An easy-to-make, family favorite, moist, banana bread recipe made with condensed milk and oven-roasted yellow bananas which give it extra banana flavor!
This easy roasted banana moist banana bread was born out of Terry's monthly necessity for banana bread with no black overly ripe bananas to work with, so this is his recipe.
Traditionally, one of the best ways to make banana bread is to use overly ripe bananas that are SUPER DUPER mushy and black but I don't like eating bananas so I very rarely have them on hand, so I will show you how we quickly ripen fresh yellow bananas in the oven to make this easy banana bread recipe on the fly.
Is this roasted banana moist banana bread any good? You know, coming from a non-baker and all. I'd say it's fantastic! This is actually my favorite banana bread recipe (and I don't really like bananas!) but I'm probably being a bit bias so don't take my word for it - give this one a try and judge for yourself 🙂 and as always if you have some neat tips, they are always welcomed.
INGREDIENTS FOR MOIST BANANA BREAD
- Bananas - We use yellow bananas for this recipe, but if you have the very ripe, black bananas, those will also work very well in this recipe as well. If you use the black ripen bananas you can skip the 'Baking the Yellow Bananas' step but make sure you add an extra ¼ cup of condensed milk to make up for the natural banana extract from baking the yellow bananas, it will give you back some moisture.
- Butter - I use unsalted butter for this recipe, and add my own salt. If you don't have unsalted butter, you can use salted butter but remove the ½ teaspoon of salt from the recipe when mixing the dry ingredients.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk - I like to use sweetened condensed milk for this recipe for the added moisture, sweetness and flavor. If you can't find sweetened condensed milk, you can use heavy cream instead but make sure you add an extra 1 tablespoon of sugar to make up for the loss in sweetness from the sweetened condensed milk.
HOW TO QUICKLY RIPEN BANANAS FOR BANANA BREAD IN THE OVEN
When Terry put this recipe together, he used a method from theKitchn by Anjali Prasertong on "Can You Quickly Ripen Bananas in the Oven for Last-Minute Banana Bread?" but he went the extra mile and also figured out a way to make his banana bread extra banana-y by squeezing the roasted banana skins by hand to extract the banana extracts.
After baking the bananas, they got really juicy - I know it sounds really strange, but bananas don't have any juice right? and being the weirdo that Terry is, he decided to squeeze the living daylight out of the skins to extract all the banana juices. This added extra moisture, natural sugars, and extra banana flavors - almost like a naturally sweetened banana extract. Neat-O right?
TO GET SOFT AND MOIST BANANA BREAD DO NOT OVERMIX YOUR BATTER
To get a tender and moist banana bread, it's important that you don't overmix your batter. Overmixing brings out the glutens in flour and makes the banana bread dense, and tough. It's okay to undermix the batter, I personally do it this way and just fold the batter approximately 10 times or until the flour is just combined with the wet ingredients - that's why the batter in the photos below doesn't look fully mixed with flecks of flour still.
Alternatively, Terry's method is to use the one bowl method and he mixes both the wet and dry ingredients together into one bowl for less fuss and cleanup. This does work as well, but you will need to mix the batter a bit more to get everything combined which will give you a denser banana bread.
HOW TO PREVENT YOUR BANANA BREAD FROM GETTING STUCK IN THE PAN
I hate it when my cakes get stuck to the pan. I have not figured out a way to get it out without ripping it or ruining it so I prevent it by buttering the pan and then lining it with a strip of parchment paper so it can ever get stuck at the bottom - ever.
If it gets stuck to the sides - we can deal with that! Just run a knife or something thin along the sides of the pan to release it and then grip the parchment paper flaps and lift up!
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Easy Moist Banana Bread
Recipe Notes
- If you are using very very ripe black bananas for this recipe instead of yellow bananas: Skip the 'Baking the Yellow Bananas' step and add an additional ¼ cup of condensed milk since it will not have the extra banana juices from the baking step
- If you can't find sweetened condensed milk you can substitute it with heavy cream and 1 tablespoon of sugar
- For additional sweetness and flavor, add some chocolate chips in it when you mix in the dry ingredients!
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 3 yellow bananas (See notes if using ripe bananas)
- ½ cup unsalted butter (melted)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup sweetened condensed milk (see notes for substitution)
- 2 large eggs
Dry Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
Baking the Yellow Bananas
- Pre-heat the oven to 300F (149C)
- Once the oven is pre-heated. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the whole unpeeled bananas on it and place it in the oven
- Bake it for 25-35 minutes (Watch it around the 20-minute mark, all ovens are different so it may be done sooner) You will know when it is done when the skins are black in color, look very shiny and very plump. The bananas might will leak some juices out as well.
- Once it is done, remove it from the oven and let it cool before you handle it. The insides are REALLY hot so be very careful to not burn yourself.
Putting Everything Together
- Pre-heat the oven to 350F (177C)
- In a large bowl combine the wet ingredients (melted butter, vanilla, condensed milk, and eggs) and sugar together and beat it with a fork. Make sure the butter has slightly cooled before mixing the eggs in - we don't want to cook the eggs 🙂
- Once the roasted bananas have cooled, peel the bananas and place the bananas in the bowl with the wet ingredients and mash it up with a fork very well.Take each banana skin and squeeze all the liquid out from the banana skins by hand and mix it into the wet ingredients as well, this will be the naturally sweetened banana extract, which will also give the banana bread some added moisture and sweetness! 🙂
- In another bowl, add all the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon) and mix it by hand until it is combined
- Fold in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix it until just combined (It's important you don't over-mix it, it's okay if you see flecks of flour in your batter). Once the batter is just combined, set it aside.
- Grease a loaf pan with butter or oil
- Cut a strip of parchment paper and lay it on the bottom of your loaf pan lengthwise with the flaps sticking up.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan
- Once the oven is up to temperature, add the loaf pan into the oven and bake it for 45 minutes.** My oven runs a little on the cooler side (gas-oven), if you have a hotter oven (electric oven), make sure to check it at 30 minutes to see if it's close to being done.
- Once 45 minutes is up, insert a skewer into the middle of the loaf to test if it is done.The skewer should come out clean and not have any batter on it. If there is wet batter on the skewer when you pull it out, let it continue to bake and do the skewer test every 5 minutes until it comes out batter-free.
- Once it is done baking, wait for the banana bread to cool for 10-15 minutes before you lift the parchment paper flaps to remove it from the pan. If it is a bit stuck and cannot be easily lifted out, run something thin along the sides of the pan to release it a bit, and then try again
- Slice it up and enjoy! 🙂
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*
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David says
I love banana and bread. But often to eat separately. So exciting now I can combine them become moist banna bread. This is ideal to use this banana bread and drink tea with friends.
Joyce Lee says
Hi David,
Banana bread to me is really banana cake. 🤣 I don't really know why we call it Banana bread!
Hope you enjoy it!
LoveAndSqualor says
I was looking for a way to use up some homemade condensed milk that turned out grainy and this was perfect. I took a few liberties -- baked it in a bundt pan, skipped the cinnamon and vanilla, added almond extract, chocolate chips and fresh raspberries -- and it turned out fantastic! I made a dent in the grainy condensed milk, but there's still a bunch left, so I will most likely return to this recipe and try different variations until it's gone. I'm thinking a roasted banana tres leches cake or a breakfast version with nuts and whole grain flour. Thank you for the inspiration!
Joyce Lee says
Wow! Your additions sound FANTASTIC!! I'm drooling just thinking about the tres leches cake version!!
Josie says
Due to pandemic time, which is stay home time, so I was thinking to make cake for the family. Your Banana Bread Cake is the first to come up in my mind. I followed all your ingredients which is pretty fine with me. Surprisingly, it turned out a big success -- look good, taste good, everyone loves and enjoy every bite. Thank you, Joyce.
Joyce Lee says
Hi Josie,
So happy you liked this! I definitely made this a few times during the pandemic too haha!
Samantha Paul says
This is a fabulous bread till now and i really love your recipe....along with your photography...it sooo yummy, i will trying to make it...this weekend..Thanks for a beautiful recipe.....! https://www.meatmakingtools.com
Joyce Lee says
Thanks for the kind words, Samantha! Hope you enjoy it!
Joyce
Binita says
Hello, your recipe sounds amazing!!! However, the recipe calls for sugar but nowhere in the instructions do it say to add the 1/2 cup of sugar?? Please lmk, I really want to make this banana bread and I want to get it right.
Thanks! 😊
Joyce says
Hi Binita!
I add the sugar in under 'Putting Everything Together' step 2, with the wet ingredients. I know it's a bit confusing since it is a dry ingredient but I like to use the sugar crystals to break up the wet ingredients further while you are beating the eggs with it. 🙂 I re-worded it a bit to make it easier to follow, let me know if it makes sense! If not, poke me again and I'll be happy to help! 🙂
Hope you enjoy it!
heather (delicious not gorgeous) says
oooh love this idea!! sometimes you need banana bread ASAP, so this sounds perfect for those occasions (: plus, that squeezing banana peel trick sounds super useful and flavorful and genius.
Joyce says
Yea I actually like how there's no pre-planning of ripening of bananas a lot. Definitely don't skip the banana juices part - I think that really makes the bread (cake?) It's crazy!
Juventia says
Same here Joyce, I don't love bananas so I seldom keep bananas at home. Sometimes I buy some when they are on special and then forgot to eat them and they become overly ripe, that's when I use them to make dessert. Baking yellow banana to make it ripe is such a great idea though. I will definitely try this trick next time. Oh and pardon me if I'm wrong, is Terry your husband/partner? I always admire a guy who knows how to bake!
Joyce says
Yes! I am the exact same way. Then the fruit flies are EVERYWHERE >_< Definitely try baking the bananas and squeezing out all the juices it's crazy banana-y. Yes Terry is my husband 🙂 I wouldn't say he knows how to bake haha but he's definitely good at eating baked stuff and I definitely will say he has crazy perseverance when it comes to experimenting with baking until he gets it right (like this banana bread o_o) haha but since I don't bake he definitely thinks he is the baker of the house haha! I guess that counts right?