Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe

my fudgy banana bread, and there’s a reason why I called it fudgy. I mean, look at this. Oh, it is so chocolatey and moist and I have an amazing tip for ripening bananas that you won’t wanna miss,

so let’s get started. Let’s start with some quick prep. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and butter a nine-inch loaf pan. Butter the bottom and sides of the pan, then line with a sheet of parchment paper. You want the parchment paper to hang over the sides of the pan so you can easily remove the loaf later

from the pan. Buttering the pan helps keep the parchment paper in place. Set that aside. Now you’ll need a large mixing bowl or you can use the bowl of a stand mixer. Add your softened butter and your sugar. Using an electric mixer, cream those together on medium speed. (upbeat music) Once that comes together and looks creamy,

you’re gonna crack two large room temperature eggs into a cup. (upbeat music) Lightly beat the eggs together with a fork, then add to your butter mixture and continue mixing on medium speed just until combined. You could also just crack the eggs right into the mixing bowl, but this way you make sure you don’t get any pieces

of shells in your batter. Now, every good banana bread needs very ripe bananas. Ripe Bananas are sweeter, softer, and easier to mash. If your bananas aren’t quite there, here’s a great trick. Set your bananas on a foil lined baking sheet and put them in the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, bake for about 30 minutes

or until your bananas are blackened. You can also use frozen and thawed ripe bananas, which is what I like to do when I have really ripe bananas but I’m not quite ready to use them yet. Just put ’em in a freezer safe zip bag and pop ’em in the freezer. Peel your very ripe bananas and set them on a large plate.

Now use a fork to mash up your bananas and it’s okay to still have some texture in your bananas. Bananas can vary in size so to be sure you have the right amount, you can measure it and you’ll need one and three-fourths cups of mashed banana. Add your mashed bananas to the mixing bowl along with your vanilla extract.

I’m using my homemade vanilla, which is just two ingredients, and I wanna remind you that it makes a great gift and it’s never too early to start making a batch of vanilla extract. Set the wet ingredients aside. Now, we’re gonna sift together the dry ingredients. Combine flour, unsweetened cocoa powder,

baking soda, and salt. Sifting these ingredients ensures you don’t have any clumps of baking soda or cocoa powder, and it also helps to aerate the flour so you end up with a really soft and tender chocolate banana bread. Now add the dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and mix on medium-low speed just until incorporated.

The batter should be lumpy and that’s okay. Don’t overmix or your loaf can become a little tough. You’ll need a total of one cup of chocolate chips for this recipe. Set aside a quarter cup for the topping and fold in the rest of the chocolate chips. Use a spatula to fold that together and scrape the bottom

of the bowl to make sure you don’t have any missed pockets of flour. Transfer all of your batter to your prepared loaf pan. The batter will be thick. Use a spatula to spread it out evenly in the pan, then sprinkle on the remaining quarter cup of chocolate chips, a little sample for the cook, and we’re gonna take that to the oven and bake

at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 55 to 65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Make sure when you’re doing your toothpick test to poke in a couple of spots because sometimes you can hit a gooey chocolate chip. You wanna make sure you don’t have any wet batter stuck to your toothpick.

Let that rest for 10 minutes in the pan, then run a thin knife or spatula around the edges and lift the chocolate banana bread out of the loaf pan. This is where that parchment paper is super helpful. Just pull up on the sides and it should come right out. Transfer that to a wire rack to cool.

You know what I love is when a recipe turns out just how it looks in the cookbook. Ah, love it. Except I think I need a lighter board because brown on brown. You know we’re gonna change this out. My husband’s probably rolling his eyes over there, but okay, just give me a second. Give me a second. There we go.

Now it really looks like what’s in the cookbook. Look at this. Look at this. Literally, I cannot wait any longer. We are gonna slice into this ’cause I really wanna show you how moist and just fudgy chocolatey it is. Inside this chocolate banana bread is just goals, you guys. Seriously, we’re gonna just cut right into this.

I know it’s still a little too warm, but whatever. All right, here we go. Oh my goodness. Just get in close and look at how unbelievably tender and moist this chocolate banana bread is. This just has my name written all over it. You know, it’s just like a warm chocolate hug. Who doesn’t love that? Come on, look at this crumb.

It is so soft, so moist, so amazing. Ah, you’re gonna love this, seriously. I mean, if you thought banana bread was good, it’s next level. Okay, we’ve got chocolate fingers now. We’re gonna go right into this taste test because can you blame me? All right, here we go. Diving in. And I love that it’s still warm.

The chocolate chips are gooey and melty. Ah, okay, here we go.  Hmm, ah. I’m sorry. Wow, you guys, this isn’t just chocolate banana bread, okay, there’s a reason why I called it fudgy banana bread. It’s just ooey gooey, melty chocolate. I feel like it reminds us that everything’s gonna be okay.

It’s so good. I don’t know. How do you put chocolate love into words? This is my jam, you guys. Oh, man. And it keeps really well too. Let it cool the room temperature, cover it up. You can store it on the counter probably for a day or two and then you’ll wanna refrigerate it or freeze it if you really can’t finish it,

but this is amazing in the morning with a cup of coffee. Hmm, I guess that’s kind of naughty for breakfast, but you know, that’s what we do. It’s how we roll. If you guys love banana bread, we have a super popular, I mean, it went viral, banana bread recipe. It’s my husband’s masterpiece. He’s been working on it for years.

You guys will wanna check that out. And we also have banana muffins. We also have chocolate brownies. Ah, and I said, and a lot, but it’s important. And there’s chocolate brownies in the cookbook, okay? You’re gonna love everything you get in that book. So many family favorites. I would touch it, but I’ve got chocolate all over me

right now and I just made it worse. Slightly messy, totally worth it. Let me know where you guys spotted Sharky. I will leave links to where you can buy the cookbook in the notes. I do have a cookbook tour coming up and I will leave links for that too. I hope you guys can join me. Order your tickets now while you can,

and there are some free spots too, so… Am I forgetting anything? Oh yes, the rest of my chocolate banana bread. Bye.

CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD INGREDIENTS:

►3 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 3/4 cups)
►2/3 cup granulated sugar
►1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
►2 large eggs, lightly beaten, at room temperature
►1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
►1 cup all-purpose flour
►1/3 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder, such as Hershey’s
►1 teaspoon baking soda
►1/2 teaspoon sea salt
►1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, divided into ¾ cup and ¼ cup