Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
A moist, deeply chocolatey quick bread built on ripe bananas and studded with chocolate chips — weeknight-friendly and gone by morning.
Ingredients
- 3 largeripe bananas(about 1.5 cups mashed)
- 1 ½ cupsall-purpose flour
- ¼ cupDutch-process cocoa powder(sifted)
- 1 tspbaking soda
- ¼ tspfine salt
- ⅔ cupgranulated sugar
- 2 largeeggs
- ½ cupunsalted butter(melted and slightly cooled)
- ¼ cupwhole milk
- 1 tspvanilla extract
- 2 ozdark chocolate(70% cacao, roughly chopped)
- ¾ cupsemi-sweet chocolate chips(plus a small handful for the top)
Method
- 01
Preheat the oven to 175 °C (350 °F). Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan and line it with a strip of parchment, leaving an overhang on the long sides.
- 02
Melt the 2 oz dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
- 03
In a large bowl, mash the 3 ripe bananas with a fork until nearly smooth — a few small lumps are fine.
- 04
Whisk the 2 eggs into the mashed banana, then whisk in the ½ cup melted butter, ¼ cup whole milk, and 1 tsp vanilla extract until combined.
- 05
Pour the melted dark chocolate into the banana mixture and whisk until fully incorporated and the batter turns a deep, uniform brown.
- 06
In a separate bowl, whisk together the 1 ½ cups flour, ¼ cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking soda, ¼ tsp salt, and ⅔ cup sugar.
- 07
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold with a spatula until just combined — stop as soon as no dry streaks remain; do not overmix.
- 08
Fold in the ¾ cup chocolate chips, then pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Scatter the reserved handful of chocolate chips evenly over the top.
- 09
Bake for 60–65 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs but no wet batter. Tent loosely with foil after 40 minutes if the top is browning too fast.
- 10
Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then use the parchment overhang to lift the loaf onto a wire rack. Cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing.
Adapted from public domain & community sources