My favorite banana bread recipe makes some of the best banana bread you’ll ever eat. It’s incredibly easy to make and bakes up soft and moist with an irresistible cinnamon sugar crust.
As a food blogger, I get asked for recipe suggestions all the time, and I’m usually thrilled to oblige (it’d be silly to run a food blog if I weren’t). But there’s one recipe people ask me about the most that I just didn’t have a good answer for, banana bread.
Sure I have my ever-popular small-batch banana muffins and my absolute fav chocolate banana muffins , but I’m SUPER picky about my banana bread, and I just didn’t have a favorite full-size banana bread recipe I could unreservedly recommend.
So over the last year, I set out testing and experimenting with recipes, and I finally have it, my favorite banana bread recipe in the world. Friend, you should really make Dominique Ansel’s banana bread.
Dominique Ansel’s Banana Bread
If you’re not familiar with Dominique Ansel, he is a French pastry chef, owner of the Dominique Ansel Bakery, and the creator of the famous cronut. This recipe comes from his (excellent) book Everyone Can Bake , and makes an incredibly good, incredibly easy sweet and moist loaf of banana bread.
What Makes This Banana Bread So Good
- An extra banana: Most banana bread recipes with a similar ratio of ingredients call for 3 bananas. This recipe uses 4, which boosts the banana flavor and the moist texture of the bread.
- Butter, a lot of it: There is also a slightly obscene amount of butter in this recipe. It gives the bread a fantastic richness and hint of buttery flavor that is SO good.
- Heavy on the sugar: This recipe also uses quite a bit of sugar compared to some banana bread recipes, so the bread is tender, sweet, and absolutely feels like a dessert treat (that you can eat for breakfast!!!).
Ingredient and Tool Notes
- 10 x 5-inch loaf pan: The original recipe calls for a 10 x 5-inch loaf pan. If your loaf pan is slightly smaller, not a problem. You just won’t need to use quite all of the batter when it’s time to bake the bread.
- Bananas: This recipe uses 4 medium bananas. If you prefer doing all your baking by weight, that’s about 400 grams of bananas, but I have successfully made this with slightly larger bananas, up to about 500 grams.
- Butter: You can use salted or unsalted butter here, just make sure to read the recipe notes and add more or less salt depending on which you’re using.
- Cinnamon sugar: This is optional, but I like my banana bread with a cinnamon sugar crust, so I added one here. If you’re not a huge fan of cinnamon or don’t want the extra sweetness, you can skip it.
How to Make the Best Banana Bread
Mix dry ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt.
Mix most of the wet ingredients: In a medium bowl, mash bananas and whisk in eggs. Pour banana mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Add the butter: Add melted butter, and mix until butter is incorporated into the batter. Don’t over mix, but there should not be pools of butter remaining around the edges of the batter.
Bake: Transfer the batter to your prepared loaf pan, leaving ¾-inch of space from the top of the pan (discard extra batter if there is too much). Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top and bake the bread for about an hour, until a toothpick or knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
Slice and enjoy: Allow bread to cool in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes before removing and slicing.
How can I quickly ripen bananas for banana bread?
If your bananas aren’t quite brown enough for baking, it’s really easy to help them along. Bake the bananas (with their peels ON) on a baking sheet in a 300°F oven for 30 to 40 minutes until the peels are blackened and soft to the touch.
Let them sit until cool enough to handle and then peel and transfer bananas to a bowl and mash so that they cool more quickly. Cool completely before using in the banana bread.
If you want to see photos of this process, go check out my post How to Quickly Ripen Bananas .
How to Store Banana Bread
Store the bread tightly wrapped at room temperature for up to 3 days. For longer storage, freeze the baked bread.
How to Freeze Banana Bread
Banana bread freezes quite nicely, either as a whole loaf or individual slices. To freeze, wrap loaf/pieces tightly in plastic wrap and then store in an airtight container or freezer bag.
When you’re ready to eat the bread, remove it from the freezer, defrost at room temperature, and enjoy.
You Might Also Enjoy: How to Freeze Bananas
Can I make a small-batch version of this banana bread?
Don’t worry, small-batch friends, I haven’t forgotten about you. If you’d like to make a mini version of this bread, I scaled the recipe down for you so you can make it with just one banana and a mini loaf pan. Go check out my One-banana Banana Bread post.
More Banana Recipes
- Banana Milkshake
- Banana Pancakes
- Small Banana Cake
- Strawberry Banana Milkshake
- Banana Milkshake Without Ice Cream
Or check out this post of Banana Recipes .
Equipment
- 10 x 5-inch loaf pan
- Parchment paper, optional
Ingredients
- ▢ 2 cups ( 400g ) granulated sugar
- ▢ 2 cups ( 250g ) all-purpose flour
- ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ▢ ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ▢ ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ▢ ½ teaspoon salt*
- ▢ 4 ( about 400g ) medium overripe bananas
- ▢ 3 large eggs
- ▢ 14 tablespoons ( 196g ) salted butter* melted
Optional Cinnamon Sugar Crust
- ▢ 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
Banana Bread
- Preheat your oven to 350°F, grease a 10 x 5-inch loaf pan, and line it with a parchment paper sling (optional).
- In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, mash bananas and whisk in eggs until well-mixed. Pour banana mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Add melted butter, and mix until butter is incorporated into the batter. Don’t over mix, but batter should be mostly uniform, and there should not be pools of butter remaining around the edges of the batter.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared loaf pan, leaving 3/4 inch of space from the top of the pan (discard extra batter if there is too much).
Optional Cinnamon Sugar Crust
- In a small bowl, stir together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over the top of the batter.
Bake
- Bake bread in preheated oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Allow the loaf to cool in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes before removing and slicing.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
This is The Perfect Meatball Sandwich recipe, made on toasted, buttery garlic bread, with an easy homemade marinara sauce and my favorite beef and sausage meatballs.
A while back, I shared these fantastic freezer meatballs. (If you haven’t made a batch yet, please do. They are one of my favorite things on the site, and if you have a batch in your freezer you can make today’s recipe in about half an hour.)
Anyway, in that post, I promised meatball sandwiches would be coming soon and we have reached that day. Hooray for Meatball Sandwich day!
Ingredient Notes
There are a few things that go into making the perfect meatball sandwich.
- Good meatballs: I recommend using my absolute favorite meatball recipe for these sandwiches, but if you want to use your own meatball recipe or you’re in a hurry and want to use frozen meatballs, go for it.
- Excellent marinara sauce: The homemade marinara sauce on these sandwiches is just about the perfect marinara sauce. It’s pretty quick-cooking (for a red sauce), is made with just 5 ingredients, and is so tangy and bright and delicious. Good luck not just eating it with a spoon.
- Toasty bread: Soggy meatball sandwiches are the worst. And the best way to avoid soggy sandwiches is to build your sub on lightly toasted bread. And for this recipe, we’re not just going to toast the bread but turn it into buttery, perfect toasted garlic bread.
How to Make Meatball Sandwiches
- Make/warm your meatballs: Make or heat up your premade meatballs so they’re hot and ready to go.
- Make the marinara sauce: While the meatballs heat, throw together your marinara sauce. This process is mostly hands-off. You just brown some garlic, stir in the rest of your sauce ingredients, and let it simmer away.
- Make garlic bread: Slather your rolls with butter and then sprinkle with garlic powder. Bake until they are just lightly toasted.
- Assemble: Top the garlic bread with meatballs, sauce, and a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese, and bake until the cheese is melted.
What kind of bread should I use?
French rolls are ideal for meatball marinara sandwiches. They toast up nicely but are soft so they’re easy to bite into even when stuffed full.
Hot dog buns also work well and are a great size for smaller eaters. Depending on the size of your meatballs, you may want to cut them in halves or quarters so they fit better in the smaller buns.
What do you put on a meatball sub?
Aside from meatballs, marinara sauce, and cheese, cooked bell peppers and onions are a delicious addition to meatball subs. To add them to your sub, thinly slice the onions and peppers and cook them in a little olive oil with salt and pepper over medium heat until they are tender-crisp. Load them onto your sandwich and enjoy!
What goes with meatball sandwiches?
Meatball sandwiches are extremely rich and filling, so simple sides like a green salad or garlic green beans complement them nicely. If you want that true deli experience, serve them with a crunchy coleslaw and some kettle chips.
Can I make these in advance?
Yes! Don’t make the garlic bread and assemble the sandwiches until just before you’re ready to serve them, but the sauce and meatballs can be made up to 2 days in advance.
When you’re ready to eat, all you have to do is heat the sauce and meatballs, toast the garlic bread, and assemble your sandwiches.
More Sandwich Recipes
- Pesto Chicken Sandwich on Sourdough
- Panini Without a Panini Press
- Tri-tip Sandwich
- Carne Asada Sandwich
- Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Recipe Notes
- This sauce recipe calls for a skillet and a splatter screen. The wide skillet is used to increase the cooking surface area so the sauce cooks faster, but you absolutely must use a splatter screen or you will have a mess on your hands. If you don’t own a splatter screen, you can buy one– they are pretty cheap and super handy. Or you can just use a large pot without a screen and turn the sauce down a little so it’s not popping as high. Your sauce will take a bit longer, but there will be less mess.
- If you are cooking for only one or two people, the marinara sauce freezes very well. Just freeze leftover sauce in a mason jar or freeze flat in a freezer bag and it can be frozen for up to three months.
Equipment
- Splatter screen
- Large skillet
Ingredients
Quick Marinara Sauce
- ▢ 1 28-ounce can whole San Marzano tomatoes
- ▢ ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ▢ 7 cloves garlic peeled and slivered or minced
- ▢ ¼ cup water
- ▢ ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ▢ 1 ½ teaspoon sugar
- ▢ ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ▢ Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
- ▢ 1 large fresh basil sprig or ¼ teaspoon dried basil
Meatball Sandwich
- ▢ 4 French rolls
- ▢ Butter
- ▢ Garlic powder
- ▢ 12 to 16 large meatballs fully cooked and warmed
- ▢ 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ▢ Fresh basil optional for topping
Instructions
Quick Marinara Sauce
- With an immersion blender, food processor, or blender, process tomatoes until mostly pureed–the texture of chunky salsa. You can also turn the tomatoes out into a bowl and crush them with your hands (don’t discard the juices).
- In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Once hot, add the garlic and cook just until it starts to turn lightly golden–watch carefully so it doesn’t burn! Add the tomatoes and their juices to the skillet along with water, salt, sugar, oregano, red pepper flakes, and sprig of basil. Cover with splatter screen and bring to a good simmer, turning up the heat if necessary. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes until sauce is thickened. Taste and add more salt if needed.
- Remove basil sprig.
Meatball Sandwiches
- Preheat your oven to 400°F. Butter both sides of your French rolls and sprinkle garlic powder over the top. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 3 to 4 minutes until lightly toasted.
- Add a couple tablespoons of sauce to both sides of each French roll and top with 3 to 4 meatballs and 1/4 cup of mozzarella. Bake for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, until cheese is melted.
- Add fresh basil if desired. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Sauce Adapted From The New York Times
This potato bacon soup is loaded with chopped bacon, cheese, and chunks of potato. It makes a quick and easy dinner that everyone will love.
We’re slowly approaching the end of soup season, but before we pack away our sweaters and say goodbye to the cozy winter evenings, there’s one more soup recipe I want you to try, potato bacon soup.
This soup is total comfort food. It’s rich and cheesy and SO easy to make. And it should be added to your soup rotation immediately.
Why This Soup Works
It’s double thickened: This soup is thickened twice, once with potatoes, by smashing and mixing some of them into the soup and then again by adding a thick and creamy cheese sauce. Cheese sauce: Speaking of that cheese sauce . This one is quick to make with butter, flour, milk and cheese. When stirred into the soup, it adds a cheesy, creamy richness that is completely irresistible. It’s loaded with bacon: We’ll use about 12 ounces of bacon in this recipe. That’s enough to ensure that there’s bacon in every single bite.
Ingredient Notes
- Your favorite bacon: Use whatever bacon you prefer here. Regular, thick-cut, and even bacon ends will all work just fine.
- Chicken broth: You can use homemade chicken stock if you have it, but this soup is just as fantastic when made with canned broth.
- Milk: Any percentage milk will work, but the higher fat the milk, the richer your soup will be. If you’d like to substitute a bit of half and half or heavy cream for the milk, you can do that as well.
- Cheddar cheese: If you have the option, grate your own cheese from a block rather than using pre-shredded bagged cheese because the anti-clumping additives added to bagged cheese can prevent it from melting completely smoothly.
How to Make Potato Bacon Soup
In a large pot, cook chopped bacon until barely crispy. While super crispy crunchy bacon is delicious, it isn’t great in soup. Cook the bacon until it’s just cooked through and a little crisp around the edges, but still pliable and then use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a plate.
Spoon off and discard all but about a tablespoon of the bacon grease (it doesn’t need to be exact) and cook the onions and celery until the onions begin to turn translucent around the edges.
A Note on Bacon Grease: While it’s tempting to leave a ton of bacon grease behind when cooking the onions and celery, don’t leave too much. During testing, when I left a lot of grease in the pan, I found that it left an oily sheen on the top of the soup when it was finished cooking. About a tablespoon was the perfect amount to keep that bacon flavor without making the soup too oily.
- Add potatoes and chicken broth and simmer until the potatoes are fork-tender. Once potatoes are tender, use a potato masher or fork to roughly smash about half the potatoes.
Potato Mashing Tip: If your potato masher is metal and you’re cooking the soup in a pot that shouldn’t be used with metal cooking tools, simple ladle about half the potatoes into a heatproof bowl, smash them in the bowl, and then add them back to your soup.
Make the cheese sauce. While your soup simmers, make a roux of butter and flour and then slowly pour in the milk. Cook, stirring constantly until the sauce is thick and bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese until smooth.
Stir the cheese sauce into the soup and add salt and pepper to taste. Potato soups tend to really suck up the salt, so you may need to add more than you expect. Add about 3/4 of the bacon back to the pot, reserving the rest for topping.
- Dish up the soup, top with sour cream, more cheese and green onions if desired, and chopped up bacon, and enjoy!!
Potato Soup Variations
- Ham and Potato Soup: Have leftover ham you’d like to use up? Swap the bacon for ham.
- Sausage Potato Soup: Replace the bacon with chopped smoked sausage.
- Potato Broccoli Soup: Add
- Lighter Potato Bacon Soup: If you’d like to lighten up this soup, reduce the bacon to 8 ounces, use skim milk, and omit the cheese from the sauce. Instead sprinkle just a little bit of cheese over the soup when serving.
Can I double/halve this recipe?
Absolutely. This recipe doubles/halves with no preparation changes except the thickening time for the cheese sauce might be a little longer/shorter. To change the recipe yield, hover over the serving size in the recipe card below or click if you’re on mobile, and slide the slider.
What to serve with bacon potato soup?
For a cheesy decadent soup like this, I recommend simple sides like a slice of French bread with butter and a roasted vegetable like:
- Roasted Broccoli
- Roasted Asparagus
- Roasted Green Beans
Can I freeze potato soup?
I prefer not to freeze potato-based soups because cooked potatoes can become a bit mushy after freezing, BUT if you want to freeze it, you can. Just know the texture won’t be as smooth when reheated. Freeze all together or in individual containers for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight and reheat gently on the stove or in the microwave.
Check out my post How to Freeze Soup for more soup-freezing tips.
More Soup Recipes
- Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
- Chicken Parm Soup
- Quick Chicken Tortellini Soup
- Tomato Soup for One or Two
Ingredients
- ▢ 12 ounces uncooked bacon sliced into 3/4-inch pieces
- ▢ ½ medium onion diced small
- ▢ 2 celery ribs diced small
- ▢ 2 large russet potatoes peeled and diced medium (about 4 cups)
- ▢ 4 cups ( 2 15oz cans) chicken broth
- ▢ 5 tablespoons ( 71g ) butter salted or unsalted is fine
- ▢ ¼ cup and 1 tablespoon ( 44g ) all-purpose flour
- ▢ 2 cups milk any percentage
- ▢ 6 ounces ( about 1 ½ cups ) shredded cheddar cheese plus more as desired for topping
- ▢ ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ▢ Salt
- ▢ Sour cream optional for topping
- ▢ Sliced green onions optional for topping
Instructions
- Add bacon pieces to a large pot. Turn heat to medium and cook until bacon is cooked through but only slightly crispy. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a paper-towel lined plate and set aside.
- Spoon off and discard all but about 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat. Add onions and celery to the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring often and scraping any browned cooked-on bits from the bottom of the pan, for about 5 minutes, until the onions have just begun to turn translucent around the edges.
- Add potatoes and chicken broth to the pot. Bring to a simmer and then cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until potatoes can be easily smashed against the side of the pot with a fork.
- Use a potato masher or spatula to roughly smash about half of the potatoes in the pot.
- In a medium pot, over medium heat, melt butter and then add flour. Cook, whisking continuously, until flour begins to turn lightly golden, about 1 minute.
- Slowly drizzle in milk, whisking constantly as you go to whisk out any lumps. Cook, whisking continuously, until mixture is thickened and bubbly around the edges, about 5 minutes.
- Remove pot from heat and slowly whisk in cheese, a handful at a time. Once all your cheese is melted, stir the cheese sauce into the soup. Add pepper. Taste the soup and add salt if needed.
- Add about ¾ of the bacon to the soup (reserve ¼ for topping) and stir everything together.
- Ladle into bowls, top with sour cream, reserved bacon, sliced green onions, and more cheese if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
My Favorite Banana Bread Recipe
Equipment
- 10 x 5-inch loaf pan
- Parchment paper, optional
Ingredients
- 2 cups ( 400g ) granulated sugar
- 2 cups ( 250g ) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt*
- 4 ( about 400g ) medium overripe bananas
- 3 large eggs
- 14 tablespoons ( 196g ) salted butter* melted
Optional Cinnamon Sugar Crust
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
Banana Bread
- Preheat your oven to 350°F, grease a 10 x 5-inch loaf pan, and line it with a parchment paper sling (optional).
- In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, mash bananas and whisk in eggs until well-mixed. Pour banana mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Add melted butter, and mix until butter is incorporated into the batter. Don’t over mix, but batter should be mostly uniform, and there should not be pools of butter remaining around the edges of the batter.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared loaf pan, leaving 3/4 inch of space from the top of the pan (discard extra batter if there is too much).
Optional Cinnamon Sugar Crust
- In a small bowl, stir together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over the top of the batter.
Bake
- Bake bread in preheated oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Allow the loaf to cool in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes before removing and slicing.
- Serve and enjoy!
