Chocolate Banana Bread
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Rich, chocolaty, and loaded with banana flavor, this chocolate banana bread is as delicious as it is easy to whip up! Enjoy it as a breakfast treat, afternoon snack, or dessert—it’s perfect any time of day.
I usually think of banana bread as a breakfast treat (or, let’s be honest, something you grab a little slice of every time you pass through the kitchen). But this chocolate banana bread is so rich and decadent, you could easily top it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and call it dessert. With chocolate chips and cocoa powder for a double dose of chocolate and sour cream to keep it irresistibly moist, this quick bread is always a family favorite.
“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 chocolate 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.
- Large 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. If you’d like, you can also add a handful of chopped nuts, like walnuts or pecans for extra texture and flavor. You can also substitute some of the chocolate chips with white chocolate or peanut butter chips for a different twist.
- 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, making sure to mix well after each addition.
Next, add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture.
Beat gently until just combined, then mix in the mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla.
Add the chocolate chips and fold with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated. Be sure not to overmix the batter.
Pour the chocolate banana bread 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. The bread is best enjoyed fresh, but it can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for longer storage.
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Chocolate Banana Bread
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
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas, from 2 to 3 brown bananas
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and set a rack in the middle position. Grease a 9 x 5-in (23 x 13-cm) 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.
Notes
Nutrition Information
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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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.