This easy Chocolate Banana Bread recipe is moist and rich. Pain au chocolat is the ideal recipe for brunch, a snack, or even dessert!
In honor of the upcoming holiday celebrating sugar, here it is: a recipe using flour, sugar, and butter. Contrary to our usual habit, we didn’t try to make it gluten-free or naturally sweetened. It’s adapted slightly by Deb at Smitten Kitchen, although we’ve admittedly improved it a bit by adding a nut filling and removing the chocolate chips. The result is a slightly sweet and moist dark chocolate bread that is a must-try for dessert. We tried it with some maple mascarpone and it was delicious. And if decadence is what you’re looking for, chocolate chips would be divine.
Want classic banana bread instead? Try our Easy Banana Nut Bread or our Healthy Banana Bread. Or browse our banana recipes!
A few thoughts on sugar
We made this recipe before I decided to spend the last week on a sugar fast. Yes, sugar fasting. Even as a self-proclaimed advocate of healthy eating, I found ways to slip into sweets every day: chocolate at night, drowning oatmeal in maple syrup. Even though a lot of it was natural sugar, I realized I was getting a little too addicted to sweets to make it through the day and told myself I had a long day at the office and deserved it. .
Last week I only ate vegetables and whole grains. Here’s what surprised me: #1. The food was delicious and I didn’t feel like I was depriving myself. Once I was in “cold turkey,” I stopped running to the chocolate drawer (yes, I have a — uh, had A). #2. I feel great now, a little lighter and more independent from my dose.
This is not a dirty word to get you on a sugar fast. In general, Alex and I focus less on deprivation and more on moderation, which we believe will help us eat the way we want without becoming legalistic and making us fail. But all that moderation is a slippery slope. For me, one chunk of chocolate turned into two, three, four chunks of chocolate a night, with various other random snacks thrown in. It was constant and I couldn’t get rid of it.
There is research that sugar is an addictive substance. I used to think this was a bit sensational, but then I realized that maybe my “moderate” relationship with sugar was getting a little too friendly. I don’t plan on making new rules for the future, but cleaning has definitely given me a new perspective. So it’s a bit ironic, but here’s a sweet recipe… after a week without sweets!
And you, what do you think of sugar?
How to make chocolate banana bread
A fairly quick standard bread, this Chocolate Banana Bread is super easy to make. As with all banana bread recipes, be sure to use very ripe bananas so they are sweet and easy to mash. Once you’ve mashed the bananas, mix them in with the melted butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Then add the dry grains and pour the batter into a prepared loaf pan. You don’t even need a stand mixer!
There are many variations of banana and chocolate bread recipes. For our recipe, we added chopped walnuts to bread for a protein-packed crunch. We also removed the traditional chocolate chips to keep the bread dark and moist but not too rich. We hope you enjoy our chocolate banana bread: let us know in the comments below!
Variation: Turn them into muffins!
Imagine: a perfectly chocolatey bite, crunchy on top and soft on the inside. Yes, these Chocolate Banana Muffins are calling you! We turned this Chocolate Banana Bread recipe into muffins, and they’re just as delicious. They have the perfect texture, not too rich, and just the right amount of sweetness, with crunchy turbinado sugar! Check out this recipe for more.
This recipe is…
This Chocolate Banana Bread recipe is vegetarian.
The description
This easy Chocolate Banana Bread recipe is moist and rich. Pain au chocolat is the ideal recipe for brunch, a snack, or even dessert!
- ½ cup Mother
- 3 at 4 very ripe bananas (enough for 1 cup in total)
- ½ cup butter without salt
- ¾ cup Brown sugar
- 1 big egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup Dutch cocoa powder
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
- chop nuts
- Mash bananas in the bottom of a large bowl, enough for 1 cup. Melt the butter, then fold into the bananas with the brown sugar, egg and vanilla extract.
- Place the baking powder, kosher salt, all-purpose flour, and Dutch cocoa powder in the bowl and mix together with a spoon.
- Pour the batter into the cake tin and garnish with ground walnuts.
- Bake for 55 to 65 minutes (insert a toothpick in the center of the bread: if it comes out clean, it’s baked!) Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Then run a knife around the edge and invert the bread onto a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. Wrapped in foil, the bread will keep at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Cooked
- Kitchen: American
Keywords: banana bread, chocolate banana bread, easy chocolate banana bread, how to make banana bread
Looking for more chocolate recipes?
Aside from that Chocolate Banana Bread, here are a few more of our favorite chocolate recipes on A Couple Cooks (we’re chocolate junkies here):
Looking for more bread recipes?
We have what you need! Here are some of our favorite bread recipes:
