Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This Chocolate chip banana bread is light and fluffy, perfectly moist and it has that delectable blend of banana and chocolate flavors.

I love this chocolate chip banana bread recipe,

• It uses ingredients you already most likely have in your pantry.
• It’s so easy to make in a one bowl method.
• No special equipments like stand mixer is needed to make this delicious banana bread.
• The recipe can be modified in a variety of ways.. for example if you want to swap some nuts instead of chocolate chips, you can add chopped pecans or walnuts instead..You can make it more flavorful by adding some cinnamon powder..if you want to use oil instead of butter you can use it..you can replace yogurt with sour cream or buttermilk..

INGREDIENTS needed to make Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1. 3 medium sized very ripe bananas, or 1 and 1/2 cups mashed bananas
2. 2 eggs
3. 6 tbsp (85 g) of melted butter or oil
4. 1/4 cup (50g) of brown sugar (If you don’t want to use brown sugar, you can use white sugar instead)
5. 1/3 cup (66g) white sugar *I find this is enough sugar if adding the chocolate chips but if you add nuts in place of chocolate chips, I would suggest you to increase it to 3/4 cup (150g)
6. 1/4 cup yogurt(65g)
7. 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
8. 2 cups (260 g) of plain flour or all purpose flour
9. 1/8 tsp salt
10. 1/2 tsp baking soda
11. 1/2 tsp baking powder
12. 1 cup (175g) semi sweet or milk chocolate chips
    

NOTE: We didn’t add too much sugar to the bread since banana is naturally rich in fructose and there’s 1 cup chocolate chip in the recipe, if you like really sweet bread, add a few more tablespoons of sugar to the mixture.

How To Make Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1.Preheat the oven 325 F or 165 C.

2.Prepare the baking pan by greasing the pan(9×5 inch) with some butter and keep it aside.

3.Prepare the flour mix.

Into the flour, add in the baking powder, baking soda and salt .Mix everything together so that all the ingredients gets evenly distributed in the flour and keep it aside.

4.In to a medium bowl, add in all the ingredients and mix them together to form a batter.

Combine the wet ingredients.

Mash the bananas using a fork or a potato masher.Make sure there are no big chunks of banana.

Add the melted butter ,sugar, yogurt and then Eggs and vanilla extract.

Combine all of these ingredients to form a homogenous mixture.

While preparing the cake batter,we should keep in our mind that, if we over mix the batter after adding the flour, it may cause development of gluten strands which can result in tough and rubbery banana bread.

So use the minimum folds and strokes to mix them together.

If the proportion of leavening agents in the recipe is correct and if the folding method is gentle, then our banana bread will always be soft, light and fluffy.

Mix together the wet and dry ingredients.

Add in the chocolate chips and mix together.

4.Transfer the batter in to our prepared baking pan.

The size of the baking pan I have used is 9 x 5 inch.

Sprinkle the top with some more chocolate chips to make it more appealing.

5.Bake @ 325 F or 165 C preheated oven for about 70 minutes.

Baking Temperature and duration of banana bread

Bake @ 325 F or 165 C preheated oven for about 70 minutes.

If your pan size is different the baking time may vary slightly.If the pan is wider or bigger ,then the baking duration will be (about 10 minutes) lesser.

Check the doneness by poking a skewer inserted into the center of the chocolate chip banana bread.It it comes out clean, our banana bread is done.You may find some melted chocolate in the skewer which is not to be get confused with the doneness of banana bread.

Let the chocolate chip banana bread sit in the baking pan itself for 10-15 minutes and then transfer it on to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Watch the video to see how easy it is to make chocolate chip banana bread

What kind of bananas are best for making banana bread.

Use very ripe bananas.Heavily speckled or even mostly brown bananas make the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread moist and flavorful.

As bananas ripen, the fructose in them develops much.. become more sweeter and more flavorful. You can even able to smell a beautiful vanilla aroma from those best “fit bananas.

I have used one and a half cups of mashed bananas (about 3 medium bananas) to make our banana bread, full of banana flavor.

Can you substitute oil for butter in this chocolate chip banana bread recipe

Yes you can use any vegetable oil in place of melted butter in this recipe.It adds more moisture to the banana bread.But personally I prefer the flavor of butter in this chocolate chip banana bread recipe.

Can you use softened butter in place of melted butter in this chocolate chip banana bread recipe

Yes you can use softened butter which can result in a banana bread which is a bit more denser.In that case, we need to cream the sugar and butter and then add the mashed bananas ,eggs and all the rest of the ingredients.

What kind of sugar can be used in chocolate chip banana bread recipe

You can use 100% white sugar or 100% brown sugar or part of white and brown sugar while making this banana bread.

Brown sugar can add a cool caramel flavor .. nice brown tint to our cake and a bit more moistness to our cake.

While using white sugar, the banana bread will be pale in color ..but beautiful with lots of chocolate chips in between.

So I prefer to use both brown and white sugar in banana bread.

Can you skip yogurt in this chocolate chip banana bread

I would suggest you not to skip yogurt (but you can substitute yogurt with a few other ingredients) in this banana bread recipe.

What can I use instead of yogurt in this banana bread recipe

You can use an acidic ingredient like sour cream, buttermilk, greek yogurt or flavored yogurt in place of yogurt.

You can prepare yogurt by adding two teaspoons of lemon juice into 1/4 cup of milk and can be used in this recipe as well.

Is it necessary to use both baking powder and baking soda while making chocolate chip banana bread

It depends according to the other ingredients in the recipe.

In this banana bread recipe, we used two kinds of chemical leaveners,baking soda and baking powder.As bananas are kind of heavy ingredient, we need a “double” lift to make the banana bread lighter and fluffier.And when adding baking soda, we need to add an acidic ingredient to compliment its action.Which is yogurt in this recipe.

If the baking soda in the recipe is more than what is required, the banana bread may taste somewhat “soapy”.

If we are not using yogurt and baking soda in this recipe, we need to add 2 tsp of baking powder in this recipe.

I would suggest you to go through this blog article to get a clearer idea on the action of baking soda and baking powder.

The correct understanding of the action of baking powder and baking soda help us to bake wonderful cakes and other baking goods.

What is the difference between baking soda and baking powder ?

In this recipe we have used very little chemical leaveners;and I found it was just sufficient to make our chocolate chip banana bread rise beautifully and to make it light and fluffy.

What can I use instead of eggs for banana bread

In this chocolate chip banana bread, you can use an extra

1/4 cup mashed bananas or 1/4 cup apple sauce + 1/4 cup yogurt and 1/2 tsp baking soda,in place of 2 eggs .

So we need to use a total of 1 tsp baking soda,1/2 cup yogurt and 1 3/4 mashed bananas if we are not using eggs.The rest of the recipe remains same.

ie,In place of an egg, we use equivalent volume(30-40 ml) of an acidic ingredient and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda.

What kind of chocolate should I need to use

You can use your favorite chocolate chips in this banana bread.I prefer semi sweet chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips. If you don’t have chocolate chips, you can even just finely chop up a bar of chocolate.

Can I use this same chocolate chip banana bread to make muffins

Yes ,You can also easily adapt this recipe for making Banana chocolate chip muffins. Just adjust the baking time to around 23 minutes (bake them until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.)

Can you freeze banana bread?

Yes, this banana bread freezes great.

Once the chocolate chip banana bread has cooled completely,wrap it tightly with plastic freezer wrap and place in a freezer bag. You can even wrap individual slices and reheat slices at a time and not the whole loaf.

You may also like Chocolate Zucchini Bread which is super moist and so chocolatey.I simply modified this same recipe for making this Chocolate Zucchini Loaf.

Chocolate chip banana bread:Printable recipe