Does this ever happen to you? You have one banana…just one, single, sad, solitary banana that is getting too ripe for anything but baking, but all the banana bread recipes you have call for 3 bananas. Full disclosure, I loathe bananas, and my little girl doesn’t care for them fresh either, but I like to sneak it into her foods when she isn’t looking. I bought bananas to make a batch of the Apple Banana Carrot Mini-Muffins she loves. That recipe uses a quantity of mashed banana by weight, so I always buy more than I need.
Perhaps it’s because I don’t eat it, but I’ve always categorized banana bread as one of those things you make because you have accidentally let the fruit get too ripe and you’re the kind of person who doesn’t want them to go to waste. So how can you plan to have exactly three bananas that get overripe? That’s a lot of ignored bananas! If my husband ever hopes to get banana bread more often, I needed a recipe that uses the one extra banana that I already buy, not a recipe that requires me to buy significantly more than I would ever need.
As an added bonus, this recipe from The View From Great Island is really customizable. I always have extra chocolate chips left over from various other recipes. I used a hodge-podge of chocolate chips in this. I didn’t have enough regular sized semi-sweet chips, so I added some mini ones as well. Out of white sugar? Use brown. Or a blend of both. Have extra buttermilk to use up? Sub that in for the regular milk. You can add chopped nuts if you’ve got those. Do you have two bananas? Mash one, and chop one up into chunks! This recipe is really forgiving.
It mixes up really easy in your stand mixer, though it would be just as easy with a hand mixer or even just by hand, though you’d have to take care to really mash up the banana. Ideally, beat the banana and the butter until smooth with a mixer. (If doing it by hand, just mix in the butter with the rest of the ingredients.) Then add everything else. Out of habit, I usually add all the wet ingredients together, whisk the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add the dry to the mixer at the end, however, I don’t think this really needs that kind of fussiness. It’s also less clean up. I’m all about less cleanup.
My unquantifiable hatred for bananas aside, this loaf baked up just wonderfully. It had a lovely texture that wasn’t too dense. The banana flavor was mild, but still distinct. Best of all, it used up stuff I already had and ensured I wasn’t wasting things that otherwise may have gone to waste. I crushed this month’s goal of using up pantry items. My husband crushed the whole loaf in a couple of days. We were both satisfied. So, if you’re trying to be frugal and you only have one banana, you know what to do!
One-Banana Banana Bread
The perfect recipe for the last, over-ripe banana in your kitchen! Don't let it go to waste!
Ingredients
- 1 ripe Banana
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter, softened
- 1 Egg + Milk or Buttermilk combined to equal 1 cup
- 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- Pinch of Salt
- 1/2-3/4 cup add-ins such as chocolate chips or nuts
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 350F (325F for a dark non-stick tin). Lightly spray a standard loaf tin with cooking spray. Line with parchment (optional)
- Step 2 Add butter and banana to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat until smooth
- Step 3 Add the rest of the ingredients (excluding the chips or add-ins) and mix until no lumps remain
- Step 4 With a spatula, fold in your chocolate chips or other add-ins until evenly distributed
- Step 5 Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake until golden brown and a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center comes out clean (anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, depending on your loaf pan)
- Step 6 Cool in tin until firm enough to remove without splitting. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before cutting
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