Name: Air Fryer Banana Bread
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 55 min
Total time: 65 min
Ingredients: ½ cup mashed ripe banana (about 1½ medium); ½ cup sour cream; 2 tablespoons butter (softened); ⅔ cup white sugar; 1 egg; ½ teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 cup flour (all purpose); ½ teaspoon baking soda; ½ teaspoon baking powder; ⅛ teaspoon salt

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Banana bread is the very best use of over ripe bananas. But in summer, I really hate to fire up my oven unless absolutely necessary.

And even though I freeze my ripe bananas until I’m ready to bake(you can read about how I do this below), after a while I start to feel that there’s a real buildup of frozen bananas waiting to be used.

That’s where the air fryer comes in. Once I realized I could use mine to bake banana bread, I was happy to make it, even on the hottest days of summer.

Air Fryer Banana Bread all summer long!

Ingredients needed

banana bread ingredients: flour, bananas, egg, vanilla, sour cream, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt

Using frozen bananas for baking

First, let me explain my freezing process for overripe bananas. Once a banana is past its prime, I put it in the freezer. Peel and all. This recipe only calls for a half cup of banana, which is about 1½ medium bananas.

When you thaw a frozen banana, you will find that the fruit has become semi-liquid. Which eliminates the need to mash an unfrozen banana, so I find this method superior. 😁

Once the banana has thawed (still inside the intact peel), simply snip off the end of the banana peel and squeeze the puree into a measuring cup. As I said, you’ll probably need more than one to make a half cup, so plan accordingly.

slice of bread on a red plate, sitting on a napkin with a small vase of yellow flowers and some bananas behind

Using an air fryer to make banana bread

I started with my favorite banana bread recipe and modified it for the air fryer.

It is important to note that I use an Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid. This lid has some specific features (like a bake setting) that may or may not be present in other brands. It took multiple attempts to get the timing and settings figured out for this, so if you have a different model, please understand that it may (probably) perform differently.

With any air fryer, there are certain things you need to figure out to make banana bread - here are the questions I had, which needed to be figured out:

Question #1 was: how do you fit a loaf pan in a round air fryer basket?

Answer: you don’t! I use a 6-inch round cake pan. 😀

And since you can only fit one at a time in the air fryer, I decided to reduce the size of my recipe, which originally made 2 loaves. But that was easy enough.

Question #2 was: do I use the air fryer basket?

My answer: no. The basket feels redundant when using a cake pan. The Instant Pot liner alone does the trick. I do however use a trivet to raise the cake pan from bottom of the Instant Pot liner and to promote air circulation all around it.

Question #3: time and temperature settings.

This took the longest to figure out. I did start out using the air fry function and it does make a good banana bread. If you want to try this, I air fried for 30 minutes at 350F. The top crust was VERY brown and the inside was slightly under done. If I try again, it will be at 325F for 35-40 minutes.

But after that first attempt, I realized that the air fryer lid has a BAKE setting, so I started using that. We are, after all, trying to replicate the baking process normally used for banana bread.

I found that using the bake setting with a combination of uncovered and covered (with foil) of the bread produces the best result: moist and flavorful banana bread. Every bite brings a smile. 😀

round loaf of banana bread ready to serve

How to make the banana bread

Banana bread is considered a “quick bread”, a term used to describe a bread that uses a leavening agent such as baking powder or soda instead of yeast, which permits immediate baking of the batter rather than waiting for it to rise.

Simply mix the dry ingredients separately from the wet, then combine them all together. Transfer the batter to the baking pan and bake.

For the air fryer lid, start with the cake pan uncovered and bake for 30 minutes at 325F. Then remove the pan, cover with foil and return it to the Instant Pot. Use the lid to bake an additional 25 minutes at 325F.

Let the bread cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove and finish cooling on a wire rack. The smell will drive you crazy, and yes you can have some while it’s still warm – I find it irresistible!

Apart from being in a round pan, this bread is no different from the version I make in the oven: wonderful sweet banana taste in every tender bite, with a terrific crusty top. Have with a cup of coffee or tea – you’ll love it!

slice of air fryer banana bread on a small red plate

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