The Best Banana Bread in the World

I can’t believe I’ve never posted an official, plain ole’ banana bread recipe on the blog before!

We’ve made other kinds of banana breads in the past, like cinnamon oatmeal banana bread and chocolate banana bread, but never a regular, nothing fancy banana bread. But I think I may have found the best recipe in the entire world so the wait (that no one was waiting for) was well worth it.

This recipe comes from Simply Recipes. I made it on a whim before our family came over for dinner the other night and after we all finished, suggested we have it for dessert. I cut a few pieces and passed them around and y’all. Everyone let out an audible gasp when they tasted it. “This is AMAZING!” “This is seriously the best banana bread I’ve ever had!” They couldn’t stop talking about how good it was.

I of course take zero credit because I just followed the directions. And truthfully, I wasn’t even going to post the recipe because I thought I burnt it and even warned everyone before they took a bite, but after they all kept talking about it I decided to pass along the greatness that is this very simple banana bread recipe. I think the secret might be in how old the bananas that I used were. They were literally falling apart when I picked them up, which sounds gross (little sis was helping me make it and kept going “Ewwww” because they were just splashing into the bowl when I took them out of the peel) but apparently makes for some yummy bread because it was extremely moist and somehow wasn’t burnt at all.

Here’s how you make it…

Ingredients:

2 to 3 medium (I used 3) very ripe bananas, peeled (about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups mashed)
1/3 cup butter, unsalted or salted, melted
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
3/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup if you would like it less sweet, 1 cup if more sweet)
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C), and butter a 4x8-inch loaf pan.
In a mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until completely smooth. Stir the melted butter into the mashed bananas.
Mix in the baking soda and salt. Stir in the sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla extract. Mix in the flour.
Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour at 350°F (175°C), or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for a few minutes. Then remove the banana bread from the pan* and let cool completely before serving. Slice and serve. (A bread knife helps to make slices that aren't crumbly.)
*I actually left it in the pan and served from it.