In today’s post: Everyone loves this decadent Double Chocolate Banana Bread – it’s so easy to make and turns out rich, tender, and delicious!
We all know banana bread is a great way to use up extra ripe bananas. But what happens when you amp up a traditional loaf of banana bread with two kinds of chocolate? Heaven. Heaven is what happens. This easy Chocolate Banana Bread recipe is absolutely perfect when you’re in the mood for something a bit more decadent than traditional banana bread. Each slice is soft and tender and studded with chocolate chips.
Why You’ll Love This Bread
You are going to think you’ve died and gone to heaven when you try this bread. Here’s why it’s so good:
- It’s super rich and full of chocolate. Using both cocoa powder and chocolate chips makes it decadent.
- It’s incredibly moist! The ripe bananas give it great flavor and also keep it super soft and tender. It’s almost like a fudgey cake.
- It makes a beautiful gift. The recipe can be made in one standard size loaf pan or three smaller loaf pans – I like baking smaller loaves and gifting them to friends and neighbors. You could even use the recipe to make muffins if you prefer.
Ingredients
This simple bread requires basic ingredients you probably already have in your fridge and pantry:
- Sugar: this recipe uses granulated sugar, but you could use brown sugar if you want.
- Large Eggs
- Mashed Ripe Banana: I buy extra bananas to make sure I always have some ripe ones on hand.
- Vegetable Oil: you don’t need much oil because the mashed banana keeps the bread moist!
- Vanilla Extract
- All Purpose Flour
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: Dutch process or Natural is fine
- Baking Soda and Salt
- Chocolate Chips: I use semi sweet or dark chocolate chips but feel free to use milk chocolate if you prefer a sweeter flavor
The Best Trick for the Perfect Loaf
They key with this bread, as with all quick breads, is to be careful about the cooking time. It’s tempting to take the bread out early; a full sized loaf it needs to cook just over an hour, which seems like a really long time. But if it comes out too early it will sink in the middle, and undercooked bread isn’t nearly as tasty as, say, undercooked cookies. When it’s done the top will be cracked (like you can see in the photo above) and when you gently press down on it with your finger it will spring back up instead of staying depressed. You can also test it too see if a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
The bread may sink a little bit as it cools but don’t worry, it will still taste good. When I bake it in 3 smaller loaf pans the cook time is generally somewhere between 40 and 50 minutes, but again, you’ll just need to watch it the first time since loaf pan size and oven temps vary a bit. I find letting it rest in the pan for at least 10 minutes after removing from the oven makes it easier to get out.
This bread is delicious warm, but it’s even better completely cooled – the banana and chocolate flavors both intensify as it sits. I actually really love it refrigerated with a cold glass of milk.
Double Chocolate Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 and 1/4 cups Mashed Ripe Banana
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 1 and 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup Unsweetened Baking Cocoa aka Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or another large bowl, beat the sugar, eggs, and oil together to combine. It's best to use a stand mixer or electric mixer here.
- Mash the ripe bananas with a fork or potato masher. Add the mashed bananas and vanilla extract to the other wet ingredients and beat to combine.
- Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until just combined.
- Grease a standard sized loaf pan with nonstick spray and dust with flour, then pour in batter.
- Bake for 60-70 minutes until top is cracked and bread is cooked through (when you gently touch the top it should spring back).
- Cool at least 15 minutes on a wire rack before slicing. Flavors will be more intense when bread has completely cooled.
CindyB says
Very delicious chocolate quick bread! Banana flavor is subtle and not overwhelming. Everyone loved it! Taste more like a brownie! Flavor improves with age too!
Cindy Bohl says
What do you consider a standard loaf pan? 8 X 4 or 9 X 5???
Leslie says
Great recipe loved it. I usually sub half the sugar for brown sugar in chocolate type recipes for a richer flavor but this was good with or without brown sugar