Sour Cream Banana Nut Bread

This sour cream banana nut bread recipe combines ripe bananas, tangy sour cream & chopped nuts to create a delicious & soft banana bread. Beyond its tangy flavor, the acidity of sour cream helps to soften the gluten in baked goods. This sour cream gluten “benefit” helps to create a tender & moist banana bread. Your family will love this moist sour cream banana bread!

Delicious Sour Cream Banana Nut Bread

Recipe Sections

1. Ingredients
2. Instructions
3. Helpful Tips

This sour cream banana bread recipe takes me about 10-15 minutes to prepare and clean up (excluding the time to bake the banana bread). Please be aware that this is an oven-baked banana nut bread recipe. It is not made with a bread machine.

Sour Cream Banana Bread – Fresh from the Oven

However, since this banana bread contains walnuts, please do not serve it to anyone with a nut allergy. Also because this banana bread contains chopped nuts, it should not be served to young children as nuts are a potential choking hazard.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 Cup – Mashed Ripe Bananas – 288 grams – This equals roughly 2 1/2 large bananas or 3 medium bananas but use 1 1/4 cups for the most accurate & consistent results.
• 1/2 Cup – Sour Cream – 118 milliliters
• 1/4 Cup – Vegetable Oil – 59 milliliters – Use a neutral flavored oil such as canola or corn oil
• 2 – Large Eggs
• 1 Teaspoon – Vanilla Extract – 5 milliliters
• 1 Cup – White Granulated Sugar – 200 grams – Use light brown sugar if you prefer a slightly richer flavor
• 2 Cups – All Purpose Flour – 240 grams
• 1 Teaspoon – Ground Cinnamon – 3 grams
• 1 Teaspoon – Baking Soda – 5 grams
• 1 Teaspoon – Baking Powder – 4 grams
• 1/2 Teaspoon – Salt – 3 grams
• 1 Cup – Chopped Walnuts – 115 grams – Mix 3/4 cup of the chopped walnuts into the batter & sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup on top of the batter. Or you can use chopped pecans as a walnut alternative.

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.

Sour Cream Banana Nut Bread Batter in Bread Pan

Key Ingredients – Mashed Ripe Bananas & Sour Cream

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Grease the bread pan (if necessary).
• Lightly beat eggs.
• Add mashed bananas, sour cream, oil, eggs, vanilla extract & sugar into a large mixing bowl. Stir until fully mixed.
• Mix in the remaining ingredients (except the chopped nuts). Stir until the batter is fully mixed.
• Add 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts (or chopped pecans) to the batter. Stir them into the batter so they are evenly spread throughout. FYI – Save the remaining 1/4 cup to sprinkle on top of the batter after pouring the batter into the bread pan.
• Pour the finished batter into a nonstick bread pan. Smooth out the top of the batter within the bread pan.
• Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts (pecans) on top of the batter.
• Bake in the oven for 65-70 minutes at 325 F.
• Take out of the oven and let the sour cream banana nut bread cool down in the bread pan for 10 minutes. Do not remove the banana nut 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 nut 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 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 nut 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.
• Since this banana bread contains chopped nuts, please do not serve it to anyone with a potential nut allergy.
• 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 our 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 blueberry banana bread, cranberry banana bread and walnut banana bread).

• Optional – Instead of chopped walnuts, you can also use chopped pecans to make this banana nut bread. Pecans tend to be a little sweeter & drier than walnuts.
• Optional – You can replace 1/2 of the chopped nuts with chocolate chips in order to create a moist chocolate chip banana nut bread. Therefore, your banana bread would have 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts & 1/2 cup of chocolate chips (versus the 1 cup of chopped nuts called for in the recipe).
• Optional – Or if you like fruity banana nut breads, you can replace 1/2 of the chopped nuts with fresh blueberries to create a blueberry banana nut bread. Therefore, your banana bread would have 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts & 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries (versus the 1 cup of chopped nuts called for in the recipe).
• Optional – You can replace the white sugar in the recipe with light brown sugar. Light brown sugar adds a slightly richer flavor to banana bread.
• Visitors – What do you like to add to your sour cream banana bread to make it even better? Do you add chocolate chips? Different types of chopped nuts? Dried fruit? Extra spices (e.g. nutmeg)? Please post your banana bread tips & suggestions in the comment box below.

• As I stated at the top of the page, the acidity of sour cream softens the gluten in flour and results in a more tender baked good. Moreover, the fat in sour cream helps to make the banana bread more moist & tender.
• FYI – According to Wikipedia, sour cream “is a dairy product obtained by fermenting regular cream with certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria”.
• Use full-fat sour cream for the best results. Non-fat sour creams often use various types of stabilizers & fillers in order to make up for the fat removal. Moreover, this loss of fat can impact the way that banana bread cooks and tastes. In my opinion, non-fat sour cream banana breads tend to be generally less flavorful, less tender and less moist than banana breads made with full-fat sour cream.
• The sour cream in this recipe adds a slightly “tangy” flavor to this banana bread. No need to worry about things being super sour!
• Of course, if you do not like the taste of sour cream then you should try one of our other popular banana breads (such as my easy Walnut Banana Bread or my No Butter Banana Bread).

• Use RIPE bananas for the BEST flavor. Ripe bananas are soft and have a yellow peel covered with many small black spots. Hard yellow/green(ish) bananas are too starchy and have much less banana flavor. FYI – A beautiful pure yellow banana (without any spots) is not fully ripe!!
• Using UNRIPE bananas will result in a very bland banana bread (with little banana flavor).
• To avoid any recipe problems (e.g. the banana bread is too dry or too wet), you should use exactly 1 1/4 cups of mashed bananas. Unfortunately, bananas can vary in size. Therefore, it is safer to measure the exact amount of mashed bananas when making any banana bread recipes.

• Use FRESH walnuts (or pecans). After you have opened a bag of chopped walnuts, the walnuts can go rancid (bad) quickly due to their high oil content. Once the walnut package has been opened, you should store the chopped walnuts in an airtight container in your refrigerator or freezer. Do not use old walnuts that have been sitting in your pantry in an already opened bag. Also check the expiration date on sealed (unopened) walnut packages in order to make sure that they are still good.
• Nutty Topping – Of the 1 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans, I like to stir 3/4 of the cup into the batter and then sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup on top of the batter after pouring the batter into the bread pan. This adds a nice “nutty” appearance to the top of the sour cream banana bread.
• However, you can also stir the full 1 cup of chopped nuts into the batter (and add nothing to the top) if you prefer to have a plain/non-nutty top to your sour cream banana nut bread.

• You should use a NEUTRAL flavored vegetable oil (e.g. corn or canola oil) in order to make this sour cream banana nut bread recipe. Stronger flavored oils (e.g. peanut oil) may negatively impact the taste of this banana nut bread. If you want to use olive oil in your banana bread, I would recommend that using an olive oil with “light” on the label. Light olive oil is a type of olive oil with a lighter color and more neutral flavor.
• If you want to use olive oil, I would recommend using “light” or “extra light” olive oil as they would have the least impact on the banana bread. Unfortunately, extra virgin and virgin olive oil have stronger flavors and are more likely to negatively impact the taste of your banana bread.
• You should use fresh oil when baking as some oils spoil faster than others. Old oil can go rancid and taste bitter, stale, funky, etc. Old oil can leave a bad aftertaste in your baked goods.
• Economic Benefit – Many vegetable oils (e.g. canola and corn oil) are less expensive than butter (on an ounce-to-ounce basis). This helps to lower the cost of homemade baked goods.
• Many vegetable oils also contain less saturated fat than butter.

• Use FRESH ingredients (e.g. flour) for the best results. Ingredients sitting around in open packages can go stale and this can ruin the taste of a banana bread. Try to keep your ingredients (e.g. flour & sugar) in airtight food containers in order to extend their shelf life and avoid spoilage (e.g. exposure to moisture, pests and dust).
• 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).
• Old flour (when not stored 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.
• 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.

• Make sure that your oven has been completely preheated. If the oven has not been properly preheated, this banana bread could come out underbaked.
• It takes roughly 15-20 minutes to preheat most ovens with some variability due to the size of the oven, planned baking temperature (hotter takes longer), etc.
• Many people like to use an inexpensive hanging oven thermometer to determine if their oven has been preheated to the correct temperature.
• Moreover, for some ovens, the temperature set on the oven dial can be 25-50 degrees different than the actual temperature inside the oven. Again, I would recommend using a hanging oven thermometer to confirm the actual temperature inside your oven (as this reduces the potential for over or underbaked banana bread).

• To prevent your banana bread from sticking to the bottom of the 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 have added sticky ingredients such as chocolate chips or fresh cranberries to your banana nut bread). 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) to the top of the banana bread.
• Banana nut breads can dry out if left unprotected. After the sour cream banana bread has been completely cooled (and you have eaten some of this delicious banana bread), you should wrap it in aluminum foil or plastic wrap and then store it in an airtight container or a large resealable bag. Depending on the heat & humidity of your kitchen, banana bread generally only lasts for 1-2 days at room temperature before it starts to spoil. For longer storage, you should freeze the sour cream banana nut bread.

• This doesn’t happen often but if the top of the banana nut bread looks too moist or under cooked, you should try the “toothpick test”. Gently push a long wooden skewer into the top of the bread and see if any batter sticks to the skewer. If batter is sticking to the skewer then it hasn’t completely cooked. Place the bread pan back into the still hot oven for another 2 or 3 minutes. Make sure to wear oven gloves because the bread pan will be very hot. After the 2 or 3 minutes, remove the bread pan and test the banana bread again with a long wooden skewer.
• Please use the suggested 9 x 5 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 crust ratios (thus the need for different baking time 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).
• My recipes are based on using a regular oven and NOT a convection oven. Convection ovens bake faster than regular ovens and require less baking time than what is stated in my recipes.
• Place your banana bread in the middle of your oven. If you place it on the top or bottom racks, the banana bread may be too near the oven’s heating element and bake faster than expected.

• Like banana nut breads? Then you should also try my recipes for Almond Banana Bread, Pecan Banana Bread and Walnut Banana Bread.
• If you have a problem with a banana nut 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.
• In addition, you should always try to use relatively fresh baking soda & powder for the best results. For example, using baking soda from an open container (that has been deodorizing your refrigerator for months) may lead to subpar results. Old & hard baking soda/powder may lead to rising problems and/or leave small bitter clumps in your banana nut bread.

• Don’t have any sour cream and don’t want to run to the store? Then you should try my Greek Yogurt Banana Bread recipe. Greek yogurt acts in a similar manner when making banana breads. It helps to soften the gluten and this makes a more tender banana bread. Moreover, my recipe uses fruit flavored Greek yogurt so it adds a nice flavor “twist” to the banana bread.
• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (e.g. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (e.g. 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 (e.g. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).

• Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with bread pans & a hot oven.
• This banana bread recipe contains nuts. Please do not serve it to anyone with a tree nut or peanut allergy. Always check your guests for potential food allergies before serving food to them.
• Do not serve food with nuts to small children as nuts are a potential choking hazard.
• For more delicious banana bread recipes (e.g. cranberry banana bread or blueberry banana bread), please visit Bread Dad’s sections on easy Banana Bread Recipes.

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Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, Banana
2. Wikipedia, Banana Bread
3. Wikipedia, Sour Cream
4. Wikipedia, Walnut

Related Recipes

1. Greek Yogurt Banana Bread
2. No Butter Banana Bread
3. No Egg Banana Bread
4. Pecan Banana Bread
5. Sour Cream Bread – Sandwich bread
6. Walnut Banana Bread

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