I’ve made Banana Bread for several years. Used many (and I emphasize MANY!) recipes to make the ultimate Banana Bread. This recipe, by far, is the best. It’s the only recipe that I ever come back to because I know it will never fail me and it always comes out delicious.

The recipe is from Gold Medal Flour and I’ll share it with you right here.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened (I prefer to use the real deal aka butter)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas – which is about 3 to 4 medium bananas. The darker the better – as my grandma used to say! As a kid I used to get grossed out by my grandma’s “mushy, black” bananas but now that I’m older? I totally get it 👍

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped nuts, if desired (I use walnuts)

Directions

Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven.

Pre-heat your oven to 350°F.

Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans: 8 1/2×4 1/2×2 1/2 inches, or 1 loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches (I used one loaf pan of 9x5x3 inches)

For 8-inch loaves, bake about 1 hour. If you are using a 9-inch loaf pan bake about 1 1/4 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack.

Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

PS. What if you don’t have buttermilk on hand? No problem! You can easily substitute by mixing 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice or white vinegar and enough milk to make 1/2 cup. Or substitute with 1/2 cup plain yogurt.