Tessa's Recipe Rundown
Taste: Banana bread heaven. The cocoa powder packs the perfect amount of chocolate flavor.
Texture: Ridiculously moist and tender and studded with gooey chocolate chips throughout.
Ease: SO easy to make.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: A chocolate lover’s dream come true!
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This may just be my new all-time favorite banana recipe.
It’s insanely moist, deeply chocolaty, and easy enough for even a beginner to bake. If your chocolate banana bread has ever turned out bland, dry, or sunken, this recipe fixes that!
It was actually inspired by an East Village bakery crawl in NYC. The midnight banana bread loaf at Red Gate Bakery was so incredible I knew I had to make my own version of it when I got home.
This perfectly sweet treat is going to become your favorite breakfast/dessert/snack too!
Reader Love
This is such a great recipe and I will definitely be making it again. I took it to work to share with my coworkers and they’ve asked when I’ll be making this again.
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Sprinkle of Science
Baking Success Tips
- Use very ripe bananas for sweetness and moisture.
- Measure flour carefully to avoid dryness.
- Don’t overmix once the flour is added.
- Use a metal baking pan. Glass or ceramic will take longer and may result in sinking.
- Cook to an internal temperature of 200°F to ensure no gummy, underdone, or sunken centers.
Ingredient Notes
The below ingredients do the heavy lifting in this recipe, and were carefully chosen and tested to provide the best baking result.
- All-Purpose Flour – Measure correctly, the #1 reason banana bread turns out dense or dry is because of mis-measured flour.
- Cocoa powder – I used Dutch-processed for a smooth chocolate flavor and deep, luxurious color. Natural cocoa works, too. Read my cocoa powder guide here.
- Mashed banana – The star of the show! Be sure to use overripe bananas and mash well with a fork or potato masher.
- Sour cream or plain full fat yogurt – Either one will work to yield a moist banana bread with a beautiful rich crumb.
- Butter and Oil – Butter provides flavor, oil creates a moist texture that stays tender for days. Use any neutral oil that’s liquid at room temperature such as vegetable or avocado oil.
- Chocolate chips – For folding into the batter and drizzling on top as an optional finishing touch. I used semisweet chocolate chips, but dark or milk chocolate chips will work fine.
How to Make Chocolate Banana Bread
- Prepare the pan. Line a 9 by 5-inch metal loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang. Spray with nonstick cooking spray. Don’t use a smaller size pan; otherwise your banana bread may overflow while baking!
- Combine the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugars, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Combine the wet ingredients. In a medium bowl, stir together the bananas, sour cream or yogurt, eggs, butter, oil, and vanilla.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Gently fold the wet mixture into the dry mixture until just barely combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips. Be careful not to overmix. Spread batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until slightly domed and the internal temperature registers at least 200°F with an instant read thermometer. Cool on a wire rack until completely cooled.
- Make the chocolate drizzle (optional). Melt the chocolate over a double boiler or microwave in 20-second bursts, stirring between bursts, until melted. Drizzle over the top of the cooled loaf. Let set before serving.
How to Ripen Bananas Quickly
To speed up ripening, place bananas in a paper bag and store in a warm area for a day or two. The peels create ethylene gas, which fills up the bag and helps them ripen faster.
To ripen bananas today, place whole unpeeled bananas on a baking sheet in a 300°F oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until the skins are darkened and the fruit is soft. This doesn’t yield the same effect as allowing the bananas to ripen naturally, but it’ll work in a pinch.
Storage & Make-Ahead
Wrap leftovers tightly and store at room temperature for up to 3 days. The banana flavor will intensify the longer it sits. For longer storage, freeze slices individually and thaw at room temperature.
FAQs
I have a recipe for that! Check out my Double Chocolate Banana Muffins Recipe!
Sure! You can add 1 cup of coarsely chopped nuts instead of the chocolate chips. You can alternatively add a mixture of milk, white and/or dark chocolate chips, mini chocolate chips, or even peanut butter chips, if you wish – the fun variations are endless!
Pro tip: if adding nuts, lightly toast your walnuts or pecans before adding them to the batter. Toasting the nuts adds so much depth of flavor!
This means it was underbaked. This is especially prone to happen if baking in a glass or ceramic pan, because those materials conduct heat less quickly than metal.
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Ingredients
For the bread:
- 1 cup (127 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (43 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder*
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) light brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups (340 grams) mashed banana (3 very overripe bananas)
- 1/2 cup (120 grams) sour cream or full fat plain yogurt, at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten, at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons (42 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until just warm
- 3 tablespoons (34 grams) neutral oil (vegetable, avocado, etc.)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup (170 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
For the chocolate drizzle (optional):
Instructions
Make the bread:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9 by 5-inch metal loaf pan*** with parchment paper, leaving an overhang. Spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugars, baking soda, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the bananas, sour cream or yogurt, eggs, butter, oil, and vanilla. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just barely combined. Gently fold in the chocolate chips, being very careful not to overmix. Spread batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake until slightly domed and the internal temperature registers at least 200°F with an instant read thermometer, about 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 15 minutes before using the parchment overhang to remove the loaf from the pan to finish cooling completely. Bread will collapse slightly as it cools.
Make the chocolate drizzle (optional):
- Once the bread has cooled, place the chocolate chips in a double boiler set over simmering water or place in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 20-second bursts, stirring between bursts, until melted. Drizzle over the top of the cooled loaf (coating will be thick). Let set before serving, serve same day for best appearance.
- Wrap leftovers in plastic wrap or foil and store at room temperature for up to 3 days. The banana flavor will intensify the longer it sits, and the chocolate coating will harden as the loaf sits and may bloom (slightly discolor). If you prefer, microwave slices before serving to soften.
Notes
More Recipes You’ll Love:
- Double Chocolate Banana Muffins (the muffin version of this recipe!)
- Butter Pecan Banana Bread
- Classic Banana Bread Recipe
- Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Photos by Joanie Simon.
Delicious! Every one enjoyed it and said it was right amount of sweetness and very moist
Easy to follow recipe and the bread is delicious!!
So moist !
This was so moist & yummy the family raved over it! Diffently will be making again!
Best Banana Bread recipe ever… my family lovessss it. Thanx for such a tasty recipe. ❤️
This is the bomb!!! Saved it as part of my favorites!
This is absolutely the best banana bread ever. I had intended to give this to my son when he came over BUT it was so good, I only gave him a large piece and kept the rest for myself. Wonderful and I will definitely make it again….just have to wait for the bananas to be ready.
i’ve been dying to make this bread and finally did today! it’s the literal bread of my dreams so moist, light, fluffy, and oh so chocolatey. i used a high quality dutch processed cocoa powder and opted for whole milk plain greek yogurt and avocado oil. also tossed in some chopped walnuts with the choc chips and yumm. already writing this down, thank you tessa!!
Made this last week for my kids and hubby and we all loved it. Moist, delicious, held up, no sinking…DELICIOUS!
I baked this for an hour and a half after noting it didn’t seem done at the 1:10 mark. Metal pan, calibrated oven – tested it, temp good but when it cooled the BOTTOM of the loaf was gooey! And it collapsed! I never would have known, it came out a nice firmness and color and seemed totally done. What a waste of ingredients. I had high hopes. Even the photos here it looks a bit gooey, is it supposed to be this way?
Hi Sarah! Oh no, I’m sorry to hear that – how strange. I’ve made this recipe about 6 times since we finalized the testing process as a team, and it’s turned out beautifully each time. The bread definitely isn’t meant to be gooey, but very moist – I think what you’re seeing in the pictures is just the moistness of the bread, along with the chocolate chips that possibly hadn’t quite set up entirely when the bread was cut and photographed. It sounds like something was accidentally mis-measured, or the baking pan you used was maybe the wrong size. Also, how old are your leavening agents? If your baking soda is not fresh, it can cause the loaf to collapse after baking. Tessa talks about the science behind leavening agents, and how to test for leavener freshness, in this article here! I also recommend checking out all the tips Tessa mentions to avoid this, in the pink tip box above the recipe. Hopefully something there will help! I hope you give this banana bread another try sometime – it really is so delicious! Happy baking 🙂
This recipe looks intriguing but one thing I would like to caution ALL bakers about……at what altitude are you cooking? I live in Colorado at 4800ft and most recipes are formulated with sea level requirements. Strangely, banana bread was a REALLY difficult recipe to adjust. Gooey middles and sunken tops were big disappointments. So don’t blame the recipe if you produce a failure. Be proactive and see what the internet can do about educating you in making adjustments to your ingredients. It is a somewhat irritating thing to have to do, but it will help you produce much better results. I think the checking of the internal temp of the bread with the digital thermometer is the best advice this recipe has to offer. The shape and color of the pan is also important, although it is often overlooked in the average kitchen. And I can’t say enough about parchment paper and its relationship to banana bread. Game changer, ladies. Many good ideas based on science in this recipe. Great job! Elizabeth Morrison, Pueblo, Colorado.
Hello. I wonder if I could use this recipe and make muffins as opposed to making a loaf?
Hi there! While we haven’t tested this ourselves, Tessa did include instructions for this in the pink tip box (above the recipe). Check out her tips under the heading “How to Turn Chocolate Banana Bread into Banana Muffins” 🙂
Thx for yr tip of checking when the banana bread is ready by registering an internal temperature of 200 to 205°F. However, when it reaches the ideal temperature, the top starts to burn and becomes slightly blacken whereas the centre is still a bit glooey. Please kindly advise on how to improve this issue.
FYI, I have replaced granulated sugar with erythritol + allulose and the result is lovely
Hi Elaine! So glad to hear you’re enjoying this recipe, and that the internal temperature tip has proven helpful! Unfortunately, we don’t have much experience baking with sugar alternatives, as we haven’t found anything can quite replace the real thing – so that could be the reason for your bread darkening so quickly. To prevent this from happening in the future, you can tent the top with foil for the last 10-15 minutes of baking. I would also grab an oven thermometer if you don’t already have one, so you can verify that your oven isn’t running a bit hot, as that could be the reason for the top darkening before the center is completely done. Read more about ovens here! Also, This oven thermometer is one of Tessa’s favorites. Hopefully this helps! Happy baking 🙂
This is a wonderful marriage of chocolate and bananas. The bread turns out wonderfully moist. I have had very bad luck over the years with loaf pans. The inside is always underdone and the outside relatively overdone. So I made the batter exactly as per recipe but in an 8×8″ metal pan. So much more evenly cooked. And much easier to get some chocolate drizzle with each bite. A large portion of the bread in a loaf pan is too far removed from the drizzle on top.