Seriously the Best Banana Bread Recipe Ever + Gluten-free and Dairy-free options

Have you ever had a recipe that was so good and unequaled to any other so that you wanted to keep it to yourself as your secret recipe and not share it with anyone? That would be my Best Banana Bread recipe for me. It is so good that it is really like banana cake. Think of the best carrot cake you’ve ever had minus the frosting. It’s like that. So good.

Anyway, I’ve decided to share my banana quick bread recipe with you because, well, it’s like this. The other day my eldest daughter said she made banana bread from a recipe she googled. It made me sad that she hadn’t asked for my recipe so that she could have the best banana bread ever. And then I got to thinking of all of you searching for the best banana bread recipe and not finding mine.  And that made me feel a little sad and a little guilty for hoarding my recipe.

I’m making this delicious and easy banana bread for my Dad today as he is going to the hospital for a procedure tomorrow. He has found that the food at this particular hospital is really not good, so I’m going to smuggle in some of this bread for him to snack on.

I adapted this from a recipe found in an early 1990’s edition of Taste of Home magazine.

Carmen’s Best Banana Bread Recipe Ever

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped or broken pecans or walnuts (I keep them rather large.)

• 2 eggs
• 2 ripe medium bananas, mashed (1 cup)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp Buttermilk (or substitute milk and 1 tsp. vinegar)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use about 2 teaspoons)

Instructions:

• Stir together dry ingredients along with the chopped nuts.
• In a separate bowl combine liquid ingredients, then add flour mixture, stirring just until combined.
• Pour into a well-greased 9X5X3 inch bread pan. I like to use a bundt pan which you can find here. 
• Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until tests are done.
• Cool on a wire rack.

Notes:

• This recipe doesn’t double well.
• I mix the nuts into the dry ingredients because then they are sure to “float” in the batter and not sink.
• Cool a few minutes before trying to remove it from the pan, but not too long as it will get soggy.
• To bake in a bundt pan, which is what I do, bake for only one hour.
• You can dust it with powdered sugar and serve it as a cake. Also makes great muffins.
• I often make this with only 1 cup of sugar instead of the 1 1/2 cups that it calls for. It still turns out sweet and delicious.

This is my mother’s old bundt pan from the 70s. I also have my grandmother’s in avocado green.

Best Ever Banana Nut Muffins

To make the muffins, follow the directions for making bread. Then:

• Oil a regular-sized muffin tin or use silicone liners. 
• Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full. 
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 28-30 minutes. They are done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean, or when the top bounces back when you push on it slightly.
• Remove from the tin and cool on a towel. 
• Makes 15-20, depending on the size you make them and if you use muffin liners. (I do not recommend paper muffin liners as it loses the crusty outer layer.)

Best Ever Gluten-free and Dairy-free Banana Muffins

As soon as I posted this recipe I was asked if it could be made gluten-free, so I got right on it to experiment. It only took one try and I found that this banana bread or muffins recipe works great with gluten-free flour or with a milk substitute. I used Pillsbury Gluten-free Flour and plain Coconut Milk + 2 tsp. vinegar for the muffin recipe above and they turned out great. I also used 1 cup sugar instead of 1 1/2 cups sugar.

I haven’t tried this yet with a sugar substitute, but I’m thinking that honey could be really good in place of the sugar. Let me know if you try it!

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Carmen’s Best Banana Bread Ever

Per Serving : 268 Calories; 13g Fat (42.4% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 37g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 25mg Cholesterol; 102mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 2 1/2 Fat; 1 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 15 servings

Calories 268kcal

Author Carmen @ DiscoverCreateInspire.com

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 2 ripe medium bananas mashed (1 cup)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp buttermilk or substitute milk and 1 tsp. vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract I use about 2 teaspoons
• 1 cup chopped or broken pecans or walnuts

Instructions

• Stir together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl combine liquid ingredients, then add flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Fold in nuts.
• Pour into well-greased 9X5X3 inch bread pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until tests done. Cool on wire rack.

Notes

This recipe doesn’t double well.

Cool a few minutes before trying to remove from the pan, but not too long as it will get soggy.

To bake in a bundt pan, bake only one hour. Can dust with powdered sugar and serve as a cake. Also makes great muffins.

I often make this with only 1 cup of sugar instead of the 1 1/2 cups that it calls for. It still turns out sweet and delicious. 

To make Muffins:

• Oil a regular-sized muffin tin or use silicone liners. 
• Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full. 
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 28-30 minutes. They are done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean, or when the top bounces back when you push on it slightly.
• Remove from the tin and cool on a towel. 
• Makes 15-20, depending on the size you make them and if you use muffin liners. (I do not recommend paper muffin liners as it loses the crusty outer layer.)

To make GLUTEN-FREE and DAIRY-FREE bread or muffins:

Substitute gluten-free flour (I used Pilsbury) at a 1:1 ratio for the flour.

Substitute 1/4 cup milk substitute + 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar for the milk.

I hope you make this banana bread and that you love it as much as my family has. I rarely make it anymore since my kids aren’t home to finish it off, so let me know so if you make it so that I can live vicariously through you. 😀

You might also like my other family recipes:

Making Sourdough Starter from Commercial Yeast

Grandma Pauline’s Meatloaf with Variations

Cheryl’s Pineapple Cookies

Pumpkin Pecan Yeast Bread for the Bread Machine

Aunt Winnie’s Western Salad Dressing