Chocolate-Chip Banana Bread
Updated March 2, 2020
- Total Time
- 1½ hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- Nonstick spray, as needed
- 4very ripe medium bananas, peeled
- 6tablespoons/85 grams unsalted butter, melted
- ⅓cup/80 milliliters plain Greek yogurt
- 1cup/220 grams light or dark brown sugar
- 2large eggs
- 2teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2cups/255 grams all-purpose flour
- 1½teaspoons baking soda
- ½teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1cup/135 grams finely chopped chocolate or mini chocolate chips (see Tip)
- ¾cup/130 grams coarsely chopped toasted nuts, such as almonds, walnuts or pecans (optional)
- Coarse sanding or turbinado sugar, as needed for finishing (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.
- Step 2
In a large bowl, mash the bananas coarsely using a fork. They should be fully broken apart, but it’s OK if some larger lumpy pieces remain. Whisk in the melted butter, yogurt, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until well combined.
- Step 3
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt to combine. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir to combine using a silicone spatula or wooden spoon. Scrape the sides and base of the bowl well to make sure the mixture is uniformly combined.
- Step 4
Gently stir in the chocolate until combined, then pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread into an even layer. If using, sprinkle the surface generously with coarse sugar.
- Step 5
Transfer the pan to the oven and bake until the edges of the loaf start to pull away from the edge of the pan, and a tester inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 60 to 75 minutes. If the top of the loaf is becoming too dark before it’s baked through, loosely cover with foil.
- Step 6
Transfer from the oven to a cooling rack and run a thin knife around the edge of the banana bread to separate it from the pan. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before unmolding and cooling completely.
- To make chocolate chocolate-chip banana bread, reduce the all-purpose flour to 1¾ cups/225 grams, and whisk in ⅓ cup/30 grams cocoa powder with the other dry ingredients in Step 3.
Private Notes
Comments
I've made this as described. I've made it with substitutions. We've eaten it for breakfast. We've eaten it for dessert. No matter how I make it or when we eat it, it's heavenly. For us, it's been the Official Quick Bread of the Pandemic. We've taken to buying bananas in big bunches. We mean to eat them on our cereal, we really do. But after a few days, they start to turn, and we say, "Gosh, would you look at that? Our bananas are turning." And we turn the oven to 350...
According to King Arthur, the internal temperature of banana bread should be 200-205 degrees F. Why guess?
Made this today and subbed buttermilk for the yogurt because...staying home obviously due to social distancing! I also had to use Cake Flour for the same reason...The Banana Bread was so fabulous!!!! I highly recommend making it and even using the same substitutions! (I usually don't like when reviewers change ingredients in the recipe, but I guess we all have to learn to roll with the cards we have been dealt)
Convenient - I just happened to have four overripe bananas! We are really enjoyed this and it was pretty easy to make. I used regular (bittersweet) chocolate chips because that's what I had on hand. I'll use mini next time as the chocolate was a bit overpowering. Also, made them into muffins instead so they were more portable. I used succanat for the sugar which is a low-glycemic raw brown sugar. Will make this one again!
I’m not exaggerating when I say this banana bread recipe could be the thing that finally brings about world peace. Seriously - it’s insane. I personally found the texture of my first batch kind of chewy (but insanely well flavoured). The second time around, I found the commenter who mentioned 4 medium bananas = 471g, chopped the chocolate a lot more chunky and my added walnuts more finely and I swear it was like stepping into heaven. I also find that I need to bake between 75 and 85 minutes pretty consistently. Maybe that’s just my oven-pan combination though. I still find it a bit tricky to manage the perpetual underbaked vs burnt outside combo, but find its perfect when the skewer comes out the slightest bit streaky w/ moisture w/ a few crumbs on it, which tends to be around 97 degrees celsius on my food thermometer! This is no mediocre banana bread thats pretty good - it is the banana bread you dream of when you think of banana bread. This is now my STRICT go to - I cannot conceptualise a better recipe and am excited to experiment w/ different variations.
I made this into muffins and it worked beautifully!