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.
–
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.
- 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
Can I turn this recipe into muffins?
I have a recipe for that! Check out my Double Chocolate Banana Muffins Recipe!
Can I swap the chocolate chips?
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!
Why did my loaf sink in the middle?
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.
Double Chocolate Banana Bread
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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) vegetable oil
- 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.
Recipe 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.
Great recipe! So delicious!
This was a great, accessible recipe. I chose to make mine into muffins instead of bread. The only issue I had was with the drizzle. I could not get my chocolate chips to melt enough to drizzle, so I used a toothpick to frost “lines.” Overall, a great recipe, though!
This recipe made such a delicious loaf of banana bread!! It’s not too rich, but still so sweet and yummy!
Super chocolatey & oh so most. This recipe for triple Chocolate banana bread is the best! So easy to put together and a great way to use up those extra bananas.
This double chocolate banana bread is rich and moist with so much flavor! You can taste both the banana and chocolate equally. Followed the recipe exactly and it was easy to make and even easier to eat!! Delish!!!
The best chocolate banana bread I’ve tried! Easy and straightforward and you can always count in this recipe to produce a moist banana bread! My favorite!
Yum! Tessa’s standard banana recipe is great but this is just soooo good when you want that added bit of chocolate kick! The whole family loves it!
My bread took the full 1 hr 10 mins to bake (which is consistent with the other recipes, my oven tends to be on the longer end of baking time). I’m so thankful that the recipe includes an internal temp rather than just poking a toothpick through, because I probably would have overcooked it if it were the latter! It came out perfectly and my partner was also so happy that I made it! It was easy to make and didn’t take much time to prepare.
Made for chocoholics, loads of it!
Very nice but somehow the flavor was a bit off, you need to use really overripe bananas for the banana flavor to come through.
so easy to make and it has a rich chocolate flavor.
This Banana Bread is perfect in every way. I usually don’t like making chocolate loaves because I find they dry out easily. This one is opposite of that (I hate this word but it’s the only one that fits) it’s very MOIST (eww) in the best way possible. You get the decadence of a chocolate cake without the guilt because of the banana. It’s a perfect marriage. Will be making this again!