Banana Bread (Hot Honey Glaze)
The hot honey glaze was supposed to be optional. It is no longer optional. It is mandatory.
Ingredients
For the Banana Bread
- 3 very ripe bananas the blacker the better
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- Optional: 1/2 cup walnuts or chocolate chips
For the Hot Honey Glaze
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon butter
- Pinch of flaky sea salt
Method
Make the Bread
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Preheat oven to 175C / 350F. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan. Mash bananas in a large bowl. Stir in melted butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Stir until just combined — don’t overmix or the bread gets tough. Fold in walnuts or chips if using. Pour into pan. Bake 55-65 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then transfer to a rack.
Make the Hot Honey
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Combine honey, red pepper flakes, and butter in a small pan over low heat. Stir until butter melts and honey is warm and infused — about 2-3 minutes. Don’t boil it. Drizzle over warm banana bread. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Stand back and watch people lose their minds.
Banana Bread With Hot Honey Glaze — The Upgrade Your Brown Bananas Deserve
The hot honey glaze was supposed to be optional. It is no longer optional. It is mandatory.
I’ve been making banana bread for years — the kind every mom makes, using overripe bananas that nobody wanted to eat and enough brown sugar to make it worth the effort. It was always good. Reliable. Comfortable. But then I drizzled hot honey on top — honey infused with red pepper flakes, warm and sweet with a slow burn that sneaks up after the second bite — and my banana bread went from “good” to “why haven’t I been doing this my whole life.” The hot honey is what makes people ask for the recipe. Without it, this is solid banana bread. With it, it’s an event.
This is a one-bowl recipe, which matters when you have four kids and a dishwasher that’s always full. No mixer needed. No creaming butter and sugar. Just melt the butter, mash the bananas, mix everything in one big bowl, pour it in a pan, and bake. The fact that something this easy produces something this good feels almost unfair. I’m not complaining.
Why This Recipe Works
Three things: ugly bananas, brown sugar, and melted butter. The bananas need to be black and spotted — the uglier, the better. Overripe bananas have way more sugar and a deeper, more concentrated banana flavour than the yellow ones sitting in your fruit bowl looking pretty. Brown sugar adds moisture and a caramel depth that white sugar doesn’t. And melted butter (instead of creamed butter) gives a denser, fudgier texture that I prefer over the cakey kind. This is comfort food, not a bakery display. I want it moist and dense and impossible to eat just one slice.
Ingredients
For the Banana Bread
- • 3 very ripe bananas (the blacker the better)
- • 1/3 cup melted butter
- • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- • 1 large egg
- • 1 teaspoon vanilla
- • 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- • 1 teaspoon baking soda
- • 1/2 teaspoon salt
- • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- • Optional: 1/2 cup walnuts or chocolate chips
For the Hot Honey Glaze
- • 3 tablespoons honey
- • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- • 1 teaspoon butter
- • Pinch of flaky sea salt
How to Make It
Make the Bread
Preheat oven to 175C / 350F. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan. Mash bananas in a large bowl. Stir in melted butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Stir until just combined — don’t overmix or the bread gets tough. Fold in walnuts or chips if using. Pour into pan. Bake 55-65 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then transfer to a rack.
Make the Hot Honey
Combine honey, red pepper flakes, and butter in a small pan over low heat. Stir until butter melts and honey is warm and infused — about 2-3 minutes. Don’t boil it. Drizzle over warm banana bread. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Stand back and watch people lose their minds.
The Hot Honey Situation
Hot honey has been trending for a few years now, and for good reason — the combination of sweet and spicy makes everything better. On pizza. On fried chicken. On biscuits. And absolutely, devastatingly, on banana bread. The heat from the red pepper flakes is subtle — you taste warm honey first, then banana, then a gentle tingle that builds slowly. It’s not “I can’t feel my mouth” spicy. It’s “oh, that’s interesting” spicy. My kids eat it without complaint, and my daughter specifically requests “the spicy honey bread” which is a sentence I never expected from a child who once refused salsa because it “smelled too loud.”
If you’re spice-averse, the banana bread is excellent without the glaze. But at least try it once. Half a teaspoon of red pepper flakes in three tablespoons of honey is incredibly mild. You can always add more heat next time.
Tips
💡 Pro Tips
✓ Use ugly bananas. Black and spotted is perfect. If yours aren’t ripe enough, bake them in their skins at 150C for 15 minutes until they darken and soften.
✓ Don’t overmix. Stir until the flour disappears and stop. Overmixing develops gluten = tough bread.
✓ Start checking at 55 minutes. Every oven is different. A few moist crumbs on the toothpick = perfect. Wet batter = not done. Dry crumbs = overdone.
✓ Tent with foil if browning too fast. If the top is getting dark before the inside is done, cover loosely with foil for the last 15 minutes.
Variations
• Chocolate chip: Add 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Melted chocolate pockets + hot honey = ridiculous.
• Nutella swirl: Drop spoonfuls of Nutella on the batter, swirl with a knife.
• Peanut butter: Swirl 3 tablespoons PB through the batter.
• Without the glaze: Still great. The bread stands on its own. The hot honey is a bonus.
How to Store
Wrap tightly and store at room temperature for 3-4 days. It gets better on day 2. Freeze for up to 3 months — wrap in cling film then foil. Warm slices in the toaster. Store glaze separately and rewarm before drizzling.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use oil instead of butter?
Yes — same amount of vegetable or coconut oil. Slightly moister but less buttery flavour. Both work.
Why did mine sink in the middle?
Usually too much liquid (extra-wet bananas) or opening the oven too early. Let it bake undisturbed for at least 45 minutes.
Can I make muffins?
Yes. Fill cups 3/4 full, bake 18-22 minutes at the same temperature. Drizzle hot honey on top after baking. They look adorable and taste even better because the glaze-to-bread ratio is higher.
How this became a school morning staple
I started making banana bread on Sunday evenings specifically for school mornings. Pre-sliced, stored in a container, grabbed on the way out the door with a glass of milk. It solved the eternal “I’m not hungry / I don’t want cereal / there’s nothing to eat” morning fight that every parent of school-age children knows intimately. The hot honey version gets eaten fastest. The plain version occasionally survives until Wednesday. The chocolate chip version has never made it past Monday. I make two loaves now because one loaf for a family of six is a math problem that doesn’t add up.