Make soft, rich, same-day sourdough banana bread at home with active starter or sourdough discard. One bowl. Simple recipe. My secret? All brown sugar, overripe bananas, and a specific mixing order for a velvety soft texture and bold, caramel taste.
I’ve tested hundreds of banana bread recipes in my career and here’s what I know: this is not your average sourdough banana bread. The texture is soft and smooth, like velvet. Everyone asks for the recipe. It’s the only banana bread recipe I make.
The original version comes from The Boathouse restaurant in Manly, Australia, which I adapted to include sourdough. You can use bubbly, active sourdough or sourdough discard– whatever you have is fine.
I like to make this recipe on the same day using leftover discard from fluffy sourdough pancakes, sourdough pasta or even sourdough bread. However, feel free to ferment the batter overnight if you prefer. The texture will only change slightly due to how much the flour absorbs overnight.
Want to bake more? Check out my full collection of sourdough discard recipes here.
What Makes It Ultimate?
- All brown sugar. When combined with perfectly overripe bananas and pure vanilla extract, it creates the most exquisite caramel taste. It will blow you away. No white sugar is used in this recipe.
- Specific mixing order. Typically when making a quick bread like this, you’d simply combine the wet and dry ingredients and call it a day. But here, you’ll cream a portion of the wet ingredients first, then add the dry ingredients, followed by the milk and olive oil. I was definitely hesitant about this mixing order (the batter looks totally strange when you get to the oil part). But it’s the science behind the banana bread’s velvety soft texture.
- No cinnamon. Shocking, I know. But your won’t miss it. Cinnamon is lovely but strong and the lack of it really let’s that caramel flavor shine through.
How To make Sourdough Banana Bread {Step-by-Step Recipe}
To Start: Preheat the oven to 360 F (that’s not a typo). Baking at 10 degrees higher than the standard 350 F gives this sourdough banana bread a nice lift. Thn coast your loaf pan with softened butter Normally, I use a 9×5-inch pan. You can also use three 7x3x2 mini loaf pans instead. I like to freeze the little ones individually. So cute!
Next: Add the bananas, brown sugar and vanilla extract to a bowl. Don’t bother slicing the bananas, just break them up by hand. Cream together with a stand mixer or hand held mixer. Add the eggs and the sourdough starter.
Add: The dry ingredients, followed by the milk and oil. The liquids will not blend in right away. Just keep mixing on low speed until completely absorbed. Pour the batter into your prepared pan(s).
To Finish: Place into a sheet pan and bake until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Plan on 60-65 minutes for a standard loaf pan and 45 minutes for the mini pans. Cool before cutting into thick, sturdy slices.
Final Thoughts:
Friends, please look no further. This sourdough banana bread is truly the very best. It’s soft and moist, packed with caramel-banana flavor in every bit. Take a cue from The Boathouse restaurant and serve it with salted butter or mascarpone cheese for a decadent treat! Then come back and bake my moist sourdough blueberry muffins, these easy, no-roll sourdough scones, sourdough waffles (overnight or same day) and more.
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Ultimate Sourdough Banana Bread
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 65 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf or 3 mini loaves 1x
- Category: Sourdough Baking
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Banana bread is a comfort food classic. My secret is plenty of brown sugar, overripe bananas, and a specific mixing order for the ultimate sourdough banana bread. Recipe adapted from The Boathouse restaurant in Manly, Australia.
Notes:
Out of sourdough starter? You can still make this recipe (and it’s delicious!). Increase the milk to 125 ml (1/2 cup) total.
You will need a standard 9×5-inch loaf pan or three 7x3x2 mini loaf pans for baking.
Ingredients
- Butter, for coating the pan
- 375 g overripe bananas (appx. 1 1/2 cups lightly smashed)
- 225 g (1 1/4 cups lightly packed) light or dark brown sugar
- 1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 100 g (appx. 1/2 cup) active sourdough starter or or sourdough discard
- 250g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 1½ tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 60ml (1/4 cup) milk
- 125ml (½ cup) neutral flavored oil
- Powdered sugar, butter, and mascarpone cheese for serving, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 360 F.
- Lightly coat three 7x3x2 mini loaf pans or one 9×5-inch loaf pan with butter.
- Add the bananas, sugar, and vanilla to a bowl. Cream with a hand held mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, about 30 seconds to 1 minute (some small lumps of banana are okay).
- Add the eggs, one at a time until fully incorporated. Add the sourdough starter.
- Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a separate bowl. Working in batches, add this to the banana mixture.
- Add the milk and oil and mix until just combined. Do not over do it; the banana bread will be tough.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s). If using the mini loaf pans, place them onto a baking sheet and transfer to the oven.
- Bake for 45 minutes (for the mini loaf pans) or 60- 65 minutes (for the standard 9×5-inch pan), until rich golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cover with foil if the loaf browns too quickly.
- Cool in the pan for 20 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Serve with powdered sugar for a nice touch!
Comments
Amelie Muller says
Literally the best recipe I’ve ever baked! I’ve also replaced a few ingredients to accommodate gluten and sugar intolerance. I replaced the flour with a combination of almond, buckwheat, oat, rice and spelt flour with psyllium husk to keep it super moist. As for the sugar, I found that coconut palm sugar works really well! Love the recipe!!! ❤️
Janine says
Ok this is the best banana bread recipe I have found! Only thing I changed is I used coconut sugar instead of brown sugar because I didn’t have brown sugar.
I fed my starter on September 18th, didn’t have time to bake so put it in the fridge until September 20th, took it out and made this recipe after the starter was room temperature.
I had to bake it 70 minutes, but at the 60 minute mark I covered it with tinfoil.
Gretchen says
This came out tough as a result of adding all that liquid after the flour, in order to incorporate it I had to mix it too long. If I make it again I would either combine all the wet and dry ingredients separately and mix them together once or alternate adding the flour to the banana /egg mixture with the milk & oil.
Kris says
This was a great banana bread recipe. I just started sourdough so def need recipes that are simple and successful! This was a good one to be one of my firsts. I did add walnuts. It was still amazing!
Janny says
Can confirm if you wack eggs,sugar, vanilla, and banana in one go- it works. If you didn’t read the recipe properly, it still works.
Also I used half almond flour/half wholemeal, cream instead of milk, butter instead oil.
Basically, this recipe is quite impressive, and you can chop and change what you like/have and it still works. Nice!
CJ says
Can bread flour be used for this? Thanks!
Emilie Raffa says
Hi there! You can, but the texture will be a touch more dense and slightly chewy.
Candice says
Wow! The texture is so wonderful!
Used frozen bananas and was delighted that knowing the weight meant that step was so much easier than usual. I looked at other comments and decided to drop the sugar down to 150g. For the flour, I added in some whole wheat (50g) and used 25g of cocoa powder (dropping the flour by 25g). Also added in about a cup of chocolate chips. I was hoping this wouldn’t change the recipe too much. And it is exactly as described!
I’ve made many banana bread recipes and I was very happy to have another winner! Thank you Emilie!
Janine says
Ohhhhh what a great idea! I am totally going to try that next time. I just made this tonight but it will take a couple of hours to cool before I can try it but the loaf looks amazing. The only thing I changed is I replaced the brown sugar with coconut sugar because I didn’t have brown sugar.
Lela says
Ran a little short on banana substituted 1/4 or baked sweet potatoe and used gf flour
Turned out great!
Thanks!
Stephanie says
If I am fermenting overnight, do I wait to add the baking Soda?
Maria says
I always let it ferment but never leave out the bakimg soda. It always turns out great
Jessica says
One of the best sourdough discard banana bread recipes I’ve ever had. We and our kids ate half the loaf in one day!
Dana says
Has anyone tried this with butter instead of oil? And how much?
Sharon says
Hey! Yes I always use 114g of melted butter and it turns out beautifully and so delicious!
Krista P says
10/10! I doubled the recipe to make two loaves, and used 3/4c honey instead of sugar because I didn’t want it to be too sweet. It turned out perfectly!
Cheryl Anderson says
So far my favorite banana bread recipe! Don’t feel like I need to look further. I used to use King Aurther recipe, but now I make this one. I do add in a little nutmeg and cinnamon, but without would still be amazing!
Elizabeth says
This was absolutely the best banana bread I’ve ever made or tasted. The family all agreed. Thank you so much for the recipe
Mel says
Can I put sour cream in this recipe?
This is my all time favorite recipe ♥️