High Altitude Banana Bread

An easy recipe for banana bread that's moist and flavorful, wonderful plain, or with nuts or chocolate chips.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

5 from 46 votes

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 55

Total Time 1 5

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings1 loaf

1 ½ cups mashed over-ripe bananas (about 3 large or 4 medium bananas, or 13.6 oz mashed bananas)
½ cup sour cream
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
¾ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
⅛ tsp ground cardamom

Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan, or line it with a piece of parchment paper so that the paper hangs over two sides, and spray with non-stick baking spray.
In a bowl, mash the bananas. Whisk in the sour cream, melted butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs until smooth.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir just until moistened. If adding chocolate chips or chopped nuts, fold them in now.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake on the center rack for about 55 minutes, until the top is cracked and a cake tester or sharp knife comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then lift the bread out by the paper and set on a cooling rack to cool for several hours before slicing. Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to three days.

Leftovers should be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Banana bread can also be baked in advance, wrapped in plastic wrap, and frozen for 3-6 months.
Chocolate chips and/or chopped pecans would be great in this recipe - about 1/2 cup of each.
If you like your banana bread with crumb topping, I'd recommend this recipe for streusel topping.
For chocolate banana bread, just make these two simple adjustments, with no other changes to the recipe needed.
- Replace 1/2 cup of the flour with 6 tbsp Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder.
- Add 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. You can also sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top of the batter before baking the bread.

Keyword Banana Bread, High Altitude