“trust me: You will want to eat this chocolate banana bread recipe for breakfast, snack time, dessert and then some.“
— Stephanie, Girl versus Dough
I let an entire bundle of bananas go bad/overripe, so I could make two banana bread loaves in ONE day. I found about 200 different banana bread recipes on pinterest (hyperbole, but it was a lot), and I couldn’t help but bake more than one. Shout out to my husband who did dishes back to back for me! Anyway, this banana bread is first because it ended up being my favorite.
Let’s bake!
What I absolutely love about banana bread is that it comes together very easily in the stand mixer. You still don’t want to over mix, but it is a hard recipe to screw up if followed.
I was able to find dutch cocoa powder in the midst of the clear grocery store shelves and knew this recipe was meant to be. I tasted the batter before baking and decided it was already really sweet. So I omitted the chocolate chips and added an almond butter swirl. This made ALL the difference. So delicious.
Enjoy this bread with the almond butter swirl!
Chocolate Banana Bread
INGREDIENTS
- 4 medium bananas, very ripe, divided
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted*
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks or chips*
- 1 tablespoon demerara sugar, for topping (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat oven to 350°F. Place a parchment paper sling (see Notes) inside a nonstick 9×5-inch loaf pan. Spray bottom only with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, mash 3 bananas until as smooth as possible. Whisk in melted butter, then stir in brown sugar, egg and vanilla.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk or sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks.
- Pour and spread batter into prepared loaf pan. Slice remaining banana lengthwise into 3 even-size planks, then place on top of loaf; press down gently. Sprinkle with demerara sugar, if desired.
- Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes, then use parchment paper sling to gently remove from pan. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before slicing.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 days, or up to 1 week refrigerated.
Let me know how the recipe turned out for you in the comments below!
Trial & Eggs 