Buttermilk Banana Bread – Moist & Delicious

This buttermilk banana bread recipe is very simple to make. It combines the delicious flavors of sweet ripe bananas and buttermilk. This results in a soft banana bread that is perfect as a breakfast treat, lunchtime snack or easy dinner dessert. If your family likes buttermilk pancakes & buttermilk biscuits… they will LOVE buttermilk banana bread.

Delicious Buttermilk Banana Bread

Recipe Sections

1. Ingredients
2. Instructions
3. Helpful Tips

Recipe Rating 4.94 from 16 votes Featured Comment Leigh “Dear Bread Dad: You are the best! Every recipe I have tried from you has been simply deliciously awesome…(I do have to say the Pizza dough recipe is my favorite but this buttermilk banana bread is closing in on 2nd)”

Excluding the baking time, this buttermilk banana bread recipe takes me roughly 10-15 minutes to prepare and clean up. Please be aware that this is an oven-baked banana bread recipe. It is not made with a bread machine. You will find a printable and “pin-able” recipe at the bottom of this page.

Buttermilk Banana Bread – Fresh from the Oven

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup – Buttermilk – 115 milliliters
• 3 – Bananas (ripe & medium sized) – 230 milliliters – Use exactly 1 cup of mashed bananas for the best/most consistent results
• 2 – Large Eggs
• 1/2 Cup – Vegetable Oil – 115 milliliters – Use a neutral flavored oil such as corn oil or mild olive oil
• 2 Cups – All Purpose Flour – 240 grams
• 1 Cup – White Granulated Sugar – 200 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 Cup of Chopped Walnuts, Chocolate Chips or Fresh Blueberries
• Optional – 1 Teaspoon – Ground Cinnamon – 3 grams – Some people like to add cinnamon, especially if their bananas are not super ripe.

Servings – Roughly 12 slices

Equipment – Measuring cup & spoons, mixing bowl, long wooden spoon, 9 by 5 inch metal bread pan, oven mitts, silicon spatula, cooling rack and an oven.

Key Ingredient – Buttermilk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (163 degrees C).
• Mash bananas with a fork.
• Lightly beat eggs.
• Stir buttermilk, mashed bananas, eggs, oil and sugar together.
• Mix in remaining ingredients. Stir until the batter is fully mixed.
• Optional – If you want to enhance this buttermilk banana bread, you can stir in 1 cup of your family’s favorite dessert ingredient (e.g. chocolate chips or 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.
• Place bread pan with batter in the oven. Bake in the oven at 325 F (163 C) for 65-70 minutes.
• Take bread pan 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 the 10 minute cool down, 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. Gently slide a silicon spatula between the banana bread and the bread pan walls if the banana bread is stuck in the pan.
• Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully & to avoid common banana bread problems.

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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 this “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 my tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on easy Banana Bread Recipes such as banana nut bread, eggless banana bread and chocolate chip banana bread.

• Use RIPE bananas for the best results!! If you use unripe green or hard yellow bananas, your banana bread might come out bland (with little banana flavor). Unripe bananas have more starch and less sugar than ripe bananas. The natural sweetness of ripe bananas works best when making banana bread recipes.
• Ripe bananas are soft and have many small brown & black spots on the exterior of the yellow banana peel. FYI – A banana with a perfect yellow peel is not fully ripe yet!
• For the best/most consistent results, you should use EXACTLY 1 cup of mashed bananas. Why? Because bananas can vary in size. If the bananas are too large, the banana bread might be too wet and vice versa if the bananas are too small, the banana bread might be too dry. Therefore, you should use a measuring cup or kitchen scale to measure your mashed bananas for the most consistent results.

• In case you didn’t know, buttermilk has a slightly tangy & creamy taste. It is sort of like a liquidy yogurt.
• Buttermilk is NOT buttery milk. According to Wikipedia, “Traditionally, it was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cultured cream”.
• Buttermilk is often used to add flavor to banana breads as well as a means to soften banana breads because the lactic acid in buttermilk “tenderizes” gluten.
• Remember to shake the buttermilk carton before using. The liquid in buttermilk might have separated and the top half of the carton could be too watery (and bottom half too thick) if not shaken and recombined.
• You can usually find buttermilk in the dairy section of most large supermarkets in the US. However, buttermilk is not as popular as regular milk, soy milk, oat milk, almond milk, etc. Therefore, you might have to do a little searching in the diary section.
• For the best/strongest flavor, you should use FRESH buttermilk (e.g. liquid buttermilk in a carton). Fresh buttermilk has more “tangy” buttermilk flavor versus buttermilk made from buttermilk powder (which tastes much milder).

• You can also try to make your own buttermilk with some dried buttermilk powder.
• Check out my buttermilk powder page if you need more information about the advantages of buttermilk powder or if you need to buy some buttermilk powder.
• FYI – You can usually find powdered buttermilk at Amazon, King Arthur Baking, Walmart, etc. Buttermilk powder is made from the solids left over after evaporating the water out of buttermilk.
• To make 1/2 cup of liquid buttermilk, you need to combine 2 tablespoons of buttermilk powder with 1/2 cup water.
• However, check your buttermilk powder package for the most accurate reconstitution ratio as it can vary by manufacturer.
• Stir the buttermilk powder and water together until they are completely mixed. The buttermilk powder should dissolve almost completely into the water.
• I find that warm water helps the buttermilk powder to dissolve more easily. However, check the manufacturer’s instructions for what works best with your specific brand of buttermilk powder. FYI – When I use cold water, I find that the buttermilk powder is harder to combine and I often have lots of powder “clumps” in the liquid.
• Some people prefer the taste of fresh buttermilk (which usually has a better flavor than a liquid made with powdered buttermilk) whereas others prefer the ease of powdered buttermilk (due to its longer shelf life than fresh buttermilk).
• Visitors – Do you prefer to use fresh buttermilk or buttermilk powder when making a buttermilk banana bread? Please leave your buttermilk thoughts & suggestions in the comment section below.

• Some of my visitors like to make a “mock” buttermilk for their baked goods. This buttermilk substitute involves combining lemon juice or vinegar with dairy milk.
• FYI – To make this type of buttermilk, you add 1 tablespoon of food grade vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup and then add enough dairy milk to the measuring cup until the combined amount of vinegar/lemon juice & milk equals 1 cup. Stir the ingredients together in the measuring cup & then let the ingredients in the cup sit for 5 minutes before using.
• This “homemade” buttermilk method also supposedly works with non-dairy milks such as soy milk.
• Visitors – What do you think of this buttermilk substitute? Good substitute? Or only for emergencies (e.g. when you are out of fresh buttermilk or buttermilk powder)? Please leave your buttermilk substitute ideas in the comments section below.

• Optional – You can easily enhance your buttermilk banana with 1 cup of chopped walnuts (or chopped pecans), fresh blueberries (or cranberries), chocolate chips, etc. Just stir these ingredients (e.g. chopped walnuts) into the batter after you have mixed all of the other ingredients together.
• Optional – If your bananas are not fully ripe (and thus don’t have a ton of flavor), many people like to add 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the batter (in order to “cover up” any missing banana flavor).
• Optional – For a slightly richer & mild “molasses” taste, you can substitute light brown sugar for the white granulated sugar. However, in my opinion, the brown sugar taste can overwhelm the mild buttermilk flavor (thus I have not included brown sugar in the formal recipe).
• Optional – If desired, you can replace the vegetable oil with butter. However, butter has the same potential problem as brown sugar where it can overwhelm the buttermilk flavor.
• Visitors – What extra ingredients do you like to add to your buttermilk banana bread? Chocolate chips? Chopped walnuts? Fruit? Extra spices? Please leave your recipe suggestions & variations in the comment section below.
• Visitor variations – Leigh B likes to add “little lemon juice into the smooshed up bananas & lastly I did add 2 drops of cake batter flavoring”, Kimberly adds “marshino cherries with the chocolate chips”, etc.

• You should use a NEUTRAL flavored vegetable oil (e.g. corn) in order to make this no butter banana bread recipe. Stronger flavored oils (e.g. peanut oil or extra virgin olive oil) may negatively impact the banana bread taste.
• If you want to use olive oil to make this buttermilk banana bread recipe, you should use a “light” or “mild” olive oil which usually has a much neutral flavor versus extra virgin olive oil.
• A number of my visitors like to use avocado oil in order to make their banana breads. Avocado oil has a neutral flavor and is high in monounsaturated fats. However, as you are probably aware, avocado oil is usually significantly more expensive than corn oil.
• This recipe uses vegetable oil because some vegetables oils (e.g. mild olive oil) have a lot less saturated fat than butter. In addition, some people find that banana breads made with oil tend to be moister than banana bread made with butter (as butter loses some of its moisture content during the baking process). FYI – According to Wikipedia, “Commercial butter is about 80% butterfat and 15% water”.

• Use FRESH ingredients for the best results. Ingredients that have been sitting in the pantry for months can become stale or pick up weird smells & flavors.
• Old flour can affect the taste of banana bread. Old flour can spoil and taste bitter, sour, musty, etc. Banana bread made with old flour does not taste great!
• Try to keep your ingredients (e.g. flour) in airtight food containers in order to extend their shelf life and avoid spoilage (e.g. exposure to moisture, pests and dust).
• Flour (if stored in an open bag and not in an airtight container) can absorb a lot of moisture from the air. This extra moisture throws off recipes and can lead to banana bread collapses, etc.

• In case you are new to banana breads, most banana breads will have small cracks in the top after baking. Since banana bread recipes use baking powder/soda, the batter rises quickly during baking and the top crust cracks from this internal pressure. These cracks are normal and give banana breads their classic look!
• If you want to know some of the science behind buttermilk – According to Wikipedia, “Cultured buttermilk was first commercially introduced in the United States in the 1920s. Commercially available cultured buttermilk is milk that has been pasteurized and homogenized, and then inoculated with a culture of Lactococcus lactis or Lactobacillus bulgaricus plus Leuconostoc citrovorum to simulate the naturally occurring bacteria in the old-fashioned product. The tartness of cultured buttermilk is primarily due to lactic acid produced by lactic acid bacteria while fermenting lactose, the primary sugar in milk. As the bacteria produce lactic acid, the pH of the milk decreases and casein, the primary milk protein, precipitates, causing the curdling or clabbering of milk. This process makes buttermilk thicker than plain milk. While both traditional and cultured buttermilk contain lactic acid, traditional buttermilk tends to be less viscous, whereas cultured buttermilk is more viscous”.
• Love the taste of buttermilk? Then you might also like to try my Buttermilk Bread Recipe (oven-baked sandwich bread) or Bread Machine Buttermilk Bread Recipe.
• If you don’t have any buttermilk, you might like to try Bread Dad’s extra moist Greek Yogurt Banana Bread recipe. It creates a similar banana bread.

• 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 banana 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” (e.g. banana bread or pumpkin bread) is done when the internal temperature reaches 200-205 degrees F. Just make sure to measure the temperature in the center of the loaf for the most accurate reading.

• If your banana breads are sticking to the bottom of your bread pan, 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.
• Baking parchment paper is probably the best solution to prevent sticking (especially if you are using really sticky ingredients such as chocolate chips or fresh cranberries). It also allows you to lift the banana bread out of the pan without disturbing the top of the banana bread… in case you have added any special ingredients (such as chopped nuts or chocolate chips) to the top of the banana bread.
• FYI – Baking parchment paper is NOT regular paper. It is a specialty paper designed for use with baking.

• In case, you didn’t see this in the “equipment” section, this recipe is based on using a standard 9 by 5 inch metal bread pan. This means that the interior of the bread pan (not exterior) measures 9 inches in length, 5 inches in width and 2 1/2 inches in depth/height. Of course, Bread Dads are crazy about exact measurements… thus the use of measuring tapes! Ha!
• Please use the suggested 9 x 5 metal bread pan to make this 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 lengths), smaller pans are more likely to overflow, etc.
• My recipes are based on using a metal bread pan and NOT a glass bread pan. Glass bread pans bake faster than metal bread pans. If you use a glass bread pan for my recipes, you are more likely to overbake your banana bread (e.g. burnt crust).

• Make sure that your oven has been completely preheated. If the oven has not been properly preheated, this banana bread could come out undercooked. I like to use a portable oven thermometer to check the interior temperature of my oven (before placing the pan in the oven).
• FYI – It can take up to 10-20 minutes to fully preheat an oven depending on the size of the oven, temperature chosen (e.g. a higher temp takes an oven longer to fully preheat), etc.
• You should also use an oven thermometer to confirm your oven temperature (as your expected oven temperature may be different than reality). Some ovens can be 25-50+ degrees F hotter or colder than the number you set on your oven dial. An oven thermometer (which usually costs less than $10) is an easy way to measure the actual temperature inside your oven.
• Long-term storage – If you want to keep your banana bread for more than 1-2 days (depending on your home’s temperature & humidity), you will need to freeze it. Please read Bread Dad’s How To Freeze Banana Bread for more details.

• Problem with sinking middles in your banana bread? Then check out my Why Does My Banana Bread Sink In The Middle? page for reasons & potential solutions.
• If you have a problem with a banana bread recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (e.g. using the correct oven temperature), using the correct amounts of ingredients (e.g. 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 (e.g. 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 banana bread ideas (e.g. chocolate chip banana bread, vegan banana bread or blueberry banana bread), please visit Bread Dad’s main section on Banana Bread Recipes.

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Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, Banana
2. Wikipedia, Banana Bread
3. Wikipedia, Butter
4. Wikipedia, Buttermilk

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