After I moved to San Diego, I started to stop by my grandma’s house multiple times each week. She lives in the same neighborhood, just a mile away!
Sometimes we watch a movie, other times we drive downtown to see a Padres baseball game, but most of the time, we just have puppy play dates. I drop my little dog off at Grandma’s to socialize with her two small terriers for a few hours during the afternoon. (As an “only child,” my dog’s social skills were almost nonexistent before we moved!)
Grandma and I usually chat for a bit in the evenings when I pick up my pup, and she always sends me home with the newspaper crossword and puzzles section. I love working on those while winding down before bed!
With how much I bake, Grandma also hands off any overly ripe bananas sitting on her counter that she didn’t quite manage to eat along with the newspaper. When she gave me one small, very speckled banana earlier this month, I realized it wasn’t big enough for a normal loaf of banana bread…
So I made this Healthy Small Batch Chocolate Chip Banana Bread instead! It has the same classic taste of traditional banana bread that you know and love—sweet fruit, tender texture, and plenty of chocolate!—but it yields just two small loaves… One for you and one to share!
Or to freeze for you to eat later… I won’t judge!
To make this healthy banana bread, you just need a handful of everyday ingredients. Starting with whole wheat flour (or gluten-free, if you prefer!). As long as you use a banana with more brown spots than yellow, your quick bread will be sweet enough that you can’t detect the flavor of the flour!
So yes—I highly recommend using a very ripe, very brown banana! For the best results, your banana should be really soft on the inside. Bananas like that have more natural sweetness than their pure yellow friends, so you’ll only need to add a tiny amount of pure maple syrup (like this) to boost the sweetness.
To keep your wholesome banana bread extremely tender, just like traditional recipes, you’ll mix in Greek yogurt instead of extra butter or oil. You know how much I ♡ Greek yogurt! It adds the same moisture for a fraction of the calories, and it gives your banana bread a protein boost, too!
Because this is a small batch recipe, you’ll divide the batter between two mini loaf pans (like these!). One big perk of that? Your banana bread bakes much faster than normal, so you get to eat it that much sooner! And of course, don’t forget to press a few mini chocolate chips into the loaves’ tops! (These are my current favorite!)
How perfect does that look? ? Would you share? Or keep the whole recipe all to yourself? ? And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! ?) I’d love to see your banana bread and feature it in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| Healthy Small Batch Chocolate Chip Banana Bread | | Print |
- 1 cup (120g) whole wheat flour or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ½ tsp butter or coconut oil, melted
- 1 large egg white, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp (30g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 6 tbsp (98g) mashed banana (about 1 very small)
- 1 tbsp (15mL) pure maple syrup
- 3 tbsp (45mL) nonfat milk
- 2 tbsp (28g) miniature chocolate chips, divided
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two mini loaf pans with foil, and lightly coat with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, egg white, and vanilla. Add in the Greek yogurt, stirring until no large lumps remain. Stir in the mashed banana and maple syrup. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, and stirring just until incorporated. (For best results, add the flour mixture in 3 equal parts.) Reserve ½ tablespoon of mini chocolate chips, and gently fold in the rest.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pans, and gently press the reserved mini chocolate chips into the top of the batter. Bake at 350°F for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before carefully lifting out the loaf by the foil and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
White whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, or all-purpose flour may be substituted for the whole wheat flour.
For best results, use the ripest, darkest, most spottiest banana you can find! The ones with more brown color than yellow are ideal. Measure your banana using measuring cups and spoons OR a kitchen scale. Not all “very small” bananas are exactly the same size!
The mashed banana and Greek yogurt combined need to measure ½ cup. If you have slightly more than 6 tablespoons mashed banana, then reduce the Greek yogurt by the same amount, and vice versa.
Honey or agave may be substituted for the maple syrup.
Any milk may be substituted for the nonfat milk.
The mini loaf pans should be about 5¾ X 3” in size. I use these!
This recipe can be doubled and baked in a 9x5” loaf pan instead! Bake at 350°F for 40-50 minutes or until the center feels firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
To see how this banana bread is made, watch my video here (it’s for a similar banana bread recipe!).
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat}
View Nutrition Information
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡ Healthy Strawberry Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
♡ Healthy Dark Chocolate Drizzled Raspberry Banana Bread
♡ Healthy Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Brownies
♡ Healthy Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Oatmeal Cookies
♡ The Ultimate Healthy Banana Nut Muffins
♡ …and the rest of Amy’s healthy banana bread recipes!
Hi Amy,
This sounds delicious and I am going to make it this weekend – just waiting for my banana to ripen a bit more! I was thinking of making a modification and I thought I’d just run it by you. My egg is somewhere between medium and large ( I get them from a farm so I can’t really specify the size). Could I put the whole egg in, especially since I have no use for a spare egg yolk? If I do that might I need to cut back on the milk? What consistency should it be before I bake it.
Also I don’t have two very small loaf tins so would it be ok in a slightly bigger one?
Many thanks
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Elaine! Since your egg isn’t as big as standard large eggs, then use the full egg but do not decrease the milk. The batter should be thick — but not as thick as cookie dough! Does that make sense? If you don’t have mini loaf pans, then use 5-6 muffin cups instead! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of this recipe!
Hi Amy,
My loaf smells great. I used a quite small loaf tin in the end. Only problem is it rose dramatically in one corner. I really want to send you some pics as it is like nothing I have ever seen before!! I’ve just had a taste and it is very nice, though I think next time I’d use very ripe bananas for the extra sweetness. All in all though, I’d say that was a success!
I’m so glad it was a success Elaine! 🙂 Sometimes when that funky dramatic-rise-in-one-portion happens, it’s because there’s a clump of baking powder or baking soda. It can also occasionally happen if the ingredients aren’t at room temperature before you begin or they aren’t evenly mixed, but from my experience, it’s usually the first! 😉
Hi Amy, I baked these multiple times and they’ve been so good each time! I even swapped chocolate chips with peanut butter chips and the bread came out wonderfully. I’m wondering – to make small batch cinnamon raisin banana bread, could I just replace raisins instead of the chocolate chips in this recipe or would you suggest following your whole loaf cinnamon raisin banana bread recipe and halving the ingredients & cooking time from there (would I need to make any other modifications)? Thank you always for your kind help and heavenly recipes <3
I’m so honored that you’ve made this recipe many times Nayeon!! That truly means the world to me — thank you for taking the time to let me know! 🙂 Yes, I think you could definitely substitute raisins for chocolate chips in this recipe and then add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter. That’s probably easier than trying to halve my cinnamon raisin banana bread recipe (especially since it uses 3 egg whites! 😉 ). I’d definitely recommend using my trick of hydrating the raisins, if you have time for that… It makes a huge difference in the texture of your raisins — they end up SO plump and juicy!
I’d love to hear how that turns out if you try it! 🙂
I wondered what you’d recommend if you don’t have any baking soda, just baking powder? I’ve made the recipe before but we are locked down and I can’t easily find ingredients. Thanks x
I completely understand Sophie — it’s SO hard to find certain ingredients right now! It took me two weeks just to find flour… And I can imagine it’s just as difficult to find baking soda too! Until you’re able to locate some, I think I’d recommend trying a scant ½ teaspoon of baking powder in place of the baking soda. Baking powder is actually a combination of baking soda + an acidic ingredient (that acidic ingredient varies with the brand!), so that’s why I think it’d be best to use more baking powder than you would baking soda. Does that make sense? 🙂 I’d love to hear how that turns out if you end up trying it!
Hi Amy,
This looks like a perfectly healthy mini banana cake recipe. I want to make this today, but I don’t have Greek yoghurt in my fridge. Can I substitute with regular full fat yoghurt?
Thanks!
Swati