze. In my opinion, a glaze looks better without lots of small lumps.
• Pour the sugar into a large mixing bowl.
• Add the cocoa powder to the mixing bowl.
• Melt the butter and add to the mixing bowl.
• Pour the milk into the mixing bowl. FYI – I like to add 2 tablespoons first (of the 3 called for in the recipe) and start mixing. I will then add the remaining milk one teaspoon at a time (3 teaspoons equals 1 tablespoon) until I reach my preferred level of glaze consistency. Use less liquid (i.e. only 2 or 2 1/2 tablespoons) if you want a thicker frosting-like glaze.
• Use a whisk to mix all of the ingredients. Stir until all of the wet & dry ingredients have been blended together.
• Place your already baked & cooled banana bread on a wire cooling rack. The cooling rack should be placed on top of a baking tray/sheet. FYI – The baking tray/sheet (under the cooling rack) catches the “run-off” from the glaze after pouring it on the banana bread.
• Use a cup or large spoon to gently pour or drizzle the glaze on top of the banana bread. Pour the glaze slowly onto the banana bread top (don’t just dump it on!) in order to avoid large amounts of the glaze from running off the sides of the banana bread.
• Let the glaze cool for up to 30 minutes to harden.
• Please read the tips section to avoid common glaze mistakes.

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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.

• My banana bread glaze recipe goes well with banana nut bread as well as “regular” banana bread.
• While this page is focused on a glaze for banana bread, you can also use this easy recipe on other quick breads. This glaze is perfect as a pumpkin bread glaze, cranberry bread glaze, zucchini bread glaze, gingerbread glaze, strawberry bread glaze, lemon bread glaze, etc.
• Key Benefit – You know exactly what is going into your homemade glaze. It won’t have the strange chemicals & preservatives found in some commercial glazes and frostings.

• This recipe uses confectioners sugar (powdered sugar). It is NOT made with regular white granulated sugar.
• In my opinion, confectioners sugar is easier to use (than white granulated sugar) when making a glaze. Just add liquid to the confectioners sugar & dry ingredients and stir in order to make a glaze. In contrast, with white granulated sugar, you usually have to heat the sugar & liquid on a stovetop in order to make a glaze. I find white granulated glazes are a little more complicated & harder to adjust for errors.
• Optional but Highly Recommended – Sift the powdered sugar (confectioners sugar) to get out any lumps. This prevents small sugar “pimples” (ugh) from appearing in your glaze. I like to use a large sifter/strainer to sift my sugar (see picture below). FYI – Old powdered sugar that has been sitting in your pantry for months will absorb moisture and this helps to create many small sugar “lumps”.
• Do not mix up the vanilla and chocolate glaze measurements. They are not the same (i.e. different amounts of powdered sugar). Some people accidentally take some numbers from the first glaze recipe and then in a hurry, they take other numbers from the second glaze recipe. This leads to recipe problems.

• Visitors – What type of banana bread glaze do you like? Vanilla? Chocolate? Banana flavored? Lemon flavored? Something else? Also do you have any great glaze or frosting tips for banana breads & other quick breads (i.e. pumpkin bread & cranberry bread)? Please post your glaze tips & suggestions in the comment box below.
• Did you make a mistake and the glaze came out too liquidy? This is easy to correct! Just add some more confectioners sugar to lower the liquid-to-dry ratio and improve the glaze consistency. Stir & add more confectioners sugar until it reaches your desired level of consistency.
• Sifted flour weighs less than compacted powdered sugar (on a measuring cup basis). Sifted flour has lots of air in it versus regular packaged powdered sugar has been compacted due to all of the shipping & handling. For example, I find that a cup of sifted powdered sugar weighs roughly 105-115 grams vs the 120 grams quoted on the side of powdered sugar boxes.
• Given this variation in weight, you need to add the milk a little at a time in order to reach your preferred level of glaze consistency. See the recipe instructions about adding a teaspoon at a time after you add the first 2 tablespoons of milk.

• You can change the flavor of your glaze by using extracts. Remove 1/2 teaspoon of the milk and replace it with 1/2 teaspoon of an extract such as banana extract, almond extract, lemon extract, orange extract, maple extract, etc. Then taste test the glaze to see if you need to add more extract. Start with a small amount as you can always increase the flavor (by small increments). Don’t start with a large amount of extract because it is harder to correct the flavor if you add too much extract in the beginning.
• You also experiment with some types of spices. For example, you can add 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to this glaze recipe in order to make a pumpkin-flavored banana bread glaze or a more “pumpkiny” pumpkin bread glaze. You can also add ground cinnamon to make a cinnamon glaze.
• Another recipe variation – Some people like to pour the glaze on their banana bread and then sprinkle chopped walnuts or mini chocolate chips on top of the sticky glaze.

• Optional – You can replace the milk with non-dairy substitutes such as water, plain soy milk, plain oat milk, etc.
• I like to use a whisk (vs a fork or spoon) when making this glaze as it results in a smoother & more consistent glaze.
• The banana bread should be completely cooled before pouring on the glaze. Pouring glazes on hot banana breads will warm up the glaze. This results in the glaze becoming more liquidy and more of it running off the banana bread (and onto the baking tray/sheet vs staying on the banana bread).
• Make sure to place a baking tray/sheet under the wire cooling rack. Your glaze will drip off the sides of the banana bread and you need something to catch these drips or your kitchen counter will become quite messy (with glaze “puddles”!).

Manual Sifter & Large Sifter/Strainer “Spoon”

Sifted Confectioners Sugar

Glaze with Non-Sifted Sugar – You Get Unsightly Lumps

Helpful Tips (Continued)

• What do I do with leftover banana bread glaze? You can place the leftover glaze in an airtight container and freeze it. To use it again, remove the frozen glaze from the freezer. Let the glaze warm up to room temperature and then whip it with a whisk or spoon before using.
• If you have a problem with this glaze for banana bread recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly, using the correct amount of ingredients (i.e. don’t eyeball the measurements versus using a leveled measuring cup or a more accurate kitchen scale), leaving out ingredients, etc. Please don’t “wing” things with recipes.
• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (i.e. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (i.e. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (i.e. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• For more banana bread ideas (i.e. chocolate chip banana bread, vegan banana bread or blueberry banana bread), please visit Bread Dad’s main Banana Bread Recipes or Quick Bread Recipes sections.

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• Bread Mixes – Ingredient kits
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Banana Bread Glaze Questions & Answers

What is the difference between banana bread glaze and frosting?

My overly simplistic definition – You POUR a glaze onto a baked good (i.e. banana bread) and you SPREAD a frosting onto a baked good (i.e. spread it with a knife). Frostings are thicker than glazes. Glazes are more “liquidy” than frostings.

Reference Sources

• Wikipedia, Glaze
• Wikipedia, Powdered Sugar
• Wikipedia, Quick Bread

Your amazing comments motivate us to write more easy & delicious recipes. Also beginning bakers learn a ton from your helpful suggestions, tips and fantastic recipe variations. Thank you!

Related Recipes

• Bread Machine Banana Bread
• Bread Machine Pumpkin Bread
• Cranberry Bread with Fresh Cranberries
• No Butter Banana Bread
• Pumpkin Nut Bread
• Pumpkin Pie Bread

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