Tessa's Recipe Rundown
Taste: Ultra-rich, buttery, sweet, and nutty flavors. Be sure to use overripe bananas for the sweetest banana flavor.
Texture: The perfect balance of textures – not too dense and not too light, super moist, with crunchy bites of pecans throughout.
Ease: Buttering the pecans does dirty an extra dish but it only takes 5 minutes. We also use an electric mixer in this recipe to get the lightest yet richest texture. So just a bit more work than your average banana bread recipe.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: The ultimate comfort food!
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I think you’re going to adore this Butter Pecan Banana Bread recipe.
I love my traditional Banana Bread recipe, and my decadent Double Chocolate Banana Bread makes for a heavenly dessert. But this Butter Pecan Banana Bread recipe is the perfect brunch recipe.
This loaf is ultra-rich and buttery without being too dense. It’s super soft and moist with perfect crunchy bites of pecans throughout. While I’m usually not a huge fan of nuts in baked goods, for some reason, I adore them in banana bread recipes.
Grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy a slice of this Butter Pecan Banana Bread with some fresh butter slathered on top.
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Butter Pecan Banana Bread
Tips for Moist Banana Bread
- Measure your flour correctly: This makes a world of difference. Learn more about how to measure ingredients here.
- Don’t reduce the sugar: Sugar does so much beyond sweetening baked goods. Learn more about sugar’s role in baking here.
- Use over-ripe bananas: More on this in the FAQs below.
- Avoid overmixing: Stop mixing the batter once the wet and dry ingredients are just combined to avoid dry and rubbery banana bread.
How to Add Chocolate Chips
Add a scant cup of semisweet chocolate chips, folding in with the flour and pecans as written in the recipe.
The Pan
- The pan I recommend using is a metal 9 by 5-inch loaf pan.
- Glass and ceramic pans take much longer to bake, risking the banana bread collapsing in the center and being underbaked in the middle.
- If you only have a glass or ceramic pan, add anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes to the baking time and use my tips below for judging when banana bread is done cooking.
- Learn more about Glass vs. Metal Baking Pans here.
Additionally, use the correct size loaf pan for best results: 9 by 5-inches.
- I know that an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2-inch pan seems practically identical, but the difference in volume capacity is 15%, and that has a surprisingly large impact on the final loaf.
- If you use the smaller pan size, you may end up with a loaf that spills over the edges and sinks into an underbaked sad crevice in the center.
- If that’s all you have, remove about 15% of the banana bread batter from your bowl before pouring into the pan.
- Feel free to bake the excess in a muffin tin instead, following the baking temperature and time from my Bakery Style Banana Muffins recipe.
How to Store Butter Pecan Banana Bread
Cover and store the cooled loaf at room temperature for 2 days. The flavors will actually intensify as the bread sits!
If your bread has started to stale, brush both sides with butter and toast in a skillet until slightly caramelized before serving.
How to Freeze Banana Bread
Tightly wrap the completely cooled loaf or slices in aluminum foil and place in a resealable freezer bag. Butter Pecan Banana Bread can be frozen for up to three months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight or at room temperature for a few hours. If thawing an entire loaf, you can also refresh the loaf by popping into a 325°F oven for about 10 minutes.
Butter Pecan Banana Bread FAQs
Use very overripe bananas that are very soft and covered with dark brown speckles.
Appropriately overripe bananas not only provide a sweet flavor but also help to add more moisture to banana bread.
If you have more overripe bananas than you need for this recipe, you can always peel them, mash them, then freeze them for baking later. Or use them in smoothies!
To speed up ripening: Place bananas in a paper bag and store in a warm area for a day or two. The peels create ethylene gas, which fills up the bag and helps them ripen faster.
To ripen bananas today: Place whole unpeeled bananas on a baking sheet in a 300°F oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until the skins are darkened and the fruit is soft. This doesn’t quite yield the same effect as allowing the bananas to ripen naturally, but it’ll work in a pinch.
Place overripe bananas on a cutting board and mash very well by hand with a fork or potato masher.
I find mashing with an electric mixer or hand mixer makes the batter too thin to rise well, often leading to bread that’s slightly mushy in the center or even slightly sunken in the center.
Banana bread can get gummy if the batter was overmixed or the loaf was underbaked.
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Ingredients
For the butter pecans:
- 2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter
- 1 cup (113 grams) pecan halves, chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
For the banana bread:
- 1 1/2 cups (191 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (225 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 1/2 cups (354 grams) mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 large bananas)*
- 2 tablespoons (28 grams) sour cream or plain full-fat yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
For the butter pecans:
- In a small skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the pecans and salt and cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture is lightly browned, 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
For the banana bread:
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter a 9-by-5-inch metal loaf pan (don’t use an 8 ½ by 4 1/2-inch pan, the batter will overflow).
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar and eggs on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reducing to low speed, gradually add in the melted and cooled butter. Add the bananas, sour cream, and vanilla, beating until just combined.
- Using a rubber spatula, fold in the dry ingredients and pecans. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for about 1 hour**, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 200 to 205°F. Loaf should be golden brown on top and the center should spring back when gently pressed.
- Let cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before removing from loaf pan to cool completely.
- Banana bread can be stored tightly wrapped in plastic for up to 3 days at room temperature or 2 weeks frozen (thaw overnight at room temperature before serving).
Notes
This recipe was originally published in 2014 and has been updated with new photos and recipe improvements. Photos by Joanie Simon.
I love this butter pecan banana bread – moist & delicious – the only thing – it fell a little bit in the middle while cooling – not sure why – I know sometimes the baking soda may be an issue ? I added what was called for in the recipe – howeve, it did not affect the wonderful Tate
I am going to make this recipe for Xmas gifts this year ❤️
Ty & Merry Christmas
Phyl Ferrentino
OK Tess, I’ve read several of your recipes and would like to make them but please tell me how you are calculating your flour amounts? 1 cup flour = 4.25oz, if this is not the case, please tell me the oz you are measuring the flour?
I calculate flour as 1 cup = 4.5 ounces! Here’s some more info: https://handletheheat.com/ultimate-guide-measuring/
I’ve only got two bananas! Should I cut back the other ingredients by 1/3 also or just go for it?
Amazing, sweet, moist and simply delicious!
This is my “sweet indulgence”. Small slice is all you need to feel satisfied and it’s a good thing with all the goodies in this bread. I cut butter back by 1/4 stick and increased my yogurt by 1 tablespoon. Turned out great:)
how much pecan?
I’m gonna make it… love banana bread… thank u for the recipe
I know I am late to the part with this banana bread, but I just made some today for gifts. This is the best banana bread ever! Thank you so much for the recipe and your food blog! BTW-I love your recipes and reading your blog!
Thank you so much!! Thrilled to hear that. Merry Christmas!
I baked it 3 times . It is a perfect banana bread thanks for recipe.
Butter pecans in banana bread is the best idea ever!
I could eat the whole loaf by myself! Love this!
B-A-N-A-N-A-S. UGH. All day.
Butter pecan + Banana Bread + Perfection.
So I hate and love you today.
Bad news first:
I totally forgot about that song…and now it’s stuck in my head forever.
Good news:
Banana bread is my husband OBSESSION, so he will go nuts (had to) for this version! Pinning 🙂