Not Just Another Banana Bread Recipe: Quick & Easy One-Bowl Sour Cream Banana Bread

There are a thousand and one banana bread recipes out there. Everyone has a favorite banana bread. From Molly Wizenberg’s Banana Bread with Chocolate and Ginger to Dorie Greenspan’s Cocoa Banana Bread, there are countless delicious options. I generally like my sister’s banana bread recipe, which is just a plain-Jane perfectly yummy banana bread for which you’ll undoubtedly have all the ingredients on hand at any given time, should you suddenly find yourself with overripe bananas and no time to run to the store. But. If you also have sour cream in the fridge, then this recipe is for you. Here. Now. Sour Cream Banana Bread. Oh dear me, yes.

Luscious. Moist. Perfect. Sour cream just does something to baked goods (and no, it doesn’t make them sour). Like these pancakes, which have been blogged and re-blogged all over the web, because they’re that good. This banana bread is also that good.

Aaaand . . . drumroll, please . . . it mixes up in one bowl. No mixer. No mess. One bowl. One spoon. Two loaf pans.

I don’t know where I got the original recipe, which I’ve of course tweaked a bit. It had been scribbled in obvious haste on a tattered piece of scrap paper and stuffed between the pages of a book. The handwriting was mine, but I recognized nothing more. Anyway, thinking of those sour cream pancakes, I made no delay in baking a loaf.

We weren’t disappointed. Well, except maybe E, who simply said, “Where are the chocolate chips?” But he says that about every baked good that could incorporate chocolate and doesn’t. As for L, this was her breakfast and snack for days, and it received emphatic nods of approval, even warranting her first contextual use of the word “Gooood!” Exclamation point included purposefully.

Quick & Easy One-Bowl Sour Cream Banana Bread

2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar (I use evaporated cane juice or raw sugar)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2-3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sour cream
2-3 very ripe bananas, mashed to a pulp (about 1-1/2 cups)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter or oil two regular-size loaf pans.

Stir together the softened butter, sugar, and vanilla until fully combined.

Add the eggs and mix well.

Stir in the baking soda, baking powder, and salt until fully incorporated.

Stir in the mashed bananas, then the sour cream.

Finally, add the flour, a cupful at a time, stirring well after each addition.

Divide the batter between the loaf pans.

Bake 60-75 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If bread starts getting too dark on top, cover with foil.

*Note: This freezes well. I like to make a batch and freeze one loaf for later. Just wrap in plastic wrap and place in a zippered freezer bag, taking care to get all the air out.

Here’s the printable recipe.