Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe (2024)

This easy Chocolate Banana Bread recipe is so rich, delicious and makes the perfect banana bread for chocolate lovers! It’s moist, decadent, and the best chocolate banana bread!

Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe (1)

If you love banana bread, then I urge you to give this Chocolate Banana Bread recipe a try soon! So rich and delicious, the flavor combination of banana and chocolate is perfect together! I’ve included an ingredient that enhances the chocolate even more! As much as my family loves our traditional banana bread recipe, this chocolate version is one that is often requested by the chocolate lovers in the family.

Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe (2)

How to Make the Chocolate Banana Bread

Once I started baking banana bread more and more often, I finally understood why my grandmother had a special bunch of bananas always on hold. She had plenty for snacking, but the special ones beside her bread box were reserved for banana bread or amazing Southern Banana Pudding. I’ll admit that I started doing the same. One bunch goes into the fruit bowl, and another goes to the side for recipes.

Banana bread makes a great thing to bake for a simple breakfast, dessert, or snack, to take to work to share with coworkers or to deliver to a friend that needs a little extra care.And I think it is one of the best ways to introduce yourself to a new neighbor.

Here’s how I make it:

Ingredients

Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full listing of ingredients, instructions, notes, and estimated nutritional information.

  • Bananas – ripe bananas with dark spots that are ripe enough to mash
  • Dark brown sugar – gives the recipe a deep, rich molasses flavor
  • Butter (salted) – softened to room temperature
  • Eggs – room temperature to combine best into the batter
  • All-purpose flour – give your flour a quick whisk to remove any lumps if required
  • Cocoa powder – use unsweetened cocoa powder, not Dutch process. They are not interchangeable.
  • Espresso powder – this little extra ingredient brings even more richness to the chocolate
  • Baking soda – works for leavening the bread to help it rise
  • Salt – I use kosher salt
  • Vanilla extract – I use my homemade vanilla extract, but you can also use quality store-bought vanilla.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Mix the ingredients. You can mix by hand or use an electric mixer based on your preference.

Mix together the softened butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Remove the bananas from their peelings, mash them with a fork, and mix until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg to make sure well blended into the batter.

In another mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and espresso powder until blended.

Then add the flour/cocoa mixture to the banana mixture and combine them until smooth. Add the baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract and stir until well combined. Pour into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then, turn the baked chocolate banana bread out onto a wire rack to cool until it is still slightly warm before serving. Allow it to cool completely before covering it.

Storage Tips

To store. Allow the baked bread to cool completely. Store it under a cake dome, wrapped well, or in an airtight container on the countertop for 3-4 days.

To freeze. Wrap well with wrap, place in a freezer bag or freezer-safe container, and freeze for up to 3 months.

Thaw, reheat, and serve. Thaw completely overnight. Reheat in the oven or microwave and slice to serve.

About Room Temperature

Room-temperature eggs are desired for mixing with the butter for baking. Cold eggs can chill the fat too much and not result in a well-blended batter.

Softened butter to room temperature – not warm or melted butter – incorporates better when creaming with the sugar. It gives the bread a moist, tender texture.

Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe (3)

Are natural cocoa powder and Dutch-processed cocoa interchangeable?

No, not really. Don’t substitute Dutch-processed in this recipe, for instance. To keep it simple and not get into a chemistry lesson, they have different chemical properties and pair with different leaveners in a recipe. Natural cocoa powder is lighter in color, still has its acid content intact, and is usually paired with baking soda (as in this recipe); while Dutch-processed is darker, the beans have been treated to reduce the acidity, and it is typically paired with baking powder. Just a reminder that baking is a chemical reaction!

Other Favorite Bread and Muffin Recipes

Zucchini Bread

Blueberry Muffins

Banana Muffins

Cornbread

Cinnamon Apple Muffins

Here’s my Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe. I hope you love it as much as we do!

Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe (4)

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Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe

Robyn Stone

5 from 17 votes

This easy Chocolate Banana Bread recipe is so rich, delicious and makes the perfect banana bread for chocolate lovers! It's moist, decadent, and the best chocolate banana bread!

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 12 slices

Ingredients

  • 4 (472 g) overripe bananas, mashed
  • 1 cup (213 g) dark brown sugar
  • 8 tablespoons (113 g) salted butter, room temperature
  • 2 large (100 g) eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups (180 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup (42 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon (0.6 g) espresso powder
  • 1 teaspoon (6 g) baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon (1 g) kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon (5 g) vanilla extract

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350º F. Spray a 9-inch loaf pan with baking spray or coat with butter and dust with all-purpose flour, being sure to shake out any excess flour. Set aside.

  • Mix bananas and sugar with electric mixer until well blended. Add butter and beat until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each egg.

  • Whisk flour, cocoa powder, and espresso powder in a medium mixing bowl until blended. Add flour/cocoa mixture to batter and mix until smooth. Add baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract and stir until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.

  • Bake until a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle, about 1 hour.

Notes

Storage and Freezing Instructions

To store. Allow the baked bread to cool completely. Store it under a cake dome, wrapped well, or in an airtight container on the countertop for 3-4 days.

To freeze. Wrap well with wrap, place in a freezer bag or freezer-safe container, and freeze for up to 3 months.

Thaw, reheat, and serve. Thaw completely overnight. Reheat in the oven or microwave and slice to serve.

Video

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 249kcal | Carbohydrates: 41g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 273mg | Potassium: 248mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 22g | Vitamin A: 305IU | Vitamin C: 3.4mg | Calcium: 31mg | Iron: 1.6mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Enjoy!
Robyn xo

Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe (5)

From the Add a Pinch recipe archives. Originally published 2015.

Categorized as:All Recipes, Bakery, Bread Recipes, Breakfast Recipes, By Cooking Style, Chocolate, Cooking, Dessert Recipes, Essentials, Food Gift Recipes, Freezer Friendly Recipes, Game Day Recipes, Halloween Recipes, Holiday and Occasion Recipes, Make-ahead Recipes, Recipes, Shower Recipes, Simple Recipes, Southern Favorites, Valentine’s Day Recipes, Videos

Welcome to Add A Pinch

About Robyn

Robyn Stone is a cookbook author, wife, mom, and passionate home cook. Her tested and trusted recipes give readers the confidence to cook recipes the whole family will love. Robyn has been featured on Food Network, People, Southern Living, and more.

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Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Can you put too much banana in banana bread? ›

Fight the urge to use more banana than called for in your recipe. Using too much banana could make your bread heavy and damp in the center, causing it to appear undercooked and unappealing. If you have bananas leftover, you can always freeze them for later use.

What happens if you put too many eggs in banana bread? ›

Adding more eggs makes for a spongy, less flavorful banana bread. Doubling the number of eggs I was using resulted in a spongy cake with a moist texture.

Why is my banana bread always mushy? ›

Using a lot of bananas adds excess moisture, and there are two ways to get rid of it. You could either add more flour or increase the baking time. Add a tablespoon of extra flour at a time into the batter and give it a good whisk until its consistency starts to look right: thick but runny enough to fall off a spoon.

How many bananas is 2 cups? ›

2 bananas: 1-1/3 cups chopped | 1 cup mashed. 3 bananas: 2 cups chopped | 1-1/2 cups mashed. 4 bananas: 2-2/3 cups chopped | 2 cups mashed.

Is it bad to use overripe bananas for banana bread? ›

Brown, overripe bananas are sweeter because in the ripening process the starches in the banana are converted to sugar. You can even use super-soft, black bananas that have a really strong smell and are oozy inside. As long as they're not moldy, there's no such thing as too-ripe bananas for banana bread.

What happens if I use 1 egg instead of 2? ›

Using too few eggs will make your desserts dense, but using too many will make them rubbery. The explanation for this lies in the fact that eggs are made up of protein. As Fine Cooking explains, when the protein in eggs combines with the protein in flour, they produce the overall structure of the baked good.

How many eggs does 1 banana substitute? ›

Banana. Use ripe bananas to add moisture. One mashed banana can replace one egg in cakes and pancakes. Since it will add a bit of flavor, make sure that it's compatible with the other ingredients of the recipe.

How much banana equals one egg in baking? ›

Mashed Banana

For this swap, use 1/4 cup of mashed ripe banana per egg. Note that riper bananas have more sugar and moisture, so consider reducing other sweeteners and liquids in the recipe.

How do you know when bananas are ready for banana bread? ›

Let the bananas ripen (and overripen) at room temperature. Depending on the weather, this could take a few days, or up to a week. The best bananas for banana bread aren't yellow; they're black. Or they're at least streaked with black/brown, with just the barest hint of green at the stem.

How ripe should banana be for banana bread? ›

The bananas need to be mostly or completely brown, with a mushy, almost pudding-like texture. If your bananas are too ripe to eat, chances are they'd be perfect for this recipe. How can you ripen bananas faster?

How old should bananas be for banana bread? ›

Just wait a day or three, depending on how unripe they were when you bought them. In no time - much less than a week, at the most - they'll be golden yellow with brown and black blotches; that's when they're ready to be used for banana bread.

What to do if I put too much flour in banana bread? ›

If so, I would dump out all the flour, remeasure and then add in the correct amount, subtracting a little bit (say a half teaspoon) for the flour you couldn't remove that stuck to the other ingredients. Was it before you baked it?

Why does my banana bread taste weird? ›

You may not have followed the recipe correctly. For example, you may have added too much liquid, or you may not have added enough of some dry ingredient, and therefore your dough may have had too much moisture. Your recipe may be faulty.

Why is my banana bread tasting weird? ›

Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) is the raising agent and this can sometimes taste bitter or soapy if the wrong quantity is used. Make sure that you measure the bicarbonate of soda with a proper 1 teaspoon/5ml measuring spoon and the spoon measurement should be level.

How do you fix too moist banana bread? ›

leave it in the oven to cool down with the oven slightly open so that most of the moisture can escape.

How many bananas is too many at a time? ›

While there's no blanket rule, sticking to one to two bananas per day shouldn't cause issues for most people. With that said, remember that they are relatively high in carbohydrates, so eating them along with protein or fat is also advisable to support stable energy levels.

How full should banana bread pan be? ›

Fill the pan until it's two-thirds full, and if there is any remaining batter, fill up a muffin tin. This ensures you get a beautifully risen loaf instead of a potentially flat loaf in a 9×5. Now that you know the importance of pan sizes, it's time to make a loaf of the Best-Ever Banana Bread!

Why did my banana bread deflate after baking? ›

The banana bread will not rise much during baking and may sink slightly in the centre on cooling, but should not collapse competely. If it did collapse then it is likely that the banana bread had not quite baked fully (and in light of the ingredient change may have needed a slightly longer baking time).

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