This tender homemade banana bread is made with 1 ripe banana and a few pantry staples. This easy banana bread recipe is the perfect size for one person.
When you’ve got just one banana sitting on your counter, you’ve got the perfect amount to make a banana bread for one!
That’s right, all you need is one banana and a few pantry staples and you’ve got all the ingredients necessary to make a tender, perfectly sweet single serving banana bread.
Tips For Making Banana Bread
- To make sweetest and richest banana bread, use ripe bananas. Ripe bananas with lots of brown spots on the skin are perfect to use. If the banana skins are almost all brown, the bread will be sweeter and have a stronger banana flavor.
- When mashing the banana, leave some of the banana chunks. Personally, I love banana chunks in my bread. If you like a smoother batter, mash the bananas completely.
RELATED: 15 Easy Dessert Recipes For One
How To Make Banana Bread With One Banana
A good banana bread is one every home cook should have. If you’ve got one ripe banana and a few pantry staples you can make this delicious bread in virtually no time at all.
Ingredients In Banana Bread
Scroll down to the recipe box for ingredient amounts and complete instructions.
For this single serving banana bread recipe, you will need:
- flour
- baking soda
- ground cinnamon
- salt
- 1 ripe banana
- sugar
- butter
- an egg yolk
- vanilla extract
Step 1
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl.
Step 2
Mash the banana with a fork in a small bowl. Add the sugar and mix well.
Step 3
Stir in melted butter, the egg yolk, and the vanilla.
Step 4
Mix in the dry ingredients and pour into a lightly buttered ramekin or small baking dish.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
RELATED: Comfort Food Recipes For One
This recipe is adapted from the bread recipe I’ve used for years.
Banana Nut Bread
If you love banana nut bread, feel free to add about 2 tablespoons of chopped nuts.
Chopped pecans or chopped walnuts make great additions.
I use a small 8-ounce ramekin or my 6.5-inch cast iron skillet in this single serving banana bread recipe.
Other Bread And Muffin Recipes For One
If you’re looking for other small batch banana recipes, you might like to try these:
Lemon Blueberry Muffin For One
RELATED: The Best Small Batch Cookie Recipes
Other Banana Recipes
Mini Caramelized Banana Upside Down Cake
Grilled Pound Cake With Limoncello Bananas
For more information on the cooking and baking dishes I use in our “recipes for one”, please visit our FAQ page.
For examples of the dishes used at One Dish Kitchen, please visit our Store page.
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RELATED: The Best Apple Recipes For One
Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 banana , mashed (about 1/2 cup)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter , melted (plus more for greasing the ramekin)
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C).
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Set aside.
- Mash the banana with a fork in a separate small bowl. Add the sugar and whip the banana and sugar together.
- Add the melted butter, the egg yolk, and the vanilla; mix well.
- Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated.
- Pour the batter into a lightly buttered 8-ounce ramekin or other baking dish of similar size.
- Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and cool slightly before eating.
Notes
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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OMG! This is the best recipe! I doubled the recipe, as another poster commented (using 1 full egg). I’m gluten and refined sugar free, but hubby is not. I made mine (gf flour and coconutsugar), then his regular and they are so freaking good! THANK YOU!!
Hi Jody,
I’m so glad the recipe worked for you with your changes and substitutions. Thank you for letting me know, this information will help our readers who might want to make it this way.
Joanie
I’m a single oap and wanted to make the banana bread. My ramekin only weighs 3½ ounces or 100 grammes. What is the reason the ramekin has to weigh 8 ounces?
Hi Dave,
So I can help you better, please tell me the height and diameter of your ramekin. The 8-ounce is the volume the ramekin holds.
Joanie
So you were talking about FLUID ounces. Very confusing used to metric measurements.
This equates to approximately 240ml. Thanks
Really good! I didn’t have any butter so I used applesauce. It took about 37 min. in my oven.
I just make my standard banana bread recipe and put the mix in a muffin tin. Cooks in half the time and each portion has that nice crust like the end pieces of a loaf.
I’m gluten intolerant so I used robin hood gluten free flour and I added some semi sweet chocolate chips. This banana bread came out perfect. I’m definitely making it again!
Hallo, can I cook the banana bread in a microwave please. It seems wasteful to put the oven on!
Thank you,I appreciate your recipes. Jenny.
Hi Jenny,
I haven’t tested this recipe in the microwave so I can’t say for sure. If you have a toaster oven, this banana bread can be cooked in one.
I did mine in the toaster oven. Came out perfect
So delicious! I ran out of white sugar so I used 3T white sugar and 1 T brown sugar. Also – I doubled the recipe and used one large egg. The two single serving breads turned out perfect.
Love this recipe! Soooo delicious and so easy to make. I like to add mini chocolate chips because that’s just the kind of person I am. Thanks so much for creating the perfect recipe for my banana bread cravings 🙂
Thanks for letting me know you love the recipe, Natalie. I love that you added chocolate chips, I’m that kind of person too 😉
I made the Banana Bread for One recipe this evening and found it to be very tasty. Thanks for posting this recipe. I’m not a big banana eater so I usually only get one or two at a time and they usually go bad before I ever eat them but now I can make bwana bread with them. I didn’t have a ramekin so I used the tiny tin loaf pans they have at the store. I used half all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour but kept everything else the same. Turned out very well.
I freakin love your website! Mini desserts are my favorite! I tried your banana bread twice and loved it. One night I was craving pumpkin bread so instead of banana I added a heaping 1/4 Cup of pumpkin puree, 1/16 t cloves, 1/16 ginger, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 nutmeg. I also added an extra tablespoon of brown sugar to make up for the sweetness of the banana. It…was…fantastic!
Hi Katie,
You totally made my day!! I’m so happy you are enjoying our recipes, thank you SO MUCH for letting us know! I love your idea of subbing pumpkin for the banana, I bet that was delicious. Have a great day!
Joanie this looks great! I’m a new English teacher in Korea and I’m working on figuring out what I can do with the equipment I have here. Most apartments don’t have ovens in Korea! I will probably buy a toaster oven (they do have them in the stores) but in the meantime I did a search for skillet bread recipes. I love the skillet you recommend and I can buy it on Amazon! But can you make this bread on the stovetop, or do you put the skillet in the oven? For a toaster oven I think I’d use a little toaster oven loaf pan because I’m not sure that skillet would fit in the little toaster ovens they have here. Do you think you could make bread without any oven at all?
Hi Allison,
I’ve never made banana bread on the stovetop so I’m not sure how it would turn out. You can most definitely make this banana bread in a toaster oven though. Just adjust the cooking time a bit – I would start out by checking the bread after it’s been in the oven for 20 minutes to see if it’s done. If it needs more baking time, keep the banana bread in the toaster oven to bake and check again after 5 minutes. For your toaster oven, I would recommend using toaster oven-safe bakeware. Nordic Ware has a line of bakeware that is ideal for toaster ovens. Smaller-sized toaster oven safe ramekins that hold about 8-ounces work well for this recipe too. This is the set I have and use – https://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Metallic-Professional-4-Piece-Non-Stick/dp/B0001WPNA4/ref=sr_1_1?
You can find others on Amazon. Best of luck with your job in Korea!
Mmm!! So yummy!! Next time I'm gonna try brown sugar in it! Thanks for this great recipe!
You are welcome, Bri. I'm glad you liked the recipe. Please let me know how you like the brown sugar version.
Can this be made in a regular oven?
Yes it can be made in a regular oven. Bake it at 350 degrees F for about 25-30 minutes. It is done when the top is golden and a toothpick or tip of a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
DO THESE FREEZE WELL? I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE THEM IN BATCHES TO USE THEM OVER TIME WHEN I WANT A SWEET.
I haven’t tried to freeze these but I have frozen other quick breads successfully. If you do want to freeze these single serving banana breads, make sure they are completely cooled first, then wrap them tightly for freezing.
Ok so, I am a 57 year old divorced male lurker here. I like to cook but no one to share my creations. Single serving meals and desserts seem perfect for some one like me. Thanks for great idea!
Hi John, I’m so glad you like the recipe. I have a special section on ZagLeft with many other single-serving recipes (https://onedishkitchen.com/cooking-for-one-recipes/). Cooking for one person can be a challenge sometimes, I hope you can find a few other recipes here that you like. Thanks for taking the time to comment, have a great week!
Joanie,
Love the idea of these recipes for one. A dessert for one can still be shared by 2. Sometimes I want a dessert , but not wanting it to be there for days. …. good idea.
Thank you Cynthia! I agree, there are times I want a little something sweet too and don’t want to make a big batch. Glad you like the recipes.
If you are going to freeze these Bread’s, wrap tightly in saran wrap first then wrap in aluminum foil, they freeze well and up to 3 months ..