Banana Walnut Bread

Full of flavor this easy recipe for banana walnut bread uses extra butter and sour cream for an incredibly flavorful, rich quick bread! Step-by-step photos teach you how to bake this bread!

Ingredients

For this quick bread recipe you will need basic baking staples:

• All-Purpose Flour. Also known as plain flour, when you add it to the batter make sure not to over mix. This will over-develop the gluten and create a tough bread.
• Baking Soda. This chemical leavening agent will make the bread rise. You will need acid to activate this while baking, the sour cream and brown sugar help here!
• Baking Powder. This is also a chemical leavening agent that will make the bread rise. This is already activated so does not need an acid as the baking soda does.
• Salt. Just a bit helps balance out the sweetness and also helps the other flavors shine bright.
• Unsalted Butter. You'll need melted butter, which is honestly my favorite because I hate waiting for butter to soften!
• Granulated Sugar. I like a mixture of both white and brown sugar.
• Brown Sugar. You can use light or dark, keep in mind dark will create a richer more molasses undertone to the bread.
• Large Eggs. They need to be warmed to room temperature. To do this quickly you can place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 - 10 minutes before cracking.
• Pure Vanilla Extract. Use the real stuff!
• Sour Cream. You'll also want this at room temperature to evenly incorporate into the rest of the ingredients. You can use full-fat Greek yogurt if you'd like!
• Very Ripe Bananas. You'll need roughly three medium-large bananas, I used two small ones and two very large ones. Two were frozen that I thawed and the other two were just bananas from the counter.
• Roasted Walnuts. Trust me it's important to use toasted walnuts. You can buy them pre-roasted, I would advise you to buy the ones not salted. Or you can place the walnuts on a sheet pan and bake for 7-9 minutes at 300F and toss them halfway to roast them. Then let them cool and chop them roughly for the bread. 

If you love baking with walnuts check out my walnut chocolate chip cookies, so so good!

Instructions

Start by preheating your oven, if the oven is not heated correctly the bread will not cook properly! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/180C and grease a 9"X5" loaf pan at least three inches deep. Because this recipe has a bit more butter and bananas than your typical banana bread you need to make sure the pan can hold it all.

You will need to use spotted, brown bananas. The ripe bananas have a higher sugar content in them helping to create sweeter bread. When my bananas are super spotty and I am not going to use them I end up just stashing them in the freezer. Then thaw them in the fridge overnight or on the counter for a couple of hours before using them in a banana bread recipe.

Next, whisk together all the dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Now you'll whisk together the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. In a large bowl mix together the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla, make sure there are no traces of egg left behind.

Add bananas and use a potato masher or a fork to mash the bananas. Add mashed bananas and sour cream then mix to combine.

Gently fold in the dry ingredients and chopped roasted walnuts. Be careful not to overmix, just mix until no flour streaks remain.

Pour into the prepared pan and if desired sprinkle optional brown sugar and walnuts on top. I love the extra crunch you get because of this!

Bake the bread for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let cool for at least 30 minutes in the pan on a wire rack before removing it from the pan and placing it on a wire rack to cool completely. Store the bread in an air-tight container at room temperature unless you live in a warm climate store it in the fridge. 

One of my favorite ways to enjoy the banana walnut bread is to lightly toast it then schmear some salted butter on, HEAVEN!!!

How to freeze

Quick breads are great candidates for freezing. Once the bread has completely cooled you can either wrap the whole loaf in plastic wrap, tightly, and twice then wrap in foil, or place it in a freezer-safe container. Or you can double wrap for individual slices. I prefer to do individual slices so then I can just take a slice out at a time to enjoy. Place a slice in the freezer overnight OR let a slice thaw on the counter for a few hours.

Can you double

You can most certainly double the recipe and just use two loaf pans.

More walnut recipes

If you love walnuts then you gotta check out my walnut pesto recipe. Perfect on so many things like -- sandwiches, eggs, pasta, and more!

This coffee walnut cake is one I grew up with, you will adore the coffee buttercream and roasted walnuts together!

This carrot pineapple banana loaf is topped with cream cheese frosting and roasted walnuts, soooooo delicious!

My friend Lynn makes the best walnut cookies!

★★★★★ Please let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a star rating and comment below!

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