Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe

This easy Chocolate Banana Bread is moist, rich, and packed with ripe bananas and melty chocolate chips. It’s a delicious twist on classic banana bread and the perfect way to use up those overripe bananas!

Course Bread, Cake, Dessert

Cuisine American, Southern

Keyword banana-bread-recipes, chocolate-banana-bread, chocolate-chip-banana-bread

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 50

Cooling time 2

Total Time 3

Servings slices

Calories 394kcal

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch process or Hershey's Special Dark cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 medium ripe bananas (around 1 1/2 cups mashed) mashed
1 cup buttermilk or 8 oz sour cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup butter melted
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips divided

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9x5-inch loaf pan with baking spray. Set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, use a whisk to sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
In a separate bowl use a fork to mash bananas. Whisk in buttermilk, granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter, egg and vanilla.
Add wet to dry ingredients, mixing by hand with a large spoon or spatula until fully moistened. Mix in 3/4 cup chocolate chips.
Spread into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle top with reserved chocolate chips. (You may use more chocolate chips on top, if desired)
Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center shows moist crumbs.
Cool in pan for 15 minutes then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely then slice and serve.

Notes

Chocolate Chips - You can use semi-sweet chips, dark chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips in this banana bread recipe. You can also use more than 1/4 cup on top. You could even swap half out for peanut butter chips.
Nuts - You could add 1 cup of chopped nuts along with the chocolate chips. Try walnuts, peanuts or pecans.
Cocoa Powder - To achieve the intense chocolate flavor, Dutch process or Special Dark cocoa is best. No worries about it being overpowering, it complements the banana flavor and doesn't overtake it. If you only have classic unsweetened cocoa powder on hand you can use instead, when doing so, the chocolate flavor isn't quite as intense.
Butter - You can use salted butter or unsalted butter. You could also replace melted butter with vegetable oil.
Buttermilk - You could use sour cream in place of buttermilk.
Pan Options - As you can see in the images, I baked this banana bread in a non-stick metal 9x5-inch pan. If your pan is smaller, consider dividing the batter into 2 smaller pans or make several mini loaves to prevent it from overflowing.
Test Before Removing from the Oven - Always test the thickest portion of the bread with a toothpick or cake tester prior to removing from the oven. Look for moist crumbs.
Serving Options - You can serve this quick bread at room temperature, chilled or warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert.

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