We all know this story. You’ve got a bowl of fresh fruit. There are bananas in the bowl; some nice and yellow and some brown and mushy. Somebody grabs a banana from the bowl, but it’s always a yellow one. Leaving you with a bunch of overripe, brown, and mushy bananas. Well, that’s perfect, because this recipe for sourdough banana bread needs just those bananas.
When I was starting out with sourdough, I had a lot of sourdough discard, and I didn’t know what to do with it, so I scoured the web for recipes using discarded sourdough starter and one I found was this recipe from The Perfect Loaf. I must say that it is the best banana bread I’ve ever tried, so I had to share it.
If you are just here for the recipe, you can press the button underneath to be automagically transported to the recipe:
The first written recipes for banana bread started popping up in the 1930s in American cookbooks. Those were pretty dense bread with wheat bran as a filler, which was added because it was cheap and made it a more economical bread during the meager post-depression years.
A big part of the 1940s was during World War II and rationing was real. The banana bread of that decade was lean because people would use fewer eggs and sour milk or buttermilk. It was just a lot cheaper. It was meant to fill your stomach.
In the 1950s people started to have more disposable income. People were better educated and got a lot of children. Many moms were still stay-at-home moms even though it was more common to see women in the workplace. This was the time of ‘convenience’. The recipes were simpler or people would just buy a cake mix instead of making the cakes themselves.
Later on, in the 1960s and 1970s, the hippie movement wanted to change the world from ‘suit-and-tie’ to more of an ‘encompass-all’ type world. That also meant that people started eating things that were ‘out of the box’ compared to earlier. The recipes for banana bread from this era would contain exotic (at the time) ingredients like vanilla, almond, orange, nutmeg, and coffee.
In the 1990s people started to get fancy and use expensive ingredients. The banana bread of this era were rich both in fats, nuts and flavor.
At the turn of the millennium, people started getting more health-conscious and the banana bread recipes from these years turned down the butter, the nuts, and especially the sugar.
Now as we are closing in on the 2020s this sourdough banana bread recipe seems to be a culinary statement of our time. People are trying to make things from scratch and eat less factory-made foods.
The history in this section is inspired by this article at King Arthur flour.
This sourdough banana bread recipe
Most common banana bread recipes are leavened using chemical leavening like baking powder or baking soda. Which is fine, it can make some delicious baked goods.
In this recipe, there’s only a little bit of baking soda and the starter is working as the acid to help it react. There’s less baking soda than usual because the starter is also helping the bread rise.
In the last couple of years, people who bake have become obsessed with natural leavening also known as a sourdough starter.
People mostly do bread using their starters, but I will start sharing recipes for other things that can also be made using sourdough starter. This recipe is the first one, more will follow.
Banana bread is kind of a hybrid. Half bread/half cake. It’s sweet bread.
The taste of this bread is not sour at all. If you did a side-by-side taste test, you wouldn’t be able to pick out the one with the starter. The reason is that a freshly fed starter isn’t sour, and there’s basically no fermentation time, so no sour notes are able to develop.
It’s as easy as any banana bread, but this one is just the best one I’ve ever tried. Give it a go.
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This is a wonderful recipe for sourdough banana bread. I hope you will try to make it. If you make this recipe and post it to Instagram, please tag me as @foodgeek.dk so I can see it. That will make me very happy.
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Banana bread is quintessential American. As American as Apple Pie, except that its a bread. Or is it a cake? Who knows, but it is moist, crunchy, and delicious. I love it!
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gask Mark 4 (no fan assist).
Combine flour(s), baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Give everything a good mix with your hand.
Chop the walnuts add a small handful to a small bowl, and add a few sugar- pinches. Add the rest of the chopped nuts to another bowl.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream 125g butter and 100g brown sugar.
Once the mixture is nice a fluffy, add the eggs, one at a time. Scrape down as needed.
While the mixture is beating, peel the three bananas and mash them up in a bowl.
Once everything is thoroughly combined, add sourdough starter, honey, mashed bananas, olive oil, and vanilla, and mix on medium-high speed.
Slow down the mixer and add flour little by little. Once combined, stop the mixer.
Add reserved chopped walnuts (without sugar) and lemon zest (if using) and fold in using a spatula.
Pour the batter into a well-buttered 12cm x 22cm pan (9" x 5") and smooth the top. Sprinkle with walnut and sugar mixture.
Bake for 55 to 65 minutes. Err on under-cooking as you want this bread to be moist. Stick in a toothpick; it should come out without batter. It took about 60 minutes in my oven.
Once done, put on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. When the 10 minutes are up, remove from the pan and let cool completely before slicing into it.
Video
Noter
Bake in a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan.This banana bread will stay moist for days after baking, but be sure to wrap it in aluminum foil or something else to prevent too much moisture loss.
I made this down to the T and the texture was nice but it wasn’t sweet enough. Next time I would add either more brown sugar or a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar.
Taste is different. Brown sugar is delicious. Those were the words 😉
I love this recipe. Not too sweet and love the texture. But, curious on the Calories?? is that a typo? For Whole loaf?
No typo. It’s for the whole loaf.
I had to hunt for a recipe that used weight instead of volume. I’ve used this recipe several times over about three months with great success. I’ve made a few small changes, by adding some cinnamon to the flour, and using pecans instead of walnuts. I also substitute half of the nuts for approximately 150% more dark chocolate chips.
About the same time I first used this recipe, I found the food geek channel on youtube, and subscribed. I only just today did I notice that this was Sune’s website! What a great resource for information!
Thank you <3
More chocolate almost always mean more delicious 😀
Great recipe. Just made it. I added some chocolate chips and used avocado oil in the place of olive oil. Not to sweet. A good balance. My starter was fed with W.W and I used A.P for the remainder. I also used almonds in the place of walnuts. My wife and daughter enjoyed. Well done Sir.
Sounds delicious 😀 Glad you liked it <3
Hi there Sune. I’m just asking about the baking soda. At 27 seconds in, you say there’s no baking soda, yet the written recipe clearly includes it. Is there much of a reason to include or exclude it?
It’s an error on my part. I had convinced myself it didn’t have any chemical leavening when I made the “talking head” part. Obviously it’s wrong 🙂
Have made a few times now – really, really delicious!
Amazing. Baked this as an experiment (never used sourdough for sweet bake before) and everyone loved this bread: smell, taste, texture.. mmm… best banana bread recipe! Thank you!
I just took this loaf out of the oven; it looks exactly like yours, Sune! It smells wonderful and the family can’t wait for it to cool a little bit and slice it up. I threw in a handful of blueberries that needed to be used today. Thank you, Sune and Maurizio at The Perfect Loaf!
Hi can i use disregard sourdough starter for this receipe ..Thanks Sune
Wonderful recipe, I’ve been making it for years. When I’m short of bananas, I make up the difference with apple sauce. Tonight I am also out of apple sauce, so I’m using pears. A peeled Cavendish banana weighs about 100 grams, and I had four bananas for a double batch. I mashed 200 grams of canned (tinned) pears to add to the 400 grams of bananas. Two loaves are in the oven!
Thank you 😀
Those are some great tips. Pear bread sounds awesome <3
Hi! I want to make this loaf but don’t know if it has to be active starter? Can I use sourdough starter discard for the recipe? My sourdough starter has been sitting in the fridge for a week and I want to start it up again for a sourdough loaf but not sure what to do with the discard.
Yes, discard is fine. I’ve updated the recipe 🙂
Made this and it was amazing! I used sucanat (less processed form of sugar with caramel vs molasses overtones) & veganized it using plant butter, Just Egg and golden syrup (instead of honey). I read the reviews and did add a bit more sugar. It is a keeper recipe and I will definitely try to have ripe bananas on hand when I (remember) to feed my sourdough! Thank you!
I made this down to the T and the texture was nice but it wasn’t sweet enough. Next time I would add either more brown sugar or a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar.
Taste is different. Brown sugar is delicious. Those were the words 😉
I love this recipe. Not too sweet and love the texture. But, curious on the Calories?? is that a typo? For Whole loaf?
No typo. It’s for the whole loaf.
I had to hunt for a recipe that used weight instead of volume. I’ve used this recipe several times over about three months with great success. I’ve made a few small changes, by adding some cinnamon to the flour, and using pecans instead of walnuts. I also substitute half of the nuts for approximately 150% more dark chocolate chips.
About the same time I first used this recipe, I found the food geek channel on youtube, and subscribed. I only just today did I notice that this was Sune’s website! What a great resource for information!
Thank you <3
More chocolate almost always mean more delicious 😀
Great recipe. Just made it. I added some chocolate chips and used avocado oil in the place of olive oil. Not to sweet. A good balance. My starter was fed with W.W and I used A.P for the remainder. I also used almonds in the place of walnuts. My wife and daughter enjoyed. Well done Sir.
Sounds delicious 😀 Glad you liked it <3
Hi there Sune. I’m just asking about the baking soda. At 27 seconds in, you say there’s no baking soda, yet the written recipe clearly includes it. Is there much of a reason to include or exclude it?
It’s an error on my part. I had convinced myself it didn’t have any chemical leavening when I made the “talking head” part. Obviously it’s wrong 🙂
Have made a few times now – really, really delicious!
Amazing. Baked this as an experiment (never used sourdough for sweet bake before) and everyone loved this bread: smell, taste, texture.. mmm… best banana bread recipe! Thank you!
I just took this loaf out of the oven; it looks exactly like yours, Sune! It smells wonderful and the family can’t wait for it to cool a little bit and slice it up. I threw in a handful of blueberries that needed to be used today. Thank you, Sune and Maurizio at The Perfect Loaf!
Hi can i use disregard sourdough starter for this receipe ..Thanks Sune
Wonderful recipe, I’ve been making it for years. When I’m short of bananas, I make up the difference with apple sauce. Tonight I am also out of apple sauce, so I’m using pears. A peeled Cavendish banana weighs about 100 grams, and I had four bananas for a double batch. I mashed 200 grams of canned (tinned) pears to add to the 400 grams of bananas. Two loaves are in the oven!
Thank you 😀
Those are some great tips. Pear bread sounds awesome <3
Hi! I want to make this loaf but don’t know if it has to be active starter? Can I use sourdough starter discard for the recipe? My sourdough starter has been sitting in the fridge for a week and I want to start it up again for a sourdough loaf but not sure what to do with the discard.
Yes, discard is fine. I’ve updated the recipe 🙂
Made this and it was amazing! I used sucanat (less processed form of sugar with caramel vs molasses overtones) & veganized it using plant butter, Just Egg and golden syrup (instead of honey). I read the reviews and did add a bit more sugar. It is a keeper recipe and I will definitely try to have ripe bananas on hand when I (remember) to feed my sourdough! Thank you!