Classic Banana Walnut Bread

With sour cream and nuts, this Classic Banana Walnut Bread is the best you’ll ever taste! It’s perfectly moist texture and flavor, you’ll make this recipe again and again!

Whether you eat this delicious Banana Nut Bread for breakfast, brunch, snack time, or dessert, you’ll wish you made a double batch!

Why You’ll Love this Easy Banana Bread

• This recipe makes two loaves, so you can make one with nuts and one without!
• I give you an easy way to “ripen” bananas that haven’t gotten to that soft, spotted stage that make them perfect for baking.
• The addition of sour cream practically guarantees your loaves will be moist!
• This takes 4 bananas so start collecting your overripe bananas in your freezer and you’ll be ready to bake once you have enough. 

I’m always in search of inspiration. So when my daughter spotted a recipe card for a classic banana walnut bread that fell out of one of the myriad catalogs piled up on my kitchen counter, and actually requested a loaf, I had to oblige.

This was in the middle of a long winter cold stretch and it took the bananas forever to ripen in our drafty house. After 6 days, I gave up, popped them in the oven at 300º for a half hour till they were blackened. Instant overripe bananas! Isn’t that a neat trick???

Frequently Asked Questions

Tips for Making the Best Banana Bread

The girl (or Queen of the House as she’s been dubbed) is just as picky as her dad, so one nut-free loaf was a given. But I also wanted to make a banana bread that reminded me of my mom, and hers were always chock full of crunchy walnuts.

• Check my tip above for how to get under-ripe bananas ready for banana bread.
• PRO: Tip: While your oven is on, toast your walnuts to bring out the best flavor. I’d recommend placing them on a sheet pan before chopping and baking at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes or just until you start smelling their nutty aroma. Watch carefully so they don’t burn.
• This takes 4 bananas so start collecting your overripe bananas in your freezer and you’ll be ready to bake once you have enough.  I store them in a gallon Ziploc bag.
• PRO-Tip: With all quick bread, it’s important to mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until they are combined. Do not use a mixer or overmix. Otherwise, the bread will be full of tunnels.
• I hate to admit how many breads I’ve pulled out of the oven too soon to then find a raw center when slicing. Use a toothpick and insert it into a few spots along the top center of the loaf. It should come out dry or with moist crumbs, not batter when the loaf is done.
• Cool the bread for about 15 minutes before releasing it from the pan to finish cooling.
• I like lining the bottoms of my loaf pans with parchment paper so the bottom does not stick. I grease the pan, add the parchment, then grease the parchment.
• Banana bread freezes wonderfully. Just let cool completely, wrap in plastic, then foil and I also like to place it in a freezer bag. It can be frozen for up to 3 months.
• It’s fine at room temperature for a day or two or in the refrigerator for about a week.

Fragrant, dense but not too heavy, and moist, this was one superb banana bread. So whether you have black bananas in your freezer or yellow bananas ripening on your counter, I suggest you make a loaf or two of this banana walnut bread ASAP.

P.S. If you want an even more decadent version, check out this over-the-top Chocolate Chip Toffee Banana Bread.

More Tasty Quick Bread Recipes:

• Classic Pumpkin Bread
• Southern Peach Bread
• Brown Butter Banana Bread
• Brown Sugar Apple Bread
• Lemon Blueberry Bread
• More Tasty Bread Recipes

More of Favorite Quick Bread Recipes

Often more like cakes in loaf form than actual bread, quick bread is legitimate breakfast food unlike the former! And these batters can easily be made into muffins by divvying them up into muffin tins and decreasing the baking time. Perfect for a portable breakfast or snack!

Glazed Poppy Seed Bread

Cranberry Pecan Bread

Best Zucchini Bread Recipe

Whole Wheat Molasses Quick Bread

Ingredient Notes:

• Bananas – Should be very ripe, and fragrant with spotted peels. Roast them if they’re yellow without spots for the best flavor. 4 bananas yield about 2 cups of mashed bananas.
• Butter – Salted butter is fine, melted
• Sugar – White, granulated sugar
• Eggs – Large eggs
• Vanilla Extract – Must be real vanilla, not artificially flavored. Read the label carefully.
• All-Purpose Flour
• Baking soda
• Salt -Table Salt is best as it easily disperses throughout the batter.
• Sour cream – Use full fat.
• Walnuts – Toast to bring out their essential oils, cool, then chop.

Continue to Content

Print

The Recipe:

Classic Banana Walnut Bread Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Yield 32 servings

A moist delicious loaf with sour cream and walnuts.

Ingredients

• 4 bananas*, very ripe
• 1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) butter, melted
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease two 9 x 5 loaf pans, and line bottoms with a rectangle of parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix the melted butter with the sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix to combine.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet without overworking the batter.
4. Stir in the sour cream, walnuts, and bananas. Divide the batter between the two pans.
5. Bake for about 1 hour or till a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then remove bread from the pans to a cooling rack.

Notes

If your bananas are just yellow with a few brown spots, cook on a parchment-lined sheet pan at 300º for 30 minutes until the skins are very dark), peeled and mashed

This recipe is easily cut in half to make just one loaf. Adapted from AllRecipes.

To toast your walnuts, spread them out on a sheet pan and cook for 3-5 minutes in a 350-degree oven or until fragrant. Watch carefully so they do not burn.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

24

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 204Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 37mgSodium: 209mgCarbohydrates: 34gFiber: 1gSugar: 20gProtein: 4g

Thatskinnychickcanbake.com occasionally offers nutritional information for recipes contained on this site. This information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although thatskinnychickcanbake.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased can change the nutritional information in any given recipe. Also, many recipes on thatskinnychickcanbake.com recommend toppings, which may or may not be listed as optional and nutritional information for these added toppings is not listed. Other factors may change the nutritional information such as when the salt amount is listed “to taste,” it is not calculated into the recipe as the amount will vary. Also, different online calculators can provide different results. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information obtained is accurate.

HOW MUCH DID YOU LOVE THIS RECIPE?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest