Caramelized banana bread is a delicious twist on the classic banana bread recipe, where ripe bananas are sautéed with sugar to create a rich, golden caramel flavor. The caramelization enhances the natural sweetness of the bananas, making each slice of the bread moist, tender, and irresistibly flavorful with a hint of richness.
Taking a classic Banana Bread recipe and elevating it by caramelizing the bananas before mashing them into the batter is going to be your new way of enjoying a loaf! This Caramelized Banana Bread is incredibly moist, flavorful, and just the right amount of sweetness! Enjoy it with your cup of coffee in the morning or an Iced Chai Latte. It's a warm, cozy recipe that you'll want to use over and over again.
You can jazz up this banana bread by adding spices, like my Spiced Banana Cake, or chocolate like my Chocolate Chunk Banana Muffins. Like adding nuts? Chop up some walnuts or pecans for an extra crunch!
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♥ Why You'll Love This Recipe
One Bowl - This recipe comes together in one bowl, so no fussing around with so many extra dishes.
Easy to make - No mixer or special equipment needed. It takes a whisk and a bowl (+ a pan for the bananas). It's super easy to make and comes together quickly.
Caramelized Bananas - Taking that extra step to caramelize the bananas gives the banana bread a little more sweetness, richness, and a hint of buttery caramel flavor.
Moist - The banana bread is incredibly moist due to the sour cream and oil added!
📝 Ingredient Notes
A full list of ingredients, quantities, and instructions are located in the recipe card at the end of the post.
- Banana: Use very ripe bananas. For this recipe I used three large ripe banana, which is around 1 ½ cups of mashed bananas. For the extra banana on top, make sure it's more of a yellow banana because you don't want that one to get mushy.
- Flour: All purpose flour gives this cake the best crumb. Use a scale when measuring to get the best results.
- Leavener: Baking soda will help the banana bread rise.
- Sugar: I use all brown sugar in this recipe. You can use either dark or light.
- Oil: Vegetable or any neutral oil.
- Eggs: Room temperature, large eggs.
- Sour cream: Just a little sour cream for extra moisture in these muffins.
See recipe card for quantities.
🍴Special Equipment
Kitchen Scale: It's so important to use a kitchen scale for accurate results.
Loaf Pan: You'll need a 9x5 loaf pan.
Mixing bowls: I love using glass Mixing Bowls when making batters and doughs.
⇄ Substitutions
Neutral oil - You can use any type of neutral oil, from vegetable, canola, avocado, or even a light olive oil.
Yogurt - if you don't have any sour cream on hand, you can substitute it for full fat greek yogurt
✨ Variations
Nuts - Add some walnuts or pecans for an extra crunch and more texture.
Spices - Add a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg, or any other spices you like to add to your banana bread, like my Spiced Banana Cake.
Chocolate - chop up chunks of chocolate and add it to the batter, like I do in my Chocolate Chunk Banana Muffins.
𓎩 Step-by-Step Instructions
A few instruction photos to help you nail this recipe every time.
Sautée bananas
Place a 10 inch skillet over medium heat and add butter and sugar and let melt completely. Stir it to combine.
Place the bananas in the butter/sugar and sautée for about 2-3 minutes, until the bottoms have browned. Then flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes until they're brown.
Mash bananas
Remove the bananas and add them to a bowl to cool, leaving behind whatever butter/sugar mixture.
Mash the bananas and set aside to cool.
💡 Hint: Make sure to use a yellow banana for the top banana to avoid a mushy mess.
Caramelize top banana
Place your extra banana in the pan and let it cook for a few minutes on each side until browned and caramelized, then remove it and place it on a plate, being careful not to break it.
Wet Ingredients
In a large bowl, add melted butter, cooled bananas, brown sugar, eggs, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract, and whisk until all is completely incorporated.
Dry Ingredients
Sift in the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until JUST combined. Do not over mix your batter.
🎩Trick: Lining your pan with parchment paper and leaving an overhang will help when removing the banana bread after baking.
Add to Pan
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Topping
Top with the slices of banana and sprinkle with Turbinado sugar.
💬 FAQ
Caramelized banana bread features bananas that are sautéed with sugar until golden and caramelized, enhancing their sweetness and flavor. This creates a deeper, richer taste compared to traditional banana bread.
While caramelizing the bananas adds a unique flavor, you can skip this step and simply mash the ripe bananas into the batter. It will still taste delicious but without the extra caramelized richness.
Yes! You can add pecans or walnuts, and it will give a wonderful texture. You can also add chocolate chunks or chocolate chips.
💡Pro Tips
Measure Flour Correctly - As always, with any recipe, use a kitchen scale, as it is the best form of measuring your ingredients. If you don't have a kitchen scale, fluff your flour, scoop flour with a spoon into a measuring cup and level off.
Don't burn - Make sure not to burn the bananas when caramelizing them. You want them to get a little brown, so only cook for a few minutes on each side.
Don't over mix - Once the dry ingredients are incorporated, stop mixing.
Don't over bake - Start checking at 50 minutes to avoid over baking.
Bananas - For the caramelized bananas, you want ripe bananas. They don't have to be too overripe in this case since they're going to be caramelized. I usually give instructions on how to ripen bananas quickly, but in this case, it wouldn't work because if you bake bananas to ripen them quickly, they'll be too mushy to caramelize. So if you don't have any ripe bananas, you may need to wait a couple days to make this recipe.
Extra banana - For the top banana, I highly suggest making sure this one is more yellow and firm. We want to keep the shape and avoid it becoming mushy while caramelizing in the pan.
❄ Storage
Room temperature - Store Caramelized Banana Bread in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
Freezer - If you'd like to keep it longer, store loaf wrapped tightly in saran wrap, then in a Ziploc bag and freeze for 2 months. You can even slice and wrap individual slices.
📖 Recipe Card
Caramelized Banana Bread
Equipment
- 1 9x5 loaf pan
Ingredients
Caramelized Bananas
- 1½ cups (340 g) ripe bananas, cut into slices about 3 bananas
- 2 tablespoon (28 g) unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoon (24 g) dark brown sugar, packed
- 1 extra banana (make sure this one is more yellow - see notes below) optional (if you want to add a banana to top of loaf
Banana Bread
- 6 tablespoon (84 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- ¾ cup (150 g) dark brown sugar, packed
- 2 (112 g) large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon (4 g) vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (65 g) sour cream, room temperature
- ¼ cup (56 g) neutral oil
- 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour
- 1 tsp (4 g) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (3 g) salt
Topping
- turbinado sugar
Instructions
Caramelized Bananas
- Place a 10 inch skillet over medium heat and add butter and sugar and let melt completely. Stir it to combine.2 tablespoon unsalted butter, 2 tablespoon dark brown sugar, packed
- Place the bananas in the butter/sugar and let it cook for about 2-3 minutes, until the bottoms have browned. Then flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes until they're brown. Remove the bananas and add them to a bowl to cool, leaving behind whatever butter/sugar mixture.Mash your bananas and set the bowl aside.1½ cups ripe bananas, cut into slices
- OPTIONAL if you want the top banana: Place your extra banana in the pan and let it cook for a few minutes on each side until browned and caramelized, then remove it and place it on a plate, being careful not to break it.1 extra banana (make sure this one is more yellow - see notes below)
Banana Bread
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Grease and line a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, add melted butter, cooled bananas, brown sugar, eggs, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract, and whisk until all is completely incorporated.6 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled, ¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed, 2 large eggs, room temperature, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ¼ cup sour cream, room temperature, ¼ cup neutral oil
- Sift in the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until JUST combined. Do not over mix your batter.2 cups all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, then top with the slices of banana and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.turbinado sugar
- Bake in middle rack of preheated oven for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Mine took around 55 minutes.
- Let cool for at least 15 minutes before removing from pan. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
- Store leftovers in airtight container.
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