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
Carrie says
This is hands down the best recipe for banana bread I’ve ever come across.
Bella says
I just tried this recipe, and the banana bread tasted fabulous – it was really similar to the banana bread I used to eat as a child, with such a rich flavor! I absolutely loved the recipe.
I do have a few questions, though.
My banana bread turned out quite dense – more like a gummy texture and taste, and after doing some research, I found a couple of possible reasons:
1) The bananas may have been too ripe. I used two very ripe bananas and two normally ripe bananas with only a few brown spots. I read that very ripe bananas contain less starch, which can affect the flour-to-liquid balance in the batter.
2) I may have overmixed the batter. After adding the oil and milk, the mixture seemed a bit oily and looked like it had separated slightly before I transferred it to the loaf pan. Because of that, I did some extra mixing. I was wondering if it’s normal for the batter to have a slight oily coating at that stage, or if that’s a sign that something went wrong.
I’m definitely going to experiment with these two points next time and see how it turns out, but I’d love to hear your thoughts and whether you have any suggestions :))
Btw I just remembered that I reduced the sugar by about half, since most sweet recipes tend to be a bit too sweet for me and my family. I’m not sure if that could have contributed to the denser texture, but I thought it might be worth mentioning! Thanks again for the wonderful recipe!!
Anide says
Delicious recipe thank you so much!
Quick question please, what’s the best way to store it?
Mar says
Delicious banana bread! I put chopped walnuts on top of the bread before baking and that gave it a nice crunch. I had to cook it for a while longer (I’m thinking it’s partly because my loaf pan was a tiny bit smaller and I ran into a temperature problem with my oven toward the end), but it was great!! I ended up using about 3.5 bananas to reach 375g. Thank you for sharing this recipe!! I’ll definitely make it again.
Robin White says
Yum yum yum!!!!!!!
I made mini muffins topping with pecans to some, mini mm’s to some, and Reece’s peanut butter chips to some. I also left a few plain. I cooked 10 minutes at 360 degrees. Suggest folks adjust how long based on how their oven cooks.
Also made 4 regular muffins and they took 18 to 20 minutes at 360.
Meredith says
Thank you for sharing your tips and cooking times for mini and regular muffins. The inclusions sound delicious!
Hannelie says
OMG! This was so yummy and easy. I used a mix of fresh discard and discard that’s been in my fridge for a week, maybe two! So soft, so fluffy! I baked mine as muffins 25 mins.
Charity Penney says
My bananas were going brown and that is how I decided to make this bread, naturally lol. Before I made that decision I ate on of the 7 bananas I had and now I do not have enough to make 2 loaves. How can I substitute for the lack of banana? It is about 50-75 grams short. I do not have applesauce, yougurt, or sour cream. Can I add more starter? How much? I just started baking last week (sourdough) and I have to tell you I love your recipes the best and choose you when the ratings are close on other recipes. You are very attentive in the comments and that makes a huge difference for me plus recipes have been great. Literally the best pancakes I have ever eaten and I ate them 2 days after I cooked them!
Emilie Raffa says
Hi Charity! This is very kind of you to say, thank you. It makes me so happy that you are enjoying the recipes 🙏🏻 Two things come to mind: make one loaf only, freezing the remaining bananas (peeled) until you get more at some point. Or, go ahead and make the 2 loaves now, without subbing in an extra ingredient. For reference, adding more sourdough starter might cause too much of a rise (you don’t want the batter to bubble over) and because you’re technically adding more “flour and water” the overall taste of the banana bread might change. Hope this helps!
Rose says
Can I use honey instead of brown sugar?
Emilie Raffa says
Hi Rose! Honey will change the recipe completely. It behaves differently than brown sugar. It will also cause the loaf to brown faster so the bake time will need to be adjusted. I haven’t tested it, so I’m unable to advise with specifics. If you happen to experiment, let us know!
Julie Ann Schuette says
you mean it BEE HIVES differently…if you use honey….
Emilie Raffa says
Ha! You are too funny. This made my day 😂
Lela says
Can I use GF flour?
Emilie Raffa says
Hi Lela! You can, but to make this banana bread truly gluten free, you’ll need a GF sourdough starter as well.
Madison says
I accidentally used bread flour instead of all purpose. To maintain the moisture I used 75 ml of milk. Turned out perfect!
Louise says
I have used the same banana bread recipe for years…until today when I had an abundance of discard and wanted to try something new. This will now be my go-to recipe! So so moist and full of flavour. Absolutely delicious! Now I’m on my way to find more over-ripe bananas.
Paddy says
I looked at this recipe (and others using leftover sourdough starter) and they all seemed to call for more than twice as much sugar as I use in my normal (very good) banana bread – with other ingredients being similar in quantity. So, I took a chance and used 1/2 c. of dark brown sugar instead of the called-for 1 1/4c. I also used a cup of whole wheat flour instead of 2 c. of white, and added a 1/2 cup of pecan pieces, which I also normally do with my own recipe. Had a bit too much batter for my 8.5×4.5″ pan, so made a couple of muffins (which took 20 minutes to bake for those wishing to know if muffins work etc.) as well – and it’s great! Both muffins were “disappeared” before they were remotely cool. :D
Definitely would NOT want more sugar – it’s plenty sweet. It rose nicely, and is very moist – a bit less dense than my normal non-sourdough loaf, which is probably due to the additional egg and the sourdough starter, as those were the only significant differences once I reduced the sugar.
Also – I didn’t fuss with the order of mixing the ingredients. Mashed the banana with the immersion blender in one bowl and added all the rest of the wet ingredients and the salt and mixed. Mixed the baking soda into the flour with a whisk in another bowl. Pour the wet into the dry ingredients and mixed gently until well combined – just don’t over mix. Note: I used the volume measurements for this recipe throughout.
Emilie Raffa says
Thank you for taking the time to share such thorough tips, Paddy. Love the idea of adding pecans – it adds a nice waxy crunch paired with the soft texture of the banana bread.🥰
Sameerah says
My first try ever using a sourdough starter and this recipe came out perfectly just like your photos. Your recipe is absolutely spot on. I shocked myself lol 10/10! Thank you so much for sharing.
Leah says
I’m confused. 2cups of flour is about 315g, not 250g. I ended up using 280g flour. The mixture came out kind of loose at the end. I’m baking it now. Hopefully it’s going to be good.
Emilie Raffa says
Hi Leah! I’m glad you brought this up. A lot of bakers run into this issue. Converting cups to grams with respect to flour (in any recipe) is not exact; it’s only approximate. This is because we all measure flour differently. Some of us pack the flour down into the measuring cup which makes it weigh more, whereas others will lightly spoon and level it off (making it weigh less). Confusing? Absolutely. The debate lives forever all over the internet. This is why bakers stress using weight for accuracy and standard conversion charts using 125 g to 130 g to streamline the process. Hope this helps to clarify things a bit!
Abbey says
Hey! Just made this one and enjoy it, however im really not a fan of the oil in this recipe, I find I can really taste it. Is there a chance I can use butter instead and if so should I replace with a 1:1 ratio?
Emilie Raffa says
Hi Abbey! You can swap out the oil for butter. Keep in mind the texture will change slightly. A 1:1 ratio should work.
Dyl says
What does 1:1 ratio mean?
Emilie Raffa says
Hi there! Equal parts by weight.
Melinda says
I subbed for applesauce!!