Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This easy Chocolate Banana Bread recipe is so rich, delicious and makes the perfect banana bread for chocolate lovers! It’s moist, decadent, and the best chocolate banana bread!
If you love banana bread, then I urge you to give this Chocolate Banana Bread recipe a try soon! So rich and delicious, the flavor combination of banana and chocolate is perfect together! I’ve included an ingredient that enhances the chocolate even more! As much as my family loves our traditional banana bread recipe, this chocolate version is one that is often requested by the chocolate lovers in the family.
How to Make the Chocolate Banana Bread
Once I started baking banana bread more and more often, I finally understood why my grandmother had a special bunch of bananas always on hold. She had plenty for snacking, but the special ones beside her bread box were reserved for banana bread or amazing Southern Banana Pudding. I’ll admit that I started doing the same. One bunch goes into the fruit bowl, and another goes to the side for recipes.
Banana bread makes a great thing to bake for a simple breakfast, dessert, or snack, to take to work to share with coworkers or to deliver to a friend that needs a little extra care. And I think it is one of the best ways to introduce yourself to a new neighbor.
Here’s how I make it:
Ingredients
Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full listing of ingredients, instructions, notes, and estimated nutritional information.
- Bananas – ripe bananas with dark spots that are ripe enough to mash
- Dark brown sugar – gives the recipe a deep, rich molasses flavor
- Butter (salted) – softened to room temperature
- Eggs – room temperature to combine best into the batter
- All-purpose flour – give your flour a quick whisk to remove any lumps if required
- Cocoa powder – use unsweetened cocoa powder, not Dutch process. They are not interchangeable.
- Espresso powder – this little extra ingredient brings even more richness to the chocolate
- Baking soda – works for leavening the bread to help it rise
- Salt – I use kosher salt
- Vanilla extract – I use my homemade vanilla extract, but you can also use quality store-bought vanilla.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Mix the ingredients. You can mix by hand or use an electric mixer based on your preference.
Mix together the softened butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Remove the bananas from their peelings, mash them with a fork, and mix until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg to make sure well blended into the batter.
In another mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and espresso powder until blended.
Then add the flour/cocoa mixture to the banana mixture and combine them until smooth. Add the baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract and stir until well combined. Pour into the prepared loaf pan.
Bake. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then, turn the baked chocolate banana bread out onto a wire rack to cool until it is still slightly warm before serving. Allow it to cool completely before covering it.
Storage Tips
To store. Allow the baked bread to cool completely. Store it under a cake dome, wrapped well, or in an airtight container on the countertop for 3-4 days.
To freeze. Wrap well with wrap, place in a freezer bag or freezer-safe container, and freeze for up to 3 months.
Thaw, reheat, and serve. Thaw completely overnight. Reheat in the oven or microwave and slice to serve.
About Room Temperature
Room-temperature eggs are desired for mixing with the butter for baking. Cold eggs can chill the fat too much and not result in a well-blended batter.
Softened butter to room temperature – not warm or melted butter – incorporates better when creaming with the sugar. It gives the bread a moist, tender texture.
No, not really. Don’t substitute Dutch-processed in this recipe, for instance. To keep it simple and not get into a chemistry lesson, they have different chemical properties and pair with different leaveners in a recipe. Natural cocoa powder is lighter in color, still has its acid content intact, and is usually paired with baking soda (as in this recipe); while Dutch-processed is darker, the beans have been treated to reduce the acidity, and it is typically paired with baking powder. Just a reminder that baking is a chemical reaction!
Other Favorite Bread and Muffin Recipes
Here’s my Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe. I hope you love it as much as we do!
Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 (472 g) overripe bananas, mashed
- 1 cup (213 g) dark brown sugar
- 8 tablespoons (113 g) salted butter, room temperature
- 2 large (100 g) eggs
- 1 1/2 cups (180 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (42 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.6 g) espresso powder
- 1 teaspoon (6 g) baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon (1 g) kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F. Spray a 9-inch loaf pan with baking spray or coat with butter and dust with all-purpose flour, being sure to shake out any excess flour. Set aside.
- Mix bananas and sugar with electric mixer until well blended. Add butter and beat until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each egg.
- Whisk flour, cocoa powder, and espresso powder in a medium mixing bowl until blended. Add flour/cocoa mixture to batter and mix until smooth. Add baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract and stir until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake until a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle, about 1 hour.
Notes
Storage and Freezing Instructions
To store. Allow the baked bread to cool completely. Store it under a cake dome, wrapped well, or in an airtight container on the countertop for 3-4 days. To freeze. Wrap well with wrap, place in a freezer bag or freezer-safe container, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw, reheat, and serve. Thaw completely overnight. Reheat in the oven or microwave and slice to serve.Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
From the Add a Pinch recipe archives. Originally published 2015.
can i do without the espresso powder
Yes, you sure can.
The best banana bread I have ever made or tasted. I think I will add walnuts the next time I make it. Not too sweet and very moist.
Dorothy, thank you. Let me know how you like it with the walnuts.
Hi Robyn… getting ready to make your bread and choc cake… I accidentally used “unsweetened” cocoa powder for the banana bread… is that ok or should I throw out and start over. Yikes.
Rosa, I use unsweetened cocoa powder for both chocolate cake and the chocolate banana bread. Hope you enjoy!
Hello Rosa,
If the end result is not sweet enough, make some “sweetened butter” to help compensate — eg. cinnamon butter. Tastes just as amazing!
Very good! I added a heaping scoop of chai mix and 1/4 tsp cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cardamom. And I mixed vanilla with almond extract. It made a delicious chocolate chai banana bread!
Hi Robyn,
Made this for weekend guests and it was a huge hit!!!
Any suggestions for making this gluten free? Would love to make this for a friend with celiac disease.
Thanks!
Cathy, you can use gluten free flour instead of the all-purpose flour. I’ve used brands that are a 1:1 replacement and they worked fine with this recipe.
Delicious and very rich. Took close to 1.5 hours to get done in glass pan. Next time I will blend sugar and butter first as butter stayed lumpy with the bananas but it still turned out. I added some chopped walnuts. Dare I add chocolate chips ? 😉
Why not!
Cheryl, I haven’t added chocolate chips but that sounds good.
Amazing!! So most and perfect amount of chocolate and banana flavors.
El, thank you. So glad you liked this recipe!