This quick and easy one-banana banana bread recipe can be made with just one banana and a few pantry staples. It bakes up moist and sweet with a decadent cinnamon sugar crust.
Last week, I shared Dominique Ansel’s banana bread (AKA my favorite banana bread recipe in the entire world) with you, and promised in the post that I’d make a mini version for all you small-batch bakers out there.
As promised, here is a cute little mini version of my favorite banana bread.
Small-batch Banana Bread
This mini version bakes in a 5.5 x 3-inch loaf pan (or can be baked as muffins in a muffin tin) and like my small-batch banana muffins, it can be made with just a single brown banana.
The bread is soft, moist, buttery, and just such a treat. And to make things even better, there’s a crinkly cinnamon sugar crust over the top that is just SO good.
Ingredient Notes
- One brown banana: You need just one brown banana for this recipe. If you have a banana, but it’s not quite brown enough for baking, check out my post on how to quickly ripen bananas.
- Butter: You can use salted or unsalted butter here, just make sure to read the recipe notes and add more or less salt depending on which you’re using.
- Cinnamon sugar: The cinnamon sugar crust, is optional (but highly recommended). If you’re not a huge fan of cinnamon or don’t want the extra sweetness, you can skip it.
How To Make One-banana Banana Bread
1. Combine Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt.
2. Combine most of the wet ingredients: In a separate medium bowl, mash the banana and whisk in the egg until well-combined. Pour banana mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just-combined.
3. Add butter: Add melted butter, and mix until butter is incorporated into the batter. Don’t over mix, but there should not be melted butter remaining around the edges of the batter (note the way the batter looks in the last photo above).
4. Bake: Transfer the batter to your prepared loaf pan, leaving ¾-inch of space from the top of the pan (discard extra batter if there is too much). Sprinkle cinnamon sugar evenly over the top of the batter, and bake until a toothpick or knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
5. Enjoy: Allow to cool in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes before removing and slicing.
FAQ
I love this recipe, can I make a full-size version?
Absolutely! If you want to make a full-size loaf of this banana bread, go check out my post My Favorite Banana Bread.
How do I store this banana bread?
Store the bread tightly wrapped at room temperature for up to 3 days.
I don’t have a 5.5 x 3-inch loaf pan. What can I use instead?
Any mini loaf pan around that size will work, so if you have something that’s similar in size but not exact, feel free to use it. Just be sure to leave about ¾ of an inch of space from the top of the pan when you add your batter so it doesn’t overflow in your oven.
If you don’t own a mini loaf pan at all, these are the ones I own, or you can bake the batter in a muffin tin. It will make 5 to 6 banana muffins. Bake at 350°F for 17 to 22 minutes.
More Small-batch Breakfast Recipes
More Banana Recipes
- Small-batch Chocolate Banana Muffins
- Banana Milkshake
- Banana Pancakes
- 20+ Banana Recipes to Use Up Your Brown Bananas
One-banana Banana Bread
Ingredients
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (60g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt *
- 1 medium overripe banana
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons (42g) salted butter melted*
Cinnamon Sugar Crust
- 1 teaspoon (4g) granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a mini loaf pan, line with parchment paper sling (optional), and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a separate medium bowl, mash the banana and whisk in the egg until well-combined. Pour banana mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just-combined.
- Add melted butter, and mix until butter is incorporated into the batter. Don’t over mix, but there should not be pools of butter remaining around the edges of the batter.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared loaf pan, leaving ¾ inch of space from the top of the pan (discard extra batter if there is too much).
Optional Cinnamon Sugar Crust
- In a small bowl, stir together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over the top of the batter.
Bake
- Bake for 30 to 38 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes before removing and slicing.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using them. There is absolutely no additional cost to you.
Erin says
Made this for my husband on a whim when we had a single banana that got too ripe for him to eat (what others would call perfectly ripe since he prefers them with a tiny tinge of green still). I do not like bananas at all in any form but I tried a bite of this when it was done and was surprised that I actually liked it. We’ve made this about 4 times since finding the recipe and I’ve had some of it every time. I think the key is the cinnamon sugar on top and using barely ripe bananas vs overripe ones so the banana flavor wasn’t so prominent.
So now you can say that you’ve converted a banana hater into someone who looks forward to this and only this banana recipe.
Abby says
Used a muffin tin which yielded 5 muffins, and they were baked perfectly after 20 minutes. This recipe brought life back into the rotting, lonely banana sitting on my counter that I couldn’t bare to throw away.
Tracy says
Yay! So glad you enjoyed the recipe, Abby!!
Mason says
Thank you so much! This is probably the best banana bread I’ve ever had! I threw a splash of vanilla extract in as well. It’s perfect for me since I live alone, I don’t have to worry about trying to eat an entire loaf before it goes to waste.
Cindy says
Thank you for the recipe. I had one banana and wanted to whip up a mini banana bread so this was so helpful. When first making something from a recipe I follow ingredients as written. If I love it as of, then perfect! If not, then I have a baseline for tweaking. I weighed the flour and sugar vs. using the half cup measurement because I can never seen to get the flour right if I just scoop it in the measuring cup. The bread came out nice and moist. Using the parchment made for easy clean up. Future modifications would be to reduce sugar as I found this too sweet and add nuts. Looking forward to trying again when I have that one brown banana left. Lol.
Avery says
AMAZING!! I just made this for my boyfriend and wow – best recipe I’ve ever used. I made this as muffins and they were perfectly fluffy and moist. The crust turned out perfect, as well. I don’t normally write reviews or comments on recipes, but I just had to. I was so surprised by how amazing this turned out. Can’t wait to use it again!
Tracy says
Thanks, Avery!! So thrilled to hear you both enjoyed it!!
Kathy M. says
Hi Tracy! Well, again you came to the rescue with this one banana recipe! Although I didn’t have the exact size pan you recommended, I spent the whole day researching if I could use the smallest pan I had which was a Corning-wear casserole measuring 7”x7” x 2” (measured on the top), made recipe exactly as written, and cooked at 350 for 35 mins in said casserole. WOW! It came out perfect! Crust was perfect and delicious! The bread was light, fluffy and scrumptious!! I took a picture but have to figure out how to send. Thanks again for another perfect and delicious recipe!!
Brenda says
Great recipe! Very moist and the cinnamon sugar on top was so good! Mine was done much more quickly so I recommend checking it at 20 minutes or so. My family is not as into banana bread as I am so I love the mini loaf.
Kiki says
Amazing recipe thank you. I don’t do dairy so I whisked in 3 tablespoons of oil into the egg and banana and it whipped up to a mousse and folded that into the dry ingredients. I only used 1/8th of a cup of sugar (I’m not into really sweet things I normally cook with agave but have lots of raw sugar now I’m making kombucha lol) and it’s just so moist. This is my go to recipe I make it once a week stops me eating preservatives that make me ill in sweets. Thank you.
Tracy says
So glad you’ve been enjoying the recipe! And thanks for the detailed comment, it’s super helpful for other people who want to make modifications.
Mary Lou says
This recipe worked perfect! Just right for me and my husband and no one has to eat that last too ripe banana.
Meg says
Delicious! I made them as directed plus 1/4 chopped walnuts, and used demerara sugar in the topping for crunch. I used a muffin tin and got 7 standard muffins out of the batter. Might be my favorite banana bread recipe ever. Now I have to make myself stop before I eat them all in one sitting.
Kay says
I make this recipe every few weeks or whenever I have an overripe banana! It’s the perfect size for my husband and I to enjoy. I do only use a quarter cup of sugar and find that to be sweet enough for us- will have to try adding in nuts or chocolate at some point!
Don says
I added about 1/3 cup chopped pecans, but followed the recipe aside from that. Excellent results! Thanks for posting this. 🙂
Ken says
I am used to making banana breads with three or four bananas and then devouring or giving most of the loaf away depending upon my mood. I thought: could it be done and still taste of banana? One banana therefore rescued from near extinction. Delicious!
I added 1/8 tsp vanilla extract, lessened the sugar to about 1/4c. Entire recipe fit into a mini aluminium bread pan with zero spillage and a good rise. ☮️
Tracy says
So glad you enjoyed it, Ken!!
Cindi says
Yummy recipe! I prepared it for 6 muffins and made a few changes: I used whole wheat pastry flour (1/3C bc the banana I used was a bit large), I used only 1/4C of sugar, a bit of vanilla extract, and added raisins and chopped pecans.
Tracy says
Glad you enjoyed them, Cindi!!
Gina says
This is perfection. LOVE this recipe. Delicious, moist banana bread. I have been making a mini loaf of banana bread for years (using a different recipe) and thought I would give this a try. This is definitely better and my new go-to! Thanks so much!
Tracy says
Thanks, Gina! That makes me so happy to hear!
Robert says
I will try.
I like the idea of the clips to hold the wax/parchment paper. I also have metal (steel) pans and I use plain magnets (not with plastic) to hold the paper.
Bananas are also one of the least expensive fruits. In Ontario Canada ….59c lb…Food Basics. Sometimes, overripe ones just perfect for Banana Bread are reduced in price.
Sapna says
Just finished eating a slice of this banana bread. Loved that it’s a small quantity recipe. Tasted great. I added chocolate chips because after all chocolate & bananas were made to be together. 🙂
Unfortunately my cake rose like a cone in the middle leaving the top of the cone with some raw batter 🙁
Quick search on the internet of what went wrong, revealed that
1. my oven is not distributing heat evenly; and
2. using the wrong bakeware. I used a glass dish because I didn’t have anything smaller than the traditional non stick bakeware to use.
Like I said it still tasted good.
Next time I’ll turn the heat down and use the convection fan in my oven to evenly distribute the heat. Reduce the sugar qty from 1/2 to 1/4 cup because it was a tad bit too sweet after adding the chocolate chips and buy a small size baking pan.
Thanks for sharing your recipe Tracy. I’ll definitely be trying some more of your recipes.
Tom says
I put Chocolate Chips in mine as well. Because, Chocolate! It’s baking now. I hope this turns out.