Single serving chocolate chip banana bread in a mug

Healthy Single Serving Microwave Banana Bread in a Mug

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This healthy single serving banana bread in a mug is gluten-free and high in protein, AND it only takes 90 seconds in the microwave.  A yummy microwave banana bread mug cake…what are you waiting for?!

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Summer is halfway over and it is still so hot here.  I am not a summer person.  I am much more chipper on a cold, snowy day that I am on a steamy beach day.  On steamy beach days you can find me inside, somewhere that has good air conditioning.

Even though it’s crazy hot that doesn’t stop my love of baking, so I felt a baking urge come on during one of the most sweltering days here. 

Our small window air conditioner was whirring away doing the best it could and I knew I couldn’t tax it anymore or it just might give up and stop working.

This is when I’m so grateful for the microwave!

Did you know you can make bread in the microwave? Try this 90-second Keto mug bread! It’s high protein, low carb, and most importantly super yummy!

Banana bread mug cake

Summer is the perfect time to make a single-serve microwave treat.  In 90 seconds you can have a banana bread mug cake which you can enjoy in your air conditioned comfort.

Other mug cake recipes:

I like homemade goodies way more than buying them, and this is faster than going to the closest store and buying something.  Way healthier too.  This microwave banana bread in a mug is gluten-free and high in protein!

Easy banana bread in a mug

In terms of easy banana bread recipes, you can’t get easier than this one.

You only need 3 or 4 ingredients, depending on if you use the chocolate chips.

I love this easy banana bread with the chocolate chips (because…chocolate), but sometimes I make it plain for my daughter since what 4-year-old really needs that extra energy boost from chocolate. Mine certainly doesn’t (“mama run!!!”, “mama run faster!!!”).

You need one bowl and a fork, and a couple of minutes in the microwave to make this easy banana bread.

Perfect for first thing in the morning when you can barely think, a quick healthy snack after dinner, when it’s too hot to turn your oven on to make a full loaf of banana bread, and when you just want something that’s single serving without all those tempting leftovers around.

Another of my favorite mug cakes that you might want to try is this gluten-free raspberry mug cake and this new orange mug cake.

Related post: Best Mug Cakes: 42 Single-Serving Cakes You Need to Try

Microwave banana bread ingredients

You only need 4 ingredients to make this super quick microwave banana bread!

  • a banana (preettty essential for banana bread)
  • an egg (I like free range)
  • almond flour (or almond meal)
  • chocolate chips (any kind you like)

Cakes with no flour

You’ll notice in the above ingredient list, that there is no flour in this easy banana bread recipe.

We use almond flour or almond meal instead of regular all-purpose flour. This makes this microwave banana bread recipe gluten-free and paleo as well.

Even though it’s called almond “flour”, it is not a grain-based flour at all. Almond flour or almond meal is just ground almonds! Using ground almonds gives this banana mug cake a delicious, sweet taste, and adds a ton of protein too since there is more protein in ground almonds than regular wheat flour.

So, using almond flour makes this a banana cake with no flour!

Tips on making this microwave banana bread

This banana bread mug cake couldn’t be any easier.  Four ingredients and 90 seconds in the microwave.  I made this three times in one week and Miss O loved hers too.  I gave myself more chocolate chips than I gave her, don’t tell.

If you omit the chocolate chips, this recipe has only whole food ingredients and no added sugar – just sweetened with banana.  We ate this for breakfast, an afternoon snack, or an evening treat. 

The gluten-free-ness comes from using almond flour.  I love using almond flour in baking so much – it is ground almonds and that’s it.  It is full of protein and keeps your blood sugar more stable – no crashing like after a regular microwave muffin recipe.  It will work with any almond flour.

If you love almond flour recipes, try this keto almond flour mug cake – it’s SO good and healthy too.

This recipe can make one thicker banana bread but I like the texture better when it’s put into two dishes and cooked that way.  That way you can share one too!  If you’re just making one, increase the microwave time by 30-60 seconds.  Still super fast!

Microwave banana cake

If you’re looking to fancy up this microwave banana bread recipe, you could add some fixins to make this easy banana bread more decadent.

I’m thinking chocolate frosting, cream cheese frosting, peanut butter chips (if you love peanut butter, try this peanut butter mug cake), a melted chocolate drizzle…

Probably not all at once.

(Probably.)

We’re full-on in dessert territory here.

These additions would turn this recipe into a microwave banana cake recipe and would make an awesome smash cake for a baby’s first birthday!

I made something similar to this for Miss Os first birthday, with unsweetened real whipped cream on top – she loved it (and was surprisingly dainty about the “smash” part of smash cake).

For another yummy banana bread mug cake, try this nut-free 3-ingredient one!

Substitutions in this microwave banana bread recipe

A lot of people have tried this banana bread mug cake recipe (thank you guys!) and there have been different questions about substituting ingredients.

I wanted to add some info on subs for those who have asked.

I haven’t tried subbing the almond flour with coconut flour. Coconut flour acts completely different in baking than almond flour so you can’t replace it 1:1.

Some readers have told me that they replaced the 3 tablespoons of almond flour with 2 tablespoons of coconut flour and that it turned out great.

You CAN sub the almond flour 1:1 with regular white flour. It will have a different texture, will have less protein and fewer calories than the original banana mug cake recipe.

You can sub the almond flour with a gluten-free flour mix. If you use white flour or a gluten-free baking mix, the microwave time might be a little different. Just keep an eye on it while it’s baking into deliciousness in the microwave.

For the chocolate chips, you can sub dairy-free chocolate chips, vegan chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chocolate chips, etc.

If you want a lower carb version (the almond flour and egg are already low carb), you can use stevia-sweetened chocolate chips, monk fruit chocolate chips, or (gasp) leave them out completely.

I have tried to make a vegan version of this microwave banana bread but so far it hasn’t turned out super delicious so I haven’t shared it yet.

Update: I finally made a vegan banana bread mug cake that I love!!! Check out the banana bread in a mug HERE! It’s paleo and gluten-free too!

Now, let’s make this healthy microwave banana bread mug cake!

Single serving chocolate chip banana bread in a mug

Healthy Single Serving Microwave Banana Bread

This banana bread mug cake is super delicious, gluten-free and high in protein, AND it only takes 90 seconds in the microwave. Perfect for a healthy snack, quick breakfast, or healthy dessert.
5 from 9 votes
Prep Time 1 minute
Cook Time 2 minutes
Total Time 3 minutes
Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Ingredients
  

  • 1 egg free range
  • 1 banana
  • 3 tbsp almond flour
  • 1 tbsp chocolate chips

Instructions
 

  • In a medium bowl, mash up the banana with a fork (or I use a pastry cutter).
  • Crack the egg in this bowl and mix together. 
  • Add the almond flour and stir, and mix in half the chocolate chips.
  • Pour the batter into a greased mug or small microwave-proof dish, or 2 small dishes.
  • Sprinkle the top with the remaining chocolate chips.
  • Microwave on high for 90 seconds for shallower dishes and up to 2 1/2 minutes for a single deeper mug (like the brown one in the photos above!)
  • Stop at 90 seconds and see if it's done; if not, microwave at 30 second intervals (so it doesn't overflow).
  • Wait a minute or two before devouring this single serving banana bread (if you can!) because it will be pretty hot. 
  • Enjoy!!!

Hey mug cake lover! Try out our new funfetti mug cake and have a party in your mouth!

⇓ Pin this microwave banana bread recipe to save it for later ⇓

You must try this single serving banana bread…it is SO good!!!  Let me know if you make this microwave banana bread…


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101 thoughts on “Healthy Single Serving Microwave Banana Bread in a Mug”

  1. 5 stars
    I’ve made this recipe before but instead of chocolate chips I add cocoa powder or chocolate protein powder. It’s healthy and delish! My kids love it.
    I’ll be tweeting and pinning this. Greetings from the Inspire Me Monday linky!

    1. Kaitlyn

      How much protein powder do you add?

    2. Julie

      5 stars
      This was just the quick and tasty pick me up I was craving.. I opted for a few crushed walnuts instead of the choc chips.. hey I’m a nut nut.
      Thx for sharing.. it just may be too quick and easy 😁

      1. Elaine

        5 stars
        I love this recipe and make it all the time. Sometimes I sub oats for the almond meal and add a teaspoon of vanilla.

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  7. 5 stars
    Single serve is the ABSOLUTE BEST because —— I DONT HAVE TO SHARE with anyone! 😉

      1. Julie

        5 stars
        This was just the quick and tasty pick me up I was craving.. I opted for a few crushed walnuts instead of the choc chips.. hey I’m a nut nut.
        Thx for sharing.. it just may be too quick and easy 😁

        1. Suchot Sunday

          Love that you’re a nut nut 🙂 Glad you liked this single serving healthy banana bread!

        2. Laura

          5 stars
          Wow! Best mug cake I have made. I added coconut and walnuts.

    1. Connie

      Hi! I did It. Is delicious! Thanks for sharing. Best regards…

      1. Suchot Sunday

        So glad you loved this banana bread in a mug! Thanks for trying my recipe. xx

    2. Caroline

      How much protein is in it.

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  9. My 13YO is going to LOVE this! He’s a huge banana bread fan and being able to make it this quickly is going to mean he wants it every day. 🙂 Thanks!

    1. Yay! I’m glad! I love single serving snacks for that reason – no wait time! There are many weeks where we make this healthy banana bread several times 🙂

  10. Rebecca

    We don’t have a microwave, could we use a convection toast oven?

    1. Hi Rebecca! Yes you could use an oven instead. I haven’t made it myself that way but I would try 350 F for 15-20 minutes and check to make sure it’s set.

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  12. Marilyn

    5 stars
    Delicious! Thank you for helping love breakfast again!!

  13. Nicole

    Do you think you could substitute almond flour with coconut flour? If so, how much?

    1. No not in this recipe. Coconut flour acts totally differently than other flours. It absorbs liquids like a sponge. I’d like to make a coconut flour mug cake in the future! For now, if you can eat another kind of nut or seed flour, you can sub with that. You can grind your own pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds if you can’t have nut flours.

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  16. Ally

    Can you just use gluten free flour?

    1. Ally, yes you can! It definitely won’t work with coconut flour, but an all-purpose GF flour will work. Sometimes I use the full 3 tbsp and sometimes only 2 tbsp if I use a gluten-free flour mix. It will have a different consistency than with the almond flour but will still be delicious.

        1. Yes! You can sub the almond flour with oat flour in this banana bread mug cake. Keep an eye on the cooking time, it might be slightly different! Hope you love it!! 🙂

  17. Jackie

    5 stars
    This was delicious! Little man loved it too. I added the extra chocolate chips at the end, let it melt a bit and swirled peanut butter with it. Yum! Thank you for a delicious, healthy, quick recipe.

    1. Yay!! Glad you both liked this healthy banana bread mug cake! Love the idea of swirling pb into it…mmm…

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  19. Martha

    5 stars
    It was delicious ? I made it without chocolate chips ?

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  21. I don’t even understand how I stopped up here, but I
    thought this submit was great. I don’t understand who you
    are however certainly you are going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already.
    Cheers!

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  23. Savy

    5 stars
    I’m 11, and this was easy to make! My parents were impressed, it turned out really yummy! I used butterscotch instead of chocolate chips, and it was just as good! I have guilt when eating sweets, so this was amazingly good and healthy! Thank you!!!

    1. Thanks for your comment, it made me so happy! I’m glad you loved the banana bread mug cake and I love your addition of the butterscotch chips, yum! 🙂

  24. Kaitlynn

    5 stars
    My husband and I LOVE this recipe! Have you ever tried expanding it to make a full loaf? Or do you know what that would take? Thanks again for sharing!

    1. Yay, so happy you love the recipe! 🙂 No, I haven’t tried making this banana bread recipe into a full loaf but that’s a good idea! I’d have to play around with it because it would take some major scaling from a mug cake. If you try scaling it up, let us know how it turns out for you. Have a great weekend!

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  26. Barbara

    Can you use regular flour?

    1. Yes you can! I’ve made this banana bread mug cake with regular flour when that’s what I happen to have at home. I usually use the same amount, so 3 tablespoons. Sometimes it needs a bit more time in the microwave, just play around with it since every microwave is different. It’s delicious with regular flour too! 🙂

  27. Erin

    5 stars
    Excellent! I used wheat flour and it turned out great! Loved this recipe and will definitely keep using for my quick sweet tooth fixes.

    1. Glad you loved this healthy banana bread recipe Erin! ❤️ I love it for quick fixes too – when 20 or 30 minutes of baking is just waaay too long to wait for a sweet treat!

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  31. Julia

    5 stars
    This was tasty! My high schoolers were stoked to have them waiting for them after school. Thanks!!

  32. Randee

    5 stars
    Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe. I gave it to my husband and told him it was magic cake. We both loved it.

    1. I’m so happy you loved this banana bread mug cake and I LOVE that you called it magic cake lol 🙂

  33. Jennifer

    5 stars
    Thank you for sharing- it was very good & easy to make. It’s my “decoy” dessert since I’m trying to cut back on sweets. I used pecans instead of chocolate chips. Next time, I’m adding in the chips:)

    1. Mmmm…I think pecans and chocolate chips together would be so delicious in this single serving banana bread!

    1. Hi Celeste! I’m not sure as I don’t count calories. You could always plug in the ingredients into an online calorie calculator if you’d like to check.

  34. Emma

    5 stars
    This turned out great. I added a tbsp of chopped walnuts along with the choc chips. Tasted just like the loaf I usually make 🙂

    1. Yay, glad you liked this banana bread mug cake! And I’ve gotta try it sometime with chopped walnuts too, yum!

  35. Nicole

    5 stars
    Do you by any chance know the nutritional info on this per serving? Just looking calorie wise ? PleAse and thank you in advance

    1. I don’t know the exact nutritional info of this microwave mug cake, sorry! Somebody plugged it in to an online nutrition calculator and ballpark (I don’t remember exactly) it was around 300 or 350 calories. Hope you’re having a good day Nicole! 🙂

  36. Bentley

    Hello. I’m 11 and I made this for my entire fam (6 people) and they loved it! Thank you for making this easy and yummy recipe! I memorized it by the time I made the 2nd one! So easy to make and worth it too!?

    1. Hey Bentley! So awesome that you made this recipe for your family! Glad you all loved it 🙂 And who knows, maybe one day you’ll be a blogger sharing your recipes! 🙂

  37. Becky Even

    has anyone replaced the egg with applesauce…I eat egg free????

    1. Hey Becky! I have tried to make a vegan version and so far I haven’t loved it/it hasn’t turned out well enough for me to share 🙁 I’m going to keep trying different versions because I used to own a vegan bakery so I’m determined to get a super yummy vegan banana bread mug cake too!

  38. Mary Bennett

    4 stars
    I added a few chopped pecan and vanilla extract to this, These added to the already great recipe,

  39. Pam

    Yum! To the original recipe I only added vanilla and an extra tablespoon of AP flour to my 3 of almond as it seemed too wet. Wish I had read comments first – I will definitely try cocoa and chocolate protein powder next time, and nuts !!

  40. Sue

    I used walnuts instead of chocolate chips. What is the calorie and carbs in this delicious little bread..

    1. Hi Sue! Thanks for trying this recipe. I don’t track calories or carbs and the nutrition info isn’t included with the recipe app I use for my site. You could plug in the ingredients into an online calculator if you’d like. I’m looking into changing recipe apps in the future to one that does include nutritional information. Have a wonderful day!

  41. Steve

    4 stars
    Well maybe 4 tbsp of almond flour next time… mine never set up, came out kind of grainy. But I love the concept and it’s so easy to throw together – I just mixed it all in the mug!

    1. I’m sorry it didn’t set up for you Steve! It’s sooo good when it does! There is always a bit of variation in different flours, egg size, etc so I hope you’ll try this microwave banana bread recipe again with the 4 tbsp almond flour. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

  42. Tracy McCarthy

    5 stars
    Oh my gosh! This is absolutely amazing! I have made other mug cakes, but this just may be my new favorite – delicious!

    1. Tracy, you made my day! So happy this is your new favorite mug cake, thanks for letting me know 🙂

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  45. Natalie

    5 stars
    Love this recipe! It’s a great quick and easy healthy dessert. My kids love it too. I add flax meal, swerve brown sugar, baking powder, and chopped pecans.

    1. Suchot Sunday

      Thank you for making my microwave banana bread recipe, and so happy it’s a hit in your family 🙂

  46. Al-n-Jaxs

    5 stars
    So Thankful on this Thanksgiving Eve for this simple sweet treat for me and hubby. He is new to having to watch his carbs… I used and extra large egg, so thinking maybe need to up the almond flour a bit to off set it. Maybe get a bit more bread consistency. This tasted like my moms banana pancakes! So I added a bit of butter and a small sprinkle of coconut sugar. Hubby added a spoon of pb on top once done, let it melt. This is getting printed and put inside my baking cupboard for a quick reference for him when he is craving a sweet!

    Thank you 100% over! Can’t wait to try your other recipes!

    1. Suchot Sunday

      Thank you so much for your lovely review of my microwave banana bread in a mug recipe. 🙂 I also love hearing people’s customizations so thanks for sharing yours! Yes, if you use an extra large egg, I would add an extra tablespoon of almond flour.

  47. Leeanne

    Hello,
    I’m going to make this but would love to know the nutritional info.
    Thank you

    1. Suchot Sunday

      Hi Leeanne! Thanks for your interest in this recipe. 🙂 I don’t calculate the nutritional facts for my recipes. If this is important or essential to you, you can Google nutrition facts calculator and plug in the ingredients (there are only a handful!). I hope you love this banana bread mug cake if you try it. xx

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  49. Ellen

    5 stars
    This was soooo good! I used regular flour instead of the almond flour with twice as many chocolate chips. It definitely satisfied my sweet tooth. I can’t wait to try this for breakfast with cinnamon and raisins. What a great way to use overripe bananas.

  50. Angie

    I am not sure what I did wrong. I followed the recipe. It feels like I am eating spoonfuls of almond flour. My microwave is pretty high powered so it was done in 90 seconds on high. I did not subsitute any ingredients. Any advice is welcome.

    1. Suchot Sunday

      Hello Angie! I have never heard that before! I hope we can figure out what went wrong. It definitely is not meant to taste simply like almond flour. Did you measure level tablespoons of almond flour? If the almond flour was heaped or packed it would end up throwing off the ratio of ingredients. I have made this banana bread in a mug recipe so many times with different sizes of eggs and bananas and it has always turned out. Did you use chocolate chips? What would make the most sense in this case is that too much almond flour was accidentally used, even by heaping or shaking to pack down the flour. Since this recipe is single serving, just a bit of extra flour might result in a mug cake tasting more like simply almond flour. I hope these ideas help and feel free to write more so we can see if we can solve this! xx

    2. Shannon

      Angie I didn’t like this at all. Mine also tasted like the flour but I know I measure it correctly. It actually tasted like nothing. If you could make something that tastes like nothing this would be the recipe. I’m trying to figure out a way I could sweeten this up

  51. Mary

    Since bananas come in different sizes could you give a measurement of mashed bananas? I would really like to try this yummy recipe on my low carb diet. Thanks!

    1. Suchot

      Hi Mary! I have made this recipe with large bananas and small bananas and it turns out well all the time. I understand the carbs amount is important to you on your low-carb diet, so if you use a small banana, this will still turn out well and be delicious! Mashed up it will be approximately half a cup, but this single serving banana bread recipe is very forgiving for banana size.

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  53. Payton

    5 stars
    Hi, i’m allergic to eggs and wondering if you can use flax eggs instead. ive been looking for a banana bread recipe for ages!

  54. Shootin Cowgirl

    Made this recipe this morning using sugar free peanut butter chips. I’ll definitely make again. Very filling.

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