Best Banana Bread Recipe: Using Frozen Bananas

This Banana Bread Recipe Using Frozen Bananas is everyone’s favorite. It’s so simple to make and the entire family will love it!

I’m a banana bread snob, and I’m not afraid to admit it.  Seriously, this is the only banana bread I’ll eat, and it’s certainly the only kind I’ll make. (See? Total snob!) 

This banana bread recipe is so good and so very easy.  And want to know the best part?  It’s made with frozen bananas!

Sliced Banana bread on a wooden board with the words Best Banana Bread Recipe: Using Frozen Bananas

Frozen bananas are much easier to mix into a batter than fresh bananas are, and my freezer nearly always has an abundance of them, so it’s pretty easy to mix up a fresh loaf whenever I want.

My family has a love/meh relationship with bananas.  They love to ask me to buy them, but once they’re sitting in the fruit basket, the fam is sort of indifferent to them. And if those bananas get even one little spot on them, my crew won’t touch them. They won’t even look at them.

So, every time our bananas start showing some age, I toss them into the freezer.  Well, I usually let them sit on the counter until they’re covered in spots and attracting fruit flies, and then I take two seconds and toss them into the freezer.  Because that’s how I roll (sad, huh?).  

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I just put them right into the freezer, whole and still in their peels.  Of course, you’re welcome to put the whole bananas into a large zipper bag if you prefer, but that’s totally optional (at least in my book).  

Step-by-Step Guide to Making Banana Bread Using Frozen Bananas

Now, I should probably warn you that frozen bananas don’t look anything like fresh bananas. I think the longer they’re in the freezer, the more disgusting they look. They’re gross, and you just have to accept that fact. 

Dark brown bananas thawing on a plate

They also get a little bit…umm…let’s just say “juicy” when they thaw out.  So, since you need them to be thawed before you use them, be sure to put them in a bowl or on a plate when you set them out of the freezer or the “banana juice” might run all over the counter and drip onto the floor.  Ask me how I know this.

When the frozen bananas are thawed and you’re ready to make your bread, just snip off the tip of the peel and slide them into a colander in the sink so the rest of the juices can drain for a minute or two.  

Jar of flour with a measuring cup setting beside it

Once the bananas have drained for just a moment, you can toss them into your mixing bowl and pour the sugar on top.  Yes, it takes a full cup.  Yes, it probably makes this recipe qualify as more of a “cake” than a “bread.”  Yes, I call it “bread” and eat half the loaf anyway.

Bowl of eggs being mixed with banana with a wooden spoon

Add in a couple of beaten eggs, three tablespoons of milk, butter that’s been melted in the microwave and cooled a bit, and the baking soda.  Mix it all together with a wooden spoon.  Don’t worry if it’s a little “soupy.”

Measuring cup of flour

Next, stir in the flour.  The best way to measure flour is to scoop it out of the bag or canister and then level off the top with the flat side of a knife.  

Banana bread batter in loaf pan

Once the flour is completely mixed in, pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Sliced banana bread on wooden board

Bake for about an hour or so until the banana bread is all beautiful and brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Sliced banana bread with butter on wooden board

Let the bread cool in the pan for about five minutes and then remove it onto a rack to cool.  Or remove it onto a cutting board and slice it very carefully while it’s burning your fingertips because it smells too good to wait.  It’s your call!

Here’s the printable recipe:

Best Banana Bread Recipe: Using Frozen Bananas
Print Recipe
4.58 from 7 votes

Banana Bread Using Frozen Bananas

This Banana Bread Recipe Using Frozen Bananas is everyone's favorite. It's so simple to make and the entire family will love it!

Ingredients

  • 3 bananas, frozen and thawed (can substitute ripe, mashed bananas)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, well beaten
  • 3 tbsp milk
  • ¼ cup butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 cups flour

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375° F. Grease loaf pan.
  • In a large bowl, stir together all the ingredients, in order, except for the flour. Mix in the flour until combined. Pour into greased loaf pan.
  • Bake for one hour or more, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for about five minutes before removing to a rack.

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56 Comments

  1. Yum! Can’t wait to try

    1. Nancy Toner says:

      5 stars
      I found this last night and I’m delighted! Followed the recipe exactly (I never quite understand why folks need to tell us how they changed it LOL), and this was a real treat. Bonus, the house smelled great. Thank you!!

    2. Tamera Gless says:

      Thank you for the great recipe and your humor. I have made your recipe many times and it is wonderful!

    1. Hmm…I’m not sure why it’s not printing for you. Sorry about that! I just tested it out, and the print feature seems to be working on my end. Sometimes the method of printing depends on your browser. When you click “print” it will open a printable version of the recipe. Depending on your browser, it should give you another “print” button on the printable version. If you don’t see the button, you should be able to use your browser’s menu (at the top of your browser) and use the print option from there. It’s usually found under the “File” tab. Hope this helps!

      1. Use the snipping tool to copy the image to a Word doc. and print from that.

  2. Made this recipe for my husband, 10 month old daughter, and myself. It was super easy and we loved it!

    1. Do you use plain or self raising flour?

      1. I used finely ground almond flour same measure, it is great for baking, cuts the carbs way down and the nutty flavor goes well with bananas! I also added an 1/4 tsp of xanthm gum to help it bind because it sometimes doesn’t bind as well as AP flour. ALSO I mixed all dry ingredients together plus 1/2 tsp of salt to help bring out the flavors. In the wet; I used 1/2 white & 1/2 brown sugar and I also added 1 tsp of vanilla extract to the wet ingredients before adding the dry.
        Mine turned out soooo yummy 😋
        Another helpful tip I can send you all is to cut the bananas lengthwise and then again in 1/2 while frozen and peel them while they are in that state I find that the wetness and gunkiness comes from the thawing skins, so get those skins off quickly much easier to peel!

      2. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing your modifications! I’m sure this will be very helpful, especially for those who are looking for a gluten alternative. And thanks for the bonus banana-peeling trick. I’ll have to try that next time! 😊

  3. Kristy Langford says:

    Did you use a 9×13 or a loaf pan? So you said that the bananas get juicy while they are thawing and that’s why you put them in a colander. When you mix up the batter do you add in whatever has drained off the bananas?

    1. I make it in a loaf pan. And I do NOT mix in the drained liquid. The bananas themselves are pretty mushy, and the batter is usually moist enough without that added liquid.

      1. Jacqueline says:

        Thanks!!! I was also confused about if I add the Liquid or not! Thanks for that update! Will make this recipe today!

      2. Could I use same recipe but adding walnuts and bit of cinnamon? Would you recommend not to lol ?

      3. Although I’ve never tried any special additions, I don’t think adding nuts or spices will be a problem with this recipe. The walnuts sound really yummy, but I’ve never tried banana bread with cinnamon in it before, so if you give it a try be sure to let us know how it turns out!

  4. Is 1 cup of flour/sugar around 120g?

  5. Vicki Watt says:

    Can/have you add chocolate chips or blueberries?

    1. I’ve never added anything into the Banana Bread, but I would think chocolate chips would work very well! I’d be a little more cautious with the blueberries since it’s a very thick batter and could tend to crush the delicate berries. You might want to use frozen berries if you decide to give it a try. Let us know how it turns out! 🙂

  6. How much flour and how much baking soda?! Neither is listed in this site.

    1. The printable recipe at the bottom lists all the ingredients and amounts. It calls for 2c. flour and 1tsp. baking soda.

  7. this looks really good and reading your writeup, it seems easy. However, I cannot print off the recipe. Do I have to sign up for something?

    1. On the recipe page at the bottom of the post, there is a “print” button under the picture (right above the “Ingredients”). When you click it, a printable page will pop up with a print button on the top right side of the window. If you’re still having trouble, you may want to try switching to a different internet browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.). Sometimes that works like magic to fix printing issues. Hope that helps! 🙂

    2. Sharon Speicher says:

      Can you turn these into muffins by baking in a muffin tin? How much time do you think I should bake?

  8. L O V E this recipe!!!
    First of all because it’s super easy, especially if you are as lazy as I am, I mixed all ingredients in loaf pan haha
    I’m alone and didn’t wanna bake a huge loaf. So I used half of each ingredient and used baking powder instead of baking soda (was lazy to go and buy it lol)
    The result – I regret not making bigger banana bread… it’s so delicious!!! making the second bread right now!!!

  9. Katelynn Matta says:

    I vary this a bit by doing half brown and half white sugar, adding cinnamon, cardamom (and sometimes my homemade chai mix), chocolate chips/nuts and making them into little muffin-cupcakes.

    Always a favorite around the house and the office!

    1. Sharon Speicher says:

      How long do you bake them in the muffin pan?

      1. I’ve never tried making this recipe into muffins, so I don’t know what time to suggest. What I usually do when I want to modify a recipe is to find another similar recipe and use the same technique. So, I would look for a muffin recipe and try using the times from that. Just be sure to test the center with a toothpick so you know they’re done.

  10. I’m about to use your recipe along with a friend. I thawed my bananas by placing them on top of paper towels, discarding towels when too wet and replaced with dry ones. I did this a few times because I didn’t want a gooey mess. I may have to postpone my baking until the next day. Would the thawed bananas be all right if I refrigerated them overnight?

    1. I think they’ll be fine! I’d just stick them in a bowl so they don’t “leak” onto the fridge shelf. 🙂

  11. This recipe sounds delicious. I can’t wait to try it. I was a little impatient, and my bananas were still a little frozen. Hope that doesn’t make a difference, and it turns out!

  12. I left them partially frozen but fairly mashed and started mixing. BIG mistake. My butter got hard and I had to separate the rest of the batter, scrape up the butter from the sides and microwave 20 seconds to make the batter work again! Does this happen to other people or is it just me? Ha It’s in the oven now smelling wonderfully good!

    1. Gordon Johnston says:

      I’m just learning to bake (pandemic boredom project) and over and over I’m learning the importance of room temperature ingredients. My banana bread is in the oven now … those thawed frozen bananas looked disgusting lol 😝

      1. I hope you’re enjoying your yummy banana bread! And yes, those bananas look pretty ugly…but they taste so good when they’re hidden in the banana bread. haha!

  13. Susan Reichenberg says:

    5 stars
    Made this for after Mass coffee hour. Got rave reviews. Only thing I did differently was add nuts. Can’t have banana bread without nuts!

  14. Carolyn Kowalski says:

    Love itI do have a question had a lot of bananas going to make a few but I forgot how many banana I though out do you have the measurements of what 3 bananas is

    Thank you
    Carolyn Kowalski

    1. Hmm…I’ve never measured how much 3 bananas comes out to be. I would guess maybe 1 to 1 1/2 cups? But this is a pure guess. It’s a pretty forgiving recipe, so let us know what you try and how it turns out! 😋

  15. Monique Matthews says:

    Loved this recipe! Mine did very brown. Should I use a lower temp? Checked my oven and it’s correct temp wise. Any suggestions?

    1. This recipe does tend to be very dark brown. If you think it’s getting too done on top, though, you can put a piece of foil over the top partway through baking.

  16. 5 stars
    I tried this recipe this morning. It was quick and easy, and best of all; my wife loved it! Thanks for the cooking lesson!

  17. 4 stars
    Good flavor and easy to make but a little too dense for my preference.

  18. Love this recipe,everyone comments how delicious my bread is,thanks for the recipe

  19. 5 stars
    Used sour cream instead of milk and 1/2 of the butter with hopes of it being a moist bread. Looks good, smell fabulous so I am hoping it tastes good as well.

  20. Can I use brown sugar ? Instead of the white ? Will the proportion change if I use wheat flour instead of all purpose white refined wheat flour?

    1. I’ve never tried substituting brown sugar or wheat flour, but be sure to stop back and let us know how it turns out if you give it a try!

  21. 4 stars
    I have made this banana bread twice now, the first time I left it in for an hour and it was completely burnt 🥵. I just made it again and set the timer to check after 40 minutes and it was still over done 😖. My oven is usually pretty on par with most cook times. The Banana Bread itself is quite good in the middle, where it’s less overcooked. I’ll definitely be making again, and checking it even earlier this time. I’m surprised that no one else has mentioned the cook time, or why mine is cooking so quickly!

    Otherwise excellent recipe, just need to add the one key missing ingredient imo, a teaspoon of vanilla extract!

    1. I’ve not personally had issues with the banana bread burning, but you could try tenting it with some foil for the last few minutes of cooking time. That might allow it to finish cooking inside without getting too done on top. You also could try moving your oven rack a notch lower. Perhaps it’s getting too close to the heating elements and just needs a little more room to rise. 😊

  22. 4 stars
    I needed space in my freezer so took frozen bananas out & left them on my bench. Not sure I’d be able to do anything with them I googled frozen bananas banana bread and it brought me here! Super easy recipe (I added an extra banana, which I pretty much do to any banana bread recipe) but my loaf was getting very brown, so I did cover it with 10 mins to go and turned down to 160 degrees Celsius. I had it on 190 degrees Celsius originally. Delicious!

  23. It’s2:00 am, and I can’t sleep so I’m reading recipes… This sounds so good! I’ll make it when I get up. Thanks.

  24. Robert Brown says:

    I’m a single 64yr man with minimal baking experience. I gave your recipe a try and it turned out great. After my 1st loaf I added crushed almonds,10mls vanilla.The original recipe works well. I give half of every loaf away to other tenants. Giving away good food is guaranteed to make new acquaintances.Thankyou for taking the time to share

  25. Making this today! I have 5 frozen bananas I’d like to use how would i increase the rest of the ingredients?

    1. I would probably double the rest of the recipe and bake in two loaf pans. I’m guessing one less banana (half per loaf) won’t make a huge difference, except maybe a little less banana flavor, but since I’ve never used a different number of bananas than the recipe calls for, I can’t know for sure. I hope it’s yummy! 🙂

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