This easy stovetop recipe can cook an entire skillet's worth of banana bread in under 20 minutes, start to finish. Enjoy a slice of warm sweet bread and forget about the oven!
Ever find yourself without an oven and with ripe bananas? It happens more often than we'd like to admit and while you could simply freeze those bananas for later, why not enjoy them now?
With this no oven banana bread recipe you can enjoy the flavor of a freshly baked loaf in under half the time it would normally take to bake it. While it won't be exactly the same, it is a good little snack in its own right. Enjoy your skillet banana bread warm and within minutes.
For more banana bread recipes, be sure to check out my Cinnamon Crumble Banana Bread, One Bowl Banana Bread, Eggless Banana Bread, and Oreo Banana Bread.
Why This Recipe Works
- Simplicity at its finest. Made with just a few simple ingredients and without dirtying every dish in the house, it's as easy to make as you can imagine.
- Quick prep. It's so fast to throw together that you can have the batter ready to cook in just a few minutes flat. And because we use the stovetop, the cooking time is lessened too!
- It's always popular. Banana bread doesn't need a time of the year to make an entrance at your house. It's evergreen and always well-received.
🥘 Ingredients
Ripe bananas- You will need some ripe spotted bananas to make this banana bread well flavored and sweeter.
Vegetable oil- Adding in vegetable oil will give the bread the necessary fats needed to stay moist.
Baking soda- Use baking soda as a leaving agent to help the bread puff up nicely as it bakes.
Salt- This is a natural flavor enhancer and will make the bread taste delicious!
Vanilla extract- You will need some vanilla extract to help with the flavor enhancement.
Cinnamon- Use ground cinnamon for added warm flavors and spice.
Egg- Use an egg to help bind the bread together so it doesn't turn out too crumbly.
Sugar- You will need granulated sugar to make this bread nice and sweet.
All-purpose flour- This is the structural base of the recipe.
For the exact amounts needed, please see the recipe card below.
🍽 Equipment Needed
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🔪 Instructions
Check out how to make stovetop banana bread with these simple step-by-step instructions:
Grease the bottoms and sides of your skillet or pot and set it on a stove burner over medium-low heat to preheat.
In a large bowl, mash your bananas.
Stir in the oil, baking soda, and salt.
Add in the egg, vanilla, cinnamon and sugar.
Mix until smooth.
Add in the flour.
Stir until no flour streaks remain. Do not overmix.
Pour the batter into a preheated, greased skillet.
Add the lid and place over low-medium heat.
Cook with the lid on for 15 minutes.
Keep a watchful eye during the last 7 minutes as it will go by quickly and your bread could be finished early.
During the first 6 minutes of baking the top appears raw, wet, and gooey with cooked edges (like a pancake waiting to be flipped).
During the last portion of time, the top becomes solid and dry-looking. Test with a toothpick shortly after. You want it to come out clean.
When the bread is ready turn off the burner and place an upside-down plate on top.
Flip the skillet so that the bread is on the plate. The bottom will be up and it will look a little darker/burnt in the center.
Serve with powdered sugar or flip the bread back over so that it's upright and slice into wedges for serving.
🍴 Recipe Tips
Stainless Steel Pans will require a longer cooking time at a lower temperature to prevent burning. I highly recommend sticking with nonstick or ceramic pans for this recipe as they have higher success rates.
If you don't have a large skillet with a fitted lid, you want to use a large pot as I did.
Stovetop baking is different from oven baking in many ways. With oven baking heat goes from the top and bottom to bake goods and meats evenly while creating a firm crust that holds in moisture.
With stovetop baking we have heat coming up from the bottom and only a little residual heat coming in from the sides.
This banana bread won't look like anything you're used to because it was cooked solely from the bottom. With a fitted lid on the skillet, we trap heat to steam the top of the bread while the bottom bakes. Giving us a paler color and no golden-brown crust.
Making this banana bread on stove top ranges is easy but it happens quite quickly too so keep a watchful eye and don't leave it unattended. Banana bread without an oven will look different but will still taste great.
💭 FAQs
I recommend eating this stove top banana bread while it's still warm for best tasting results. Due to the manner in which it is cooked the longer it sits out the less pretty it becomes. You could store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days, but it's best served almost immediately.
More great banana recipes to try
- Mango Banana Bread
- Red Velvet Banana Bread
- Banana Bread With Strawberries
- 3 Ingredient Cake Mix Banana Bread
📖 Recipe
Stovetop Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Mashed bananas (about 2-3 ripe) ($0.75)
- ⅓ cup Vegetable oil ($0.19)
- 1 teaspoon Baking soda ($0.01)
- ¼ teaspoon Salt ($0.02)
- 1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon ($0.10)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract ($0.02)
- 1 large Egg ($0.08)
- ½ cup Granulated sugar ($0.11)
- 1 ½ cups All-purpose flour ($0.12)
Instructions
- Grease the bottoms and sides of your skillet or pot and set it on a stove burner over medium-low heat to preheat.
- In a large bowl, mash your bananas.
- Stir in the oil, baking soda, and salt.
- Add in the egg, vanilla, cinnamon and sugar. Mix until smooth.
- Add in the flour. Stir until no flour streaks remain. Do not overmix.
- Pour the batter into a preheated, greased skillet.
- Add the lid and place over low-medium heat.
- Cook with the lid on for 15 minutes. Keep a watchful eye during the last 7 minutes as it will go by quickly and your bread could be finished early.
- During the first 6 minutes of baking the top appears raw, wet, and gooey with cooked edges (like a pancake waiting to be flipped).
- During the last portion of time, the top becomes solid and dry-looking. Test with a toothpick shortly after. You want it to come out clean.
- When the bread is ready turn off the burner and place an upside-down plate on top.
- Flip the skillet so that the bread is on the plate. The bottom will be up and it will look a little darker/burnt in the center.
- Serve with powdered sugar or flip the bread back over so that it's upright and slice into wedges for serving.
Amanda says
You say to preheat the pot on a medium or low heat.but l can see no mention of the setting needed to cook this
NicoleDurham says
The banana bread is cooked at medium-low heat (the temperature between medium and low). I have edited the recipe card to reflect this in hopes it makes things clearer.
Funke says
Thank you very much, dear Nicole! The instructions are really easy to follow, and the detailed tips are a huge bonus ?
Tsioyna says
I'm about to try this
Mel says
This is going to be super specific but maybe it will help another foreigner in Korea also trying to bake with an ovenless kitchen.
This recipe worked really well even with substitutes.
If you're having trouble finding regular flour, you can use Korean pancake mix and skip the salt. The pancake mix already has some salt in it.
I had trouble finding baking soda as well so I went with the whipped egg white method and folded that in last. Got a good rise out of it and it turned out fairly fluffy but maybe a little more on the pudding side.
Didn't have vanilla but I think the brown sugar kinda made up for it (I used brown sugar instead of white)
Overall it came out nicely sweet with a lovely balance between the cinnamon, brown sugar and banana.
Husband loved it, the kids loved it, definitely making this again!
Nicole says
Thank you so much for sharing these substitutions/tips, I'm sure it will be very helpful to many readers. I'm lad you all enjoyed this recipe too 🙂
Mary says
This is amazing. We are in the middle of snow storm and have been stranded in our house for a week due to downed trees and power lines. Since we haven’t had power, I can only use the stove top to cook. I made this and because I only had one banana, I added frozen blueberries to the mix. When my son tried this he said, “OMG, this amazing.” I had to remind him that there were four other people in the house and he couldn’t eat the whole thing.
Nicole says
I'm so glad you liked the recipe, (blueberries sound like a wonderful addition!)