This recipe for blueberry banana bread is a moist loaf of the classic sweet bread that’s chock full of juicy blueberries. It’s the perfect snack or dessert option and can be frozen for later use!
Banana bread is a classic recipe, but when you add fresh blueberries to the mix, you end up with an amazingly delicious treat that your friends and family will love.
As I’ve mentioned before, my kids consume bananas at a rapid pace and it’s rare that we have any left over at the end of the week. If I want to actually cook or bake with bananas I have to hide them away so they don’t get immediately eaten! This blueberry banana bread is a favorite treat in our house – banana bread is such a classic treat as-is, but this version takes it over the top with plenty of blueberries in the mix.
How do you make blueberry banana bread?
This blueberry banana bread recipe is similar to most other recipes in the banana bread genre with a few changes that make a big difference. A generous amount of fresh blueberries is added to the mix, along with yogurt for added moisture. You can also make this recipe with frozen blueberries but they’re more likely to turn the batter purple as they melt into the mix.
Tossing the blueberries in a little flour before you add them to the batter will keep them from sinking to the bottom of your loaf.
While I love this bread as-is with just the blueberry and banana flavors, you can customize this loaf to add your own touch. Some great additions to this recipe are
- lemon zest
- orange zest
- white chocolate chips
- sliced almonds
- coconut
I add a few extra blueberries over the top of my batter before it goes into the oven, and the end result is the most beautiful loaf of banana bread you’ve ever seen!
How do you freeze banana bread?
If somehow you don’t happen to finish all of your banana bread, or you simply want to save some for another day, you can easily freeze your bread. You can tightly wrap the whole loaf in plastic wrap, then place in a resealable bag and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw your bread at room temperature when you’re ready to eat. The other option is to wrap up individual slices in plastic wrap and store them in a resealable bag. You can them thaw your slices at room temperature or microwave them for about 20-30 seconds.
Once you try this blueberry banana bread, you’ll never want to go back to regular old banana bread. My kids love to take this bread in their lunch and you can even add a little glaze and call it a dessert.
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More blueberry recipes you’ll love
- Blueberry Smoothie
- Blueberry Shortcake
- Blueberry Upside Down Cake
- Blueberry Bread Pudding
- Healthy Blueberry Muffins
Blueberry Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour + 1 tablespoon to coat the blueberries
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup vanilla or plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries plus more for the top of the bread (can substitute frozen although bread may be streaked blue)
- Cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a medium bowl, combine the 2cups of flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Place granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl, beat with a mixer at medium speed until mixture is fluffy and well blended (about 1 minute).
- Add mashed banana, eggs, yogurt and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist.
- Place the blueberries in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of flour and toss to coat.
- Gently fold blueberries into the batter. Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Press additional blueberries into the top of the batter for decoration.
- Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool the bread 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove the bread from pan.
- Cool completely on wire rack.
Nutrition
This post was originally published on January 27, 2016 and was updated on January 15, 2019 with new content.
Can I use a stone pan and should I reduce the time if so?
You mean like a ceramic baking pan?
Can you substitute brown sugar for white sugar? If so, is it 1:1?
That should be fine I believe, although I haven’t tested it myself!
Should I be worried that the pan is super full?? What if it doesn’t cook all the way before drying it or burning?
It sounds like maybe you’re not using the correct pan size if the batter is coming all the way to the top. You can see in the photo that there’s about 1/2 inch of space between the batter and the top.
How much can I reduce the sugar without making the blueberry banana bread too dense? And do I need to add a non-sweet substitution like applesauce or whatever?
You could try reducing the sugar to 1/2 cup but I haven’t tested it that way myself!
I used 1/2 cup sugar and it was sweet enough. Came out perfect. I don’t think the salt is necessary, and will eliminate it next time. Great recipe! Thank you.
Made it with cream of coconut , dark chocolate chips, pecans and my family loves it!
Just curious..when I cover it, it becomes really soggy. Do you think it’s ok to leave uncovered?
You could leave it uncovered for a day but then it might start to dry out after that.
May I substitute baking soda for baking powder?
I haven’t tested it this way so I’m not sure if it would come out. My guess is that it would likely be ok.
I normally don’t comment on recipes but this was fantastic! I used vanilla yogurt and followed the recipe to a tee. This is a keeper and honestly the best blueberry bread or muffin recipe that I have ever made. Next time I may try adding lemon zest and that will put it completely over the top but it’s already over the top in my opinion.
this recipe is perfect, i cooked for 1 hr precisly and made 3 loafs in 2 days all 3 were perfect, yet ihad only yogurt for the first, in the second i used table cream 18%, and in the 3rd,i used ; wait for it,…… vanilla icecream!!! all 3 were heavenly! thanxs for the wonderful recipe
I made this today but had to use sour cream for the yogurt.
So great!
This was an incredibly delicious loaf.
I made it with cream instead of yogurt and I used brown sugar as well.
I added some lemon juice and grated lemon rind.
It took longer than 70 mins to cook in my toaster oven- closer to 1.5 hours actually but when it was cooled and cut it was luscious. I used a glass loaf container so I could see the baking process which I am glad I used as I had to put the loaf back in the toaster oven a couple time after testing with a knife to see if it was done or not.
I have made banana loaf many times as we have always a stock of overripe frozen ones in the freezer but this was the best banana loaf I’ve made. Thanks.
What other size pan would be okay to use for this recipe?
You could use 9×5 but the bread will be flatter and you’ll need to reduce the cook time a bit.
Here in new jersey,blueberry capital of everywhere, I made this bread and it made a mess of my oven. The big berries I believe have too much juiciness for their own good. But it smells great and I know it’s done.
I am about to make this but thought I’d try my luck with asking one (more like 3 🙂 ) questions first! May I add walnut pieces or pecan pieces? If so, which nut would be better between the two? Also , may I do one of those nuts AND lemon zest? Or just lemon zest OR walnut/pecans? Thank you so much in advance!!!
Yes you can add nuts, I think pecans would be better! You could also do lemon zest!
I noticed no baking powder is this because of the kosher salt being added
This recipe is leavened just with baking soda!
Excellent crumb, balance of flavors. I added the lemon zest with a micro grater, also sprinkled small amount of cinnamon sugar atop blueberries before baking. Doubled the recipe, one loaf goes in the freezer. I will make this again! Thank you.
Hi.i made your recipe. It was so good (delicious ,moist) I do every 2 weeks. Thank you.
Taste is really good
I will try your other recipes
Can I use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour? Really looking forward to try this recipe!!
I think it would work best to use 1/2 whole wheat flour, 1/2 white flour. It may be very dense with all whole wheat flour!
Hi! I made the original version of your blueberry banana bread recipe with a lemon glaze, and it was pretty darned tasty. I then made it again, substituting dried sweetened strawberries for the blueberries. I wanted to warn people like me who substitute things willynilly that the sugar in the recipe must be reduced if something sweeter than the original is introduced. Note: I always substitute half of all purpose flour for whole wheat flour, and throw in sour cream instead of yogurt without any qualms.
I baked this today (Saturday afternoon in “lockdown” London, UK), after searching online for recipes to use up old bananas and blueberries. I’m so pleased with the result – it looks and tastes amazing. Loved the tip about flouring the blueberries to stop them sinking. I would make this again. Thanks for posting an easy to follow recipe that doesn’t require any “fancy” ingredients. I’m looking forward to reading and trying some of your other recipes! 5 stars from me!!
Can I use sour cream instead of yogurt
Yes that’s fine!
Well it’s quarantine baking! I wanted to ty something different than just banana bread, it’s in the oven I kknow it’s gonna be good, the batter was delich!