Easy 5 Ingredient Banana Bread
Healthy 5 Ingredient Banana Bread Recipe
How to Make an Easy Banana Bread with Minimal Ingredients
If you’ve got a few ripe bananas lying around, you can whip up this 5 ingredient banana bread in a jiffy! Deliciously soft and moist, perfectly sweet and flavorful, and oh-so-easy to throw together. All you’ll need are bananas, flour, eggs, maple syrup, and baking soda—just toss it all into a blender, pour it into a loaf pan, and bake! I’ll show you how to make an easy banana bread with minimal ingredients in under an hour.
Of course, you’re welcome to jazz up your loaf with any additional seasonings, flavorings, or mix-ins that you like. But the base batter for this 5 ingredient banana bread couldn’t be easier—or tastier. You don’t need tons of ingredients to get a delicious result! The perfect use-what-you-have kind of recipe, especially when you’ve got bananas browning on the counter and ripe for the baking. (See what I did there?)
And, with natural sweetness from the bananas and just ¼ cup of maple syrup in the entire recipe, it’s a deliciously sweet but still lower-sugar option—with only 10g of sugar per slice! It makes for a satisfying snack, or even a simple breakfast that feels like a treat. Or, heat it up in the toaster oven and enjoy it as a dessert with a scoop of ice cream!
Whether you’re stuck at home during quarantine or just wanting to bake a loaf on a whim, this is the perfect easy banana bread recipe to make with minimal ingredients. So, check your pantry and fridge, grab your blender, and let’s give this five ingredient banana bread a whirl.
5 Ingredient Banana Bread Recipe
- Ripe bananas (or 1½ cups mashed)
- All-purpose flour, or oat flour
- Eggs
- Maple syrup, or honey
- Baking soda
Substitution Notes
- Bananas: These are a must in this easy banana bread recipe! Of course, if you’re just looking for an easy loaf to make and don’t have bananas on hand, you could try swapping them out for 1½ cups of apple sauce.
- Flour: I made this recipe with all-purpose flour because it results in the texture that I like best, but this recipe will likely also work with oat flour as well.
- Eggs: These are necessary to give the loaf some of its rise and fluffiness, and I haven’t personally tried making this recipe with a substitute. If you’re looking for an alternative, you’re welcome to experiment with flax eggs, or even yogurt.
- Maple Syrup: This is my preferred sticky sweetener, but you can also use honey!
- Baking Soda: As the leavening agent in this recipe, it’s essential to get the loaf to rise in the oven. I haven’t personally tried making this 5 ingredient banana bread with baking powder instead, but you can try it. Generally, baking powder substitutes for baking soda at a 3:1 ratio, meaning you’d try replacing the 1 tsp of baking soda with 3 tsp of baking powder.
How to Make a Banana Bread Recipe with Minimal Ingredients
Again, the point of this five ingredient banana bread recipe is to make things easy! If you’ve got a blender, you don’t even need to mash up your bananas. Just break them into pieces, toss everything into the blender, and blend until smooth! Then, simply pour your batter into a prepared loaf pan and let it bake in a 350°F (180°C) oven for 45-50 minutes.
Before you get started, there are just a few questions to consider as you choose your ingredients for this recipe.
Can I Use Regular Bananas for Banana Bread?
By “regular” bananas here, I’m talking about under-ripe or just all-yellow bananas. And the answer is no—do NOT use underripe bananas in this 5 ingredient banana bread recipe or any banana bread recipe! As bananas ripen, their starches convert into sugars and they become sweeter. Riper bananas will always be the sweetest and add the best flavor to your baked goods, so you must use ripe bananas.
If you struggle to remember to buy bananas ahead of time so they’re ripe when you’re ready to bake, consider making a practice of freezing ripe bananas! Let your bananas ripen, peel and slice them once they’re really ripe, and freeze them in a freezer-safe bag to use later. Personally, I haven’t tried this hack myself—I’ve only read about it—so I can’t speak to how well it will work out. But, my recommendation would be to thaw frozen bananas overnight in the fridge before using them.
How Ripe Should Bananas Be for Banana Bread?
So, how ripe is ripe enough for banana bread? Honestly, you want your bananas to be very ripe, so the peels are spotted or streaked or even fully brown/black in color. You want there to be NO green visible, or just barely a hint of green at the stem. The darker your banana looks, the sweeter it’ll be—so there’s really no such thing as too ripe!
Can I Make a 5 Ingredient Gluten Free Banana Bread?
For those who want a gluten free banana bread option, oat flour should work just fine in this recipe. As of writing this, I haven’t yet tested the recipe using oat flour—only all-purpose flour—but oat flour generally works well as a substitute in loaf recipes like this. If you’re making homemade oat flour from oats, I recommend sifting it first (with a flour sifter or fine mesh strainer) for the fluffiest texture.
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Easy 5 Ingredient Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 3 ripe bananas, or 1 ½ cups mashed
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, or oat flour
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup maple syrup, or honey
- 1 tsp baking soda
Optional Flavorings:
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
- mix-ins of choice, i.e., chopped walnuts or pecans, chocolate chips, raisins, etc.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Prepare 9×5-inch loaf pan with foil or parchment and spray with cooking spray.
- Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. (If desired, stir in any mix-ins, or sprinkle on any toppings.)
- Bake 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. (This is the suggested bake time based on my oven, but it may vary. If it's your first time making this recipe, I recommend checking your loaf's doneness around 25-30 minutes.)
- Allow to cool completely before cutting.
- Store in an airtight container on the counter up to 3 days or in the fridge for a week.
20 Comments on “Easy 5 Ingredient Banana Bread”
Less is so better when it comes to healthy food recipes. The directions are spot on and easy to follow. So delicious even the batter. Going to have 3 loaves of banana bread. Don’t add anything else in but maybe something on top after cooling.
Thanks for making cooking food and healthy.
Hi Jessica, thank you for your kind & thoughtful comment! We’re so glad to hear this banana bread recipe turned out well for you & was easy to follow. Our hope is always to make cooking & healthy living a bit easier & less stressful! We appreciate you trying out the recipe, and we appreciate you being here 🙂
Hi
I cannot count the number of times I ve made banana bread using this recipe. It’s so simple and easy and absolutely very less mess. Thanks a lot. Each time I make slight differences in the flour though. Mostly I ve made it with whole wheat flour. Sometimes I substitute partly with oat flour, all purpose flour, semolina, even ground leftover muesli. Every time it turned out great. Sometimes I add chopped apples, frozen berries, etc. Such a healthy and hearty recipe. Thanks a lot. Looking forward for more simple healthy ones from you. Love ❤
Hi Swathi, my heart is warmed reading your kind comment! Thank you 🙂 We’re glad to hear this recipe is easy and has worked so well for you – that’s always our hope. It’s great to know the different flours & mix-ins that you’ve used so others can try those out as well!
We appreciate you being here, and sending love your way from our whole team <3
Happy to have found a quick easy recipe. I added a handful of frozen strawberries and mixed it with a wood spoon.
Hi Michele, we’re glad to hear this quick & easy banana bread recipe worked out well for you 🙂 What a great idea to add frozen strawberries – we’ll have to give that a try! I bet your loaf looked gorgeous, too
I can’t say for taste, (in the oven as we speak) but I can say I was so excited to see such a simple banana bread recipe! I did modify it slightly opted for gluten free flour, added an extra half riped banana, a sprinkle of salt, a dash of pumpkin pie seasoning, and I added semi sweet choc chips with chopped walnuts on top! I’m really hoping it comes out as good as it sounds. I also didn’t blend mine, chose to get my arm workout for the evening instead lol. It took me about 15 minutes from start to finish, all n’ all quite easy to prepare. I will update once eaten!
Wow, Christina! Thank you for trying our super simple banana bread recipe & sharing your ingredient adjustments here! That information will be so helpful to others who want to try making a gluten-free version, or add some tasty mix-ins. We’re glad the ease of this recipe suited what you were looking for – our favorite recipes are the easiest to make! We’d love to know how your loaf turned out 🙂
Thanks for the recipe! I was wondering if I could replace the 1/4 cup of maple syrup or honey with sugar substitute.
Hi Regan, great question. You could make this 5 ingredient banana bread with granulated sugar instead of maple syrup or honey. But if you’re planning to use a low-calorie sweetener like stevia, erythritol, etc. substituting is a bit trickier. Some of these sweeteners are sweeter than regular sugar (some are less sweet), so you can’t use them as 1-to-1 substitutes for sugar in baking recipes. If you look at the substitution recommendations for the specific sweetener you want to use, you could try to calculate how much you might use in this recipe! I hope this helps 🙂
Awesome recipe! But ours was done in 30min (and was actually a little brown/crisp on top) so I think 45-50min would have charred it!
Hi Brittney – wow! That is a much quicker bake time! Good thing you were monitoring and checking your loaf so you could catch it when it was done! I’m so sorry that our bake time proved to be too long for your particular oven or perhaps something about the weather conditions. We have made this recipe many times and it always takes at least 45 minutes, so I am not sure what happened here. This is helpful information though, and I will be sure to add a note on the recipe to let others know about your experience and avoid a potentially charred loaf! Thank you 🙂
Good recipe and good result. It did take us more than 5 minutes prep as we have no blender, more like 10-15 mins, everything mixed by hand by my grandson, he was a great helper. Cinnamon and the salt were added which enhanced the flavour of the very ripe bananas. I sliced another half lrg banana in 1/4 inch rounds and placed on the batter before putting the pan in the oven. Gives a classy look, wishing I had sprinkled a little white or brown sugar on the banana pieces but I forgot. My oven cooked the banana bread for 45 minutes perfectly – light and raised up as it should. The house smells so fabbie I sliced a piece even before the banana bread was cooled, topped with butter and devoured. Will make this one again and recommend your recipe. Thanks Alyssia!
Hi there Sammi, thanks so much for trying our 5 ingredient banana bread and sharing how it went with us! What a fantastic idea to add some sliced banana on top 🙂 It’s also helpful to know that the recipe worked for you even without a blender. So glad that you and your grandson could enjoy the experience together!
love this recipe the bread came out so soft and yum definitely a keeper thank you.
Hi Rose, it’s fantastic to hear this easy banana bread recipe turned out well for you! Thank you so much for trying it out and sharing your kind words with us 🙂
I haven’t made this yet, but it says next tocook time in the gray box, it says 7 hours, but it also says 45-50 min.
Hi Katy, so sorry for the confusion! The bake time for this 5 ingredient banana bread is 45-50 minutes at 350F or 180C. Thank you for catching that glitch and bringing it to our attention!
So clean, and so delicious
And so EASY! I love that I can throw this 5 ingredient banana bread together so quickly and with so few ingredients 🙂