Banana bread is a great way to use up that one overripe banana. But most small-batch recipes go wrong in the following 3 ways:

1. Flavor: Many one-banana recipes stretch a single banana into a big, bland loaf. This recipe makes a small loaf (or 3 muffins) with big banana flavor.
2. Sweetness: Most recipes I’ve found are oddly sweet. This recipe uses just enough sugar to bring out the banana’s flavor.
3. Variation in banana size: A big banana makes for a mushy loaf and a small banana makes for a dry one. So to make sure yours turns out just as well as mine, my recipe has you measure your mashed banana and top it up with applesauce or milk if it comes up short.

So if you want a very sweet banana bread with faint banana flavor that only works if your banana is the exact same size as the recipe developer’s, this is not the recipe for you. But if you’re looking for a small loaf that tastes boldly like banana, then I hope you enjoy this one!

Jump to the recipe or read on for more on each point.

Here’s how this recipe fixes all 3 problems:

1. One banana, big flavor.

With one banana, you’re facing a classic trilemma: There are 3 things you want, but thanks to, like, physics, you can only choose 2:

A) A flavorful loaf
B) A big loaf
C) Just 1 banana

If you have plenty of ripe bananas, you can drop C (just 1 banana) and choose both A and B: a big, flavorful loaf! But if you have just 1 banana, C is locked in, so you can’t have both big and flavorful. You have to choose just one. Which will it be?

Most one-banana recipes choose a big loaf and sacrifice flavor. This recipe chooses flavor and sacrifices size. If you need a banana loaf that serves 8 with only 1 banana, my feelings won’t be hurt if you choose another recipe. I mean, it might taste like a cake that was stored in a container with a banana, but sometimes you just need a larger loaf.

2. Not too sweet!

For some reason, one-banana banana bread recipes tend to be really sweet. Nothing about using one banana calls for extra sugar. I think it’s just a weird coincidence!

This recipe has just enough sugar to bring out the banana’s flavor. Its ingredient ratios are almost identical to the ones I use in my standard banana bread recipes.

3. It works no matter what size banana you’re using.

A peeled banana can weigh anywhere from 2.5 to 5.5 oz [70 to 155 g]. That’s a bonkers range! And banana size makes a big difference in how your banana bread turns out. Too much banana and it’s mushy and squidgy. Too little, and it’s dry and flavorless.

In all my recipes, I give an exact amount of mashed banana, like “1 cup [240 g] mashed banana from about 2–3 overripe bananas.” That tells you roughly how many bananas to have on hand, but ensures that you won’t use too much or too little.

Measuring matters even more in a small batch. First, there’s less room for error, so size variation has a bigger effect. But also, if your one banana comes up short, you’re stuck up the creek without a paddle.

With this recipe, if you don’t have a full ⅓ cup, you just top it up with milk or applesauce. Adding 1-2 tablespoons won’t noticeably change the texture or flavor (beyond that, your results may vary). I’ve also included instructions for what to do if you have a lot more than ⅓ cup of banana.

A few notes on this one-banana banana bread recipe:

• Pan size: I actually prefer turning this into muffins, so if you have a muffin tin, I recommend using it here. But the recipe has you covered either way. I’ve tested it in a small 5 inch cake round, and you don’t need to use that size specifically—you just need anything that holds 2½ cups [590 mL].
• Oil: This recipe uses oil instead of butter. I strongly prefer banana breads made with oil to ones made with butter. Oil provides a super moist texture that is hard to beat.
• Egg white: We’re using egg white simply because using an entire egg will mess up the ingredient ratios. We want as much moisture to come from the banana as possible—too much egg means we have to compensate with less banana, which means less banana flavor. And in a small one-banana loaf, one white provides all the binding power we need.

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