Chocolate Banana Bread

This tasty Chocolate Banana Bread is moist, deeply chocolate, and rich! We make this bread in two bowls — no stand or hand mixers required. This banana bread also utilizes better-for-you ingredients — less sugar than most banana breads, Greek yogurt, dark chocolate, coconut oil, blended up oats, and bananas of course!

Use any remaining overripe bananas in some of our other banana treats like these Banana Crumb Muffins or Banana Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Chocolate Banana Bread

We’re obsessed with this chocolate banana bread! It’s incredibly moist, darkly & deeply chocolate, and totally indulgent tasting. The best part is though — it’s not totally a dessert. While there is still a good amount of sugar, there is a fraction of the sugar that other recipes contain. We’re also using tons of other healthier ingredient swaps — dark cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips (healthy fats and antioxidants –yeah!), protein-packed Greek yogurt, oats in place of some of the flour, coconut oil, and — of course– let’s not forget we’re adding fruit to this bread in the form of bananas! 

Be sure to check out the next section for some important recipe notes before heading to the grocery store. I hope you love this chocolate banana bread as much as my family does! 🙂 

Chocolate Banana Bread Ingredients

• Special Dark® Cocoa Powder: I highly recommend using a Dutch-process cocoa powder for a deeper flavor but plain (natural) cocoa powder works as well. 
• Greek Yogurt: Adds protein and tons of flavor to this bread. Our favorite yogurt to use is Honey Vanilla Greek yogurt. I don’t recommend a low fat or non-Greek yogurt in this bread, it won’t turn out the same.
• Oat flour. All you do is blend up regular old fashioned or quick oats in a blender until the resemble regular flour
• Chocolate Chips. Any type of chocolate chip will work — semi-sweet, milk, dark, or chopped up chocolate.
• Overripe bananas. The riper the banana, the sweeter the bread (and overall the more flavorful it will be). We like to use bananas that are speckled all over.
• Coconut oil. Make sure to get the measurement when the oil is melted. Make sure you give it time to cool down after melting before adding to the banana bread. 

Chocolate Banana Bread Tips

• Thoroughly mash the bananas to avoid unpleasant chunks in the chocolate banana bread. If you don’t want to take the time to mash with a fork, use an electric hand mixer to mash them quickly.
• Don’t over mix: If you over-mix the batter, you’ll end up with a denser loaf. Mix until ingredients are just combined and then pop it in the oven! 
• Generously grease bread pan.  I like to grease the bread pan with nonstick spray and then lightly dust with flour. There are few things as frustrating as trying to invert a loaf and having it fall apart or stick to the bottom. Take your time to generously grease the pan or line it with parchment paper.
• Always cool baked goods on a wire rack. Run a table knife along the edge of the pan and invert the loaf onto the wire rack. Chocolate Banana Bread needs to be elevated so air can circulate around all sides as it cools. Otherwise, moisture (from the heat of the bread) will condense on the bottom of the bread, making it damp and slightly sticky.

How To Know When Chocolate Banana Bread Is Done

It can be tricky to know when quick breads are baked fully. There is a lot of variances in baking banana bread such as altitude, humidity, actual oven temperature, bread pan used, etc. Here are a few cues to look for and tips to keep in mind:

• Preventing under-baked banana bread: Make sure your oven is correctly calibrated; wait for the oven to fully preheat before adding the bread to the oven and position the loaf in the center of the oven.
• Visual cues for doneness: Bread has pulled away from the edges of the pan slightly and the top is caramelized and a deep brown color.
• Physical cue for doneness: A toothpick (or fork) inserted into the center of the chocolate banana bread comes out clean or with a couple of moist (not wet) crumbs.

More banana recipes

• Chocolate Banana Muffins with chocolate chips
• Banana Chocolate Chip Cake with a milk chocolate frosting
• Banana Bread with Greek Yogurt spiced with ground cinnamon
• Gluten Free Banana Pancakes no flour in the batter
• Flourless Banana Muffins with mini chocolate chips

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5 from 11 votes

Chocolate Banana Bread

By Chelsea Lords

This tasty chocolate banana bread is moist, deeply chocolate, and rich! We make this bread in two bowls -- no stand or hand mixers required. This banana bread also utilizes better-for-you ingredients -- less sugar than most banana breads, Greek yogurt, dark chocolate, coconut oil, blended up oats, and bananas of course!

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Resting Time: 15 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 45 minutes minutes

Servings: 12 servings (1 loaf of chocolate banana bread)

Ingredients 

USMetric

 

1x2x3x

Dry

• ▢ 1/3 cup old fashioned oats, blended (measured to 1/3 cup after being blended)
• ▢ 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1 cup white whole wheat flour (or plain white all-purpose flour)
• ▢ 1/2 cup special dark cocoa powder Note 1
• ▢ 1/2 cup chocolate chips (we use dark chocolate; any type of chocolate works)
• ▢ 1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips (we use dark chocolate; any type of chocolate works)

Wet

• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ 1/2 cup honey vanilla Greek yogurt (must use full fat/Greek yogurt)
• ▢ 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 3/4 cup white, granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 cup mashed overripe bananas (~2-3 bananas)

Instructions 

• PREP: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease and then lightly dust a 9x5-inch bread pan with flour (or cocoa powder) and set aside. Alternatively line the pan with parchment paper (leaving an overhang for easy removal). Coconut oil prep: Make sure to measure the coconut oil in LIQUID (melted) form. Melt the coconut oil, measure, and then allow to slightly cool so it doesn't "cook" the egg
• WET INGREDIENTS: In a large bowl, whisk 1 large egg with a fork. Add in the vanilla Greek yogurt, cooled coconut oil, vanilla extract, and white sugar.
• BANANAS: Mash 2-3 overripe bananas until well mashed and the consistency of a thick applesauce. Measure to ensure you have 1 full leveled cup of banana. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until well combined.
• OATS: Blend up oats. To do this: put old fashioned or quick oats in a blender or food processor and pulse them until they resemble flour. Measure after blending to get a leveled 1/3 cup.
• DRY INGREDIENTS: In a separate bowl add the oat flour, salt, baking soda, white or white whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, regular and miniature chocolate chips. Stir to combine.
• COMBINE WET & DRY: Add dry to wet ingredients. Mix together, very gently, until just combined (over-mixing will yield a denser bread). Use a spatula to scrape every bit of the mixture into the prepared pan. If desired, sprinkle 1 tablespoon white sugar on top of the bread for a nice "crust"
• BAKE: Bake in fully preheated oven for 50-65 minutes or until a fork or toothpick when inserted into the center comes out clean (or with a few moist (not wet) crumbs or the bread starts to pull away from the edges. (I test the bread at 50 minutes) If needed, tent the top with tin foil if the top of the bread is baking faster than the rest.
• COOL BREAD: Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes and then remove from the bread pan onto a cooling rack. Let fully cool before cutting into the bread (it's a bit crumbly right out of the oven). Cut with a very sharp serrated knife.
• STORAGE: This bread stores 1-2 days at normal room temperature (wrapped tightly/stored in an airtight container). After 3-4 days, this bread is more prone to molding because of the ingredients used and the overall moistness of the bread. Warm refrigerated (unwrapped) slices in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. Freeze any leftover slices for up to 3 months (individually wrapped and then in another zip-top bag). To thaw, set out wrapped slices at room temperature for about an hour.

Video

Recipe Notes

Note 1: Any dutch process cocoa works well. If you don't use dutch process cocoa, the bread can turn out fairly dry. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 151kcal | Carbohydrates: 20.9g | Protein: 3.8g | Fat: 14.1g | Cholesterol: 15.5mg | Sodium: 7.6mg | Fiber: 3.4g | Sugar: 9.2g

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

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