Mohamed Shili Pioneer Woman Banana Bread is a big, rich bundt pan loaf made with two sticks of butter, sour cream, and ripe mashed bananas, baked at 350F for just over an hour.
This is Ree Drummond’s mom’s recipe, published on thepioneerwoman.com. Ree has said she hates bananas but makes an exception for this bread because the sour cream and butter transform the flavor into something closer to pound cake than typical banana bread.
The sour cream is what separates this loaf from every other banana bread recipe. It keeps the crumb dense and moist for days, and without it the bread dries out fast because the batter has over four cups of flour to absorb.
Pioneer Woman Banana Bread
Description
A buttery, pound cake-style banana bread baked in a bundt pan with sour cream for an ultra-moist crumb. Her mom’s recipe, no nuts, no fuss, and enough to feed a crowd.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Prep the pan. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Grease a bundt pan thoroughly with butter and dust with flour, tapping out the excess.
- Cream the butter and sugar. In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat the softened butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the eggs. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a few seconds after each one before adding the next.
- Mix in the bananas. Add the mashed bananas and beat until just combined. The batter will look slightly curdled, which is normal.
- Combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
- Alternate dry and sour cream. Add the dry ingredients and sour cream to the batter in alternating additions, starting and ending with the dry. Beat until just combined after each addition.
- Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and smooth the top. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool and serve. Let the bread cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack. Serve warm with softened butter spread on each slice.
FAQs
Why does Ree’s recipe use a bundt pan instead of a standard loaf pan?
This batter makes roughly twice the volume of a typical banana bread because of the sour cream and extra flour. A standard 9×5 loaf pan would overflow, and the center would stay raw while the edges overbake.
The bundt pan’s hollow center lets heat reach the middle of the batter from both sides, so a thick, dense bread like this bakes evenly all the way through. If you only have loaf pans, divide the batter between two greased 9×5 pans and reduce the bake time to about 50 minutes.
Why alternate the dry ingredients with the sour cream instead of adding everything at once?
Dumping all the flour in at once forces you to mix longer to get rid of lumps, which develops too much gluten and makes the bread tough. Alternating in small batches keeps the mixing time short so the crumb stays tender.
Starting and ending with the dry ingredients matters too. The flour coats the fat in the butter and prevents the sour cream from breaking the emulsion, which would leave greasy pockets in the finished loaf.
Why is there no vanilla extract in this recipe?
Ree’s mom kept this recipe stripped down to the basics, and the banana and butter carry all the flavor. Adding vanilla would work, but it also masks some of the banana taste that makes this bread different from plain pound cake.
If you want to add it, 1 teaspoon won’t hurt anything. Just know the bread was designed to taste like banana and butter first, so vanilla shifts the flavor slightly toward dessert territory.
Can you add nuts even though Ree’s mom leaves them out?
You can fold in 1 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans with no other changes to the recipe. Toss them in a tablespoon of flour first so they don’t sink to the bottom of the bundt pan during baking.
Ree’s mom deliberately skips nuts, and Ree has said she prefers it that way. The bread is rich enough from the butter and sour cream that nuts can feel like too much texture in an already dense crumb.
Why does this banana bread taste better the next day?
The sour cream keeps releasing moisture into the crumb as the bread sits, so the texture actually improves overnight. Fresh out of the oven, the edges can taste slightly dry compared to the center, but by morning everything evens out.
Wrap the cooled bread tightly in plastic wrap and leave it on the counter. It stays moist for a full 4 days. Slice and freeze anything you won’t eat by then, wrapped in plastic and foil, for up to 3 months.
