Chocolate Banana Bread
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This chocolate banana bread is so sinfully delicious, you might just find yourself topping it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and serving it for dessert!
I usually think of banana bread as something to eat for breakfast (or, let’s be honest, something to cut a tiny slice from every time you walk through the kitchen). But this chocolate banana bread is so rich and decadent, you could really top it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and call it dessert. Packed with chocolate chips and cocoa powder for a double chocolate punch, and made irresistibly moist from the addition of sour cream, this quick bread is a major family-pleaser.
Table of Contents
“Exquisite, fabulous, hands down the most beautiful, moist, decadent, delicious, cake-like, chocolaty, awesome banana bread I’ve ever had.”
What You’ll Need To Make Chocolate Banana Bread
- All-Purpose Flour: The base of your banana bread. Measure it by spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling it off to ensure accuracy.
- Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: Adds a rich chocolate flavor. It’s important not to substitute this with Dutch-process cocoa powder due to differences in acidity.
- Baking Soda: Acts as a leavening agent, helping the banana bread rise.
- Unsalted Butter: Provides moisture and richness. Using it at room temperature ensures it creams well with sugar.
- Sugar: Adds sweetness and contributes to the bread’s tender texture.
- Eggs: Bind the ingredients together and add structure.
- Mashed Bananas: The star ingredient for moisture and flavor. Use very ripe, brown bananas for the best taste. To quickly ripen bananas, store them in a loosely sealed brown paper bag. (Overripe bananas can be frozen—simply peel and store them in a resealable bag in the freezer, ideally 2 to 3 bananas per bag, as this is the common amount used in recipes.)
- Sour Cream: Adds richness and ensures the banana bread is moist.
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances the overall flavor of the bread.
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips: Add gooey, chocolatey pockets to the bread, making it extra indulgent.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by Step Instructions
To begin, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk well and set aside.
In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time.
Incorporating well after each addition.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture.
Beat gently until just combined.
Mix in the mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla.
Add the chocolate chips.
Fold with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated. Do not overmix.
Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and spread evenly.
Bake until done, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Let the chocolate banana bread rest in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can make this bread gluten-free by substituting the all-purpose flour with a gluten-free flour blend. Look for a 1:1 or measure-for-measure gluten-free flour blend to ensure the texture remains as close to the original recipe as possible.
Absolutely! You can customize your bread by adding nuts like walnuts or pecans for extra texture and flavor. You can also consider adding dried fruit or substituting some of the chocolate chips with white chocolate or peanut butter chips for a different twist. Just fold your additional mix-ins before transferring it to the baking pan.
The bread is best enjoyed fresh, but it can be wrapped in aluminum foil and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you’d like to keep it longer, you can freeze the bread for up to 3 months. After it is completely cooled, wrap it securely in aluminum foil, freezer wrap, or place in a freezer bag. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
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Chocolate Banana Bread
This chocolate banana bread is so sinfully delicious, you might just find yourself topping it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and serving it for dessert!
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- ¼ cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder, such as Hershey's (see note)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas, from 2-3 brown bananas
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk until there are no more lumps in the cocoa powder and the mixture is well combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or beaters, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients and beat gently until just combined. Add the bananas, sour cream and vanilla and mix on low speed to combine. Fold in the chocolate chips. Do not overmix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let the loaf rest in the pan for about 10 minutes, run a blunt knife around the edges to loosen, then turn it out onto a rack to cool completely.
- Note: There are two types of unsweetened cocoa powder: natural (such as Hershey's) and Dutch-processed. Dutch-processed will not work in this recipe.
- Make-Ahead/Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The bread is best enjoyed fresh, but it can be wrapped in aluminum foil and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you'd like to keep it longer, the bread can be frozen for up to 3 months. After it is completely cooled, wrap it securely in aluminum foil, freezer wrap, or place in a freezer bag. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (12 servings)
- Calories: 273
- Fat: 13 g
- Saturated fat: 8 g
- Carbohydrates: 37 g
- Sugar: 24 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 4 g
- Sodium: 327 mg
- Cholesterol: 58 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Hi Jenn! I made this 2 nights ago and we all LOVED it! Definitely one of the best chocolate banana loaves we’ve had. I look forward to trying a lot more of your recipes. Thank you so much for sharing!
Hi, I’m planning to make this in a couple of hours, is it possible to mix the batter by hand if I don’t have a mixer?
Yes, although your arms might get very tired 🙂
Thanks so much Jean for another wonderful recipe. So flavorful and moist. I made this for my Bible Study group tonight and everyone loved it. This is the fourth recipe I tried from your site. I truly enjoy going to your site as the instructions are easy to follow with great results even for a newbie like me.
what would be the cooking time to make them in medium muffin trays.
thank you
Hi Becky, Hard to say exactly but I would start checking after 20 minutes.
I just made this for the first time, used regular muffin tins, and they were done in about 25 minutes.
Fab first thing Iv tried on your website came across it online yesterday and thought I’d try the banana bread with chocolate, it tastes fab and so easy to make. can’t wait to try some more of your recipes.
Hi jenn, I love this bread. Can u give me the Nurtrition info. Thanks, Barbara
Hi Barbara, Sure, it’s been added underneath the recipe. Hope that helps!
I love banana nut bread, but this chocolate banana bread is ridiculous! Its more like cake, it was moist with just the right amount of chocolate flavor to compliment the banana. I did not substitute anything in the recipe, its perfect!
Chocolate Banana Bread…I have made banana bread for more years than I care to admit to, but never thought of adding chocolate. But because all the recipes from your blog have been so successful I decided to give it a try. Wow is all I can say! So moist and flavourful…the best chocolate “cake” I have ever made. It will be a regular item from now on.
Thanks too for explaining the difference between natural unsweetened cocoa powder and Dutch-processed cocoa powder
I had a chocolate craving last night and also had some very ripe bananas. I made this recipe exactly as written except I made it in a muffin pan (I didn’t want to wait so long for the bread version!) The muffins were so moist and delicious. My whole family loved them. I wouldn’t change a thing.
I made your Chocolate Banana Bread last week and it was positively the best chocolate cake I have ever baked, so moist and flavourful!
I wanted to share the cake with others, so I divided the batter into 3 mini loaf pans and baked for a shorter time.
Some of the chocolate chips settled to the bottom of the pans and stuck. Hubby didn’t mind as he got to keep all the loaves! Next time I will toss the chips with 2 Tbsp of the flour in the recipe. And just to make sharing even easier, I may use cupcake liners in my muffin tins.
Oh, and thanks for educating me about the difference in acidity between natural unsweetened chocolate powder and Dutch-processed chocolate, and how it would affect baking results. Very useful information!!!
Made exactly as it says. Yum!!! I like it. Can’t wait until my Man gets home, he will be Happy to have this in his stomach.
I loved this recipe. This was the first recipe I made from the website, and it’s what spurred me to try many more! This recipe was easy to follow and delicious. The bread came out perfectly. It is definitely sweet, so I would think of it more as a dessert than a snack/breakfast. My toddler loved it. It satisfies the sweet tooth for sure. Thanks Jenn!
Delicious! Of verse a great way to use up old bananas but a wonderful way to jazz up the typical bread recipe with the cocoa powder and chocolate chips. The only thing I did differently is use nonfat Greek yogurt rather than sour cream.
i made adjustments like using 1whole egg + an egg white, no sour cream and used brown sugar and cake flour and canola oil instead of white sugar, a/p flour and butter- it turned out awesome and moist too! the family loved it. keeper!
..oh and i left out the chocolate chips (i made do with ingredients i had on hand atm) 🙂
This is a wonderful recipe. I have always said that I’m a cook and not a baker, but this has come out so wonderfully both times I’ve made it, it has actually given me the confidence to want to start baking a lot more often! I didn’t use chocolate chips at all, used walnuts and peanuts on separate occasions. I also substituted a gluten-free flour mix (not almond or coconut) and used a stevia-sugar mix and it came out great.
Forgot to add that I also substituted greek yogurt for the sour cream.
I made a gluten free version last night. Used the King Arthur gluten free all purpose baking mix as a 1:1 substitute for the wheat flour. I cooked it for 1 hour. Yummy! I had to keep myself from eating it all in one sitting. This is a keeper!
This is a great recipe, the bread came out nice and moist on the inside with a perfectly slightly crunchy outer layer. It was a little too sweet for my taste so I think that next time I will omit or reduce the semi-sweet chocolate..and for some reason my Oven likes to overheat so I had to reduce the baking time by half. All in all a great treat and worth making again!
This will involve a trip to the store for cocoa powder. Thank you for the lesson about acidity and baking soda. I didn’t know that the Dutch version contained alkali. I loved the zucchini and chocolate bread so I am definitely giving this a try!
Oh my gosh this is good. My entire family loved it. The chocolate and banana are so balanced and it’s so moist.
Very moist and yummy.
So yummy. Moist and just the right amount of sweetness. Only substitution I made was to use low fat in place of regular sour cream and 1/3 cup (instead of half cup) chocolate chips. Husband loved it as much as I did. I recently discovered your website and this is the third of your recipes I’ve made. All have really turned out wonderfully. Thanks!
I have made this recipe several times and it always comes out perfect. I have yet to find anyone that doesn’t like the yummy bread.
This is my favorite way to use up the mounds of over-ripe bananas that seem to accumulate in my freezer! It tastes just like a moist chocolate cake with a hint of banana, and it’s perfect warmed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Yum! I always make several small loaves to give away to friends.
Thanks for the recipe, I just made it and it’s divine, I just had to write how good it is. I changed it a bit, cause I usually use whole wheat – I used it here as well (I used only 1 cup cause it absorbs more liquid), and I think I put 3/4 cup of chocolate chunks. I will make it again, definitely. I’m writing a list of desserts to include for holidays, and this one just made it 🙂
I loved this recipe and so did my husband!. He has already requested it again! I added toasted pecans and omitted the semi-sweet chocolate chips. Definitely a keeper.
Made this and it came out perfect. Loved it. Wanted to make this again with frozen bananas I had. When I thawed the bananas, they are now almost liquified, though still smell super sweet. Ok to use them?
Hi Eve, That’s normal and, yes, they are fine to use.
Hi Jenn!
This looks Scrumptous!
Can’t wait to try — 3 questions so I’m sure I’ll be giving 5 stars!
1 – can I make in cup cake papers & do I need to adjust anything to do so?
2 – can I freeze?
3 – do you have a suggestion for ripening bananas quickly
thanks so much!
Kim
Hi Kim, 1) You can make in cupcake papers with no adjustments; 2) you can definitely freeze; and 3) and bananas will ripen quickly if placed in a brown paper bag. Hope that helps!
absolutely wonderful. Except I add more chocolate chips. Half cup didn’t seem like enough. I’ll be making this again. That is for sure. I always have frozen bananas.
The chocolate banana is amazing.. so moist and delicious / can’t wait to try some of the breads 🙂
This is a great idea from the classic banana bread. I have never tried chocolate banana bread and this one is a winner. I’ve made this twice already. I also make them in mini loaves and freeze them so that I have them always in the freezer. Because of all your banana recipes, I now make sure I buy extra bananas to ripen to make your recipes
I was always looking for a better banana bread recipe and this is it. Chocolate banana bread is so much better than regular banana bread. I even added some walnuts which were a good addition.
Oh my goodness, this bread is DELICIOUS! Served it with vanilla ice cream for dessert and there wasn’t a crumb left.
This is a wonderful moist bread. I added 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Some of the chocolate chips stuck to bottom, next time I will layer the chips when I pour into pan – pour half the batter into prepared pan, layer with the chocolate chips, then top with remaining batter. I’ll see if this eliminates the chocolate chips from sticking to bottom of pan.
Recipe is a definite keeper!!
Hi Donna, Try tossing the chips in a tablespoon of the flour mixture; this will prevent them from sinking.
Made this the other day for my son’s daycare snack (I am sure they loved me for sending a sugar and chocolate laced snack). I was all out of sour cream so I substituted plain greek yogurt. I used really nice Guttard milk chocolate chips and made mini muffins rather that a loaf – I used muffin liners and the muffins easily peeled. I adjusted cooking time…started checking for doneness at 25 minute mark. Mini muffins were a big hit among the preschool crowd. I made 42 mini muffins the the night before and there were no leftovers, so I cannot comment on how well they held up over time.
Made this as part of Easter dessert assortment. I think it was the biggest hit of all!
Can’t wait for bananas to ripen to make it again.
It looks absolutely tempting! And I can’t wait to try out this recipe. But I would like to make it healthier, so could I replace the butter with the same volume of olive oil and how should I adjust the amount of flour if I am to replace the white one with whole-wheat one?
Hi Agnes, Not sure olive oil would work for this recipe; the flavor is too strong. As for the flour, I wouldn’t use all whole wheat but it’s fine to replace half of the white flour with whole wheat. I like King Arthur white whole wheat flour if you can find it.
I made this today. This banana bread is delicious! My family loves it!
Awesome recipe! This bread is delicious!
Love, love, love this recipe!
This is one of the things that my daughter always asks for when i send her a care package.
Thank you for such wonderful recipes.
Val
This is the best bread! My sons ask for it all the time. I can’t eat wheat, but I can eat spelt. I’ve subbed whole grain spelt flour, cup for cup, and it came out great.
I LOVE this bread!!!! It’s DELICiOUS! My husband can’t stop eating it! I also make them into muffins!
Very excited about this bread. My hubby can’t wait to take to work. I am not a banana fan in the least, but this was really good. Thank you!
Have made this for company, everyone loved. Will continue to use this as it seems to be a big hit .
I will make it today! 🙂
Amazing! I ate the whole loaf myself over the course of 3 days. I’m not proud.
I made this exactly as written and it came out superb. Everyone loved it. The sour cream really makes it moist.
Does this recipe work it you make it muffins instead? And for how long will they be in the oven? 1 hour and 10 min sounds a lot for muffins…
Hi Mathilida, Yes, it would work great. My guess would be 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of the muffins, so just keep an eye on them. Please come back and let me know how they turn out, and hope you enjoy!
I just made these as muffins, I baked for 25 minutes…they were perfect! Love them!
This bread is awesome! Tastes almost like chocolate cake. I sometimes make a healthier version using WW flour and applesauce instead of butter.
This banana bread was delicious. I don’t usually like variations on banana bread, but one changed my mind.
This bread is delicious! I have made the recipe as written, and have also substituted whole wheat flour for the all purpose and canola oil for the butter. It was delicious both times. Also works well as muffins.