Sour Cream Banana Bread {One-Bowl!}

This one-bowl sour cream banana bread recipe is amazingly popular for good reason! Super moist and fluffy, it is crazy delicious and so easy to make!

One of the best banana bread recipes ever, this bread has been a tried-and-true favorite for over a decade.

And you don’t have to take my word for it! With over 1,000 five-star reviews, it’s popularity speaks for itself.

Easy Banana Bread Batter

In this recipe, the wet ingredients get mixed up first:

• granulated sugar
• oil or melted butter
• eggs
• mashed bananas
• sour cream
• vanilla

Then the flour, baking soda and salt are added. No need to mix them first in another bowl.

This is a one-bowl batter, and it’s brilliantly easy.

Don’t Over Mix

As with all good quick bread recipes, one important key to this recipe is to mix just until the dry ingredients are incorporated.

Over mixing the batter could mean death to a lovely, soft, moist loaf of perfect banana bread.

Easily Doubled

This recipe makes one loaf of banana bread. But it is easily doubled, and I highly encourage you to do so.

In fact, I often buy several bunches of bananas just to let them ripen in destruction on my kitchen counter to prepare for this amazing recipe.

What Causes the Speckles in Banana Bread?

Have you ever wondered why some banana bread has dark speckles and others don’t?

I’ve done a lot of reading and testing (I’m telling you, NERD, and proud of it) to figure out why some banana bread loaves have a light-colored crumb and other recipes produce the dark speckles like you see in these pictures.

The reason? Baking soda.

Banana bread recipes that have a larger amount of baking soda and less baking powder usually have a darker, more speckled crumb. This sour cream banana bread has a full teaspoon of baking soda and no baking powder…and it clearly results in darker speckles.

This much lighter buttermilk banana bread only has 1/8 teaspoon baking soda (and a teaspoon of baking powder).

Classic Sour Cream Banana Bread

For a classic, traditional, perfect banana bread recipe, you can’t go wrong with this sour cream banana bread.

If you take a quick glance through the comments, you’ll easily see that many, many, many of you have fallen in love with this banana bread over the years. This recipe has over 500 5-star reviews!

No surprise! It is so easy – one bowl! So delicious – supremely moist and tender!

It really is one of the best banana bread recipes out there.

Sour Cream Banana Bread

Yield: 12 slices (1 loaf)

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 1 hour hr

Total Time: 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

4.66 stars (1131 ratings)

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Ingredients

• 1 cup (212 g) granulated sugar (see note to reduce the sugar)
• ½ cup oil (see note)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (227 g) mashed ripe bananas, about 3 ripe bananas
• ½ cup (113 g) sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ cup (213 g) all-purpose flour (see note)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt

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Instructions 

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Grease and flour a 9X5-inch loaf pan (or several mini loaf pans).
• In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil. Add the eggs, bananas, sour cream and vanilla; blend well.
• Add the flour, baking soda and salt; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.
• Bake for 50-60 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
• Cool for five minutes in the pan. Gently turn out onto a cooling rack and cool completely. Store covered at room temperature (the bread also freezes great).

Notes

Variations: I often sub applesauce for part of the oil (up to half) and sometimes use melted butter in place of the oil), use 50% whole wheat flour, decrease the sugar to 3/4 cup (especially if using very ripe bananas), and very often, I double the recipe and make two loaves because it freezes great. 

Flour: don’t pack the flour in the measuring cup. Fluff up the flour really well, scoop, and level. 

Author: Mel

Course: Bread

Cuisine: American

Method: Bake

Serving: 1 slice, Calories: 245kcal, Carbohydrates: 32g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 12g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 32mg, Sodium: 207mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 19g

Recommended Products

9X5-inch Loaf Pan

Wire Whisk

Two Sided Measuring Spoons

Silicone Spatula

Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Leigh Anne at Your Homebased Mom

Recipe originally posted June 2009; updated with new pictures, recipe notes, and commentary.

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Buttermilk Banana Bread

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