Dorothy Kern
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread is my FAVORITE way to eat banana bread. This is my favorite banana bread recipe LOADED with tons of chocolate chips. This will become a new favorite.
This is the BEST banana bread recipe; it’s moist and flavorful and full of chocolate. Grab those overripe bananas and let’s get started!
How to make Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe Video
This is the BEST Banana Bread Recipe
If I had to pick one breakfast indulgence I can’t get enough of, it would be banana bread. I’ve loved this warm and gooey bread since I was a little girl when my mom would make her banana bread on Saturday mornings. We’d all crowd into the kitchen barely waiting for the bread to cool before we attacked it with butter that would melt and drip because the bread was still hot from the oven.
The most simple (and best way) to change up my mom’s banana bread? With chocolate chips, of course.
You will love this banana bread because it’s:
- EASY to make – seriously
- Super moist and rich
- Uses up all those overripe bananas
- Turns out perfect EVERY time!
Table of Contents
- How to make Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe Video
- This is the BEST Banana Bread Recipe
- Ingredients in my Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe
- How to make Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
- How to keep chocolate chip banana bread moist
- Can you freeze Banana Bread?
- Can I make this banana bread into muffins?
- Variations for this Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe
- Tips for the perfect banana bread:
- FAQ
- Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Ingredients in my Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe
- Bananas – the most important part. Use overripe (or “tired”) bananas. They have lots of brown spots.
- Fat – butter or oil. I love using unsalted butter, but you can also use equal parts vegetable oil or liquid coconut oil.
- Sugar – I use granulated sugar in all my banana bread recipes.
- Milk – some banana bread recipes use sour cream but I use sour milk. My mom’s recipe calls for sour milk (aka Buttermilk), and if you don’t have buttermilk, it’s easy to make your own. Just mix 1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice into the milk and let it sit for 5 minutes. Voila! Buttermilk!
- Baking soda – this recipe uses baking soda instead of baking powder. The acid in the sour milk or buttermilk helps to activate the baking soda causing a nice rise in the loaf.
- Chocolate! Use your favorite kind of chocolate chips in this recipe.
How to make Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Blender vs Fork: While you can definitely mash your bananas with a fork, I love to use a blender to get a nice smooth banana mixture.
Blend: First, blend your bananas with the eggs, baking soda, and milk. Make it nice and smooth.
Mix: cream your butter and sugar with a hand mixer, then add the wet ingredients into the butter. Mix and add your flour until it’s nice and thick, then add your chocolate chips.
Bake: add to a pan that’s bee sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (or grease it with butter/crisco and sugar it). Bake until it’s nice and cracked on the top and a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs from the center of the crack.
How to keep chocolate chip banana bread moist
Banana bread stays moist mostly because of the bananas. But the sourness from the buttermilk and the fat also helps keep it moist. It will stay that way for a few days, if it lasts that long.
Another important tip is to not over bake it. Take it right out as soon as it’s done and it’ll be a moist bread, otherwise it can dry out.
Did you know you can freeze your overripe bananas? I always tend to over buy bananas and they go brown before I eat them. I always freeze them so I can make banana bread whenever I want.
Can you freeze Banana Bread?
This also freezes well! Check out my post on how I freeze desserts – and quick breads too! You can freeze the whole loaf or you can freeze slices. I do both!
Store it covered on the counter for up to 3 days. It’ll be gone long before that!
Can I make this banana bread into muffins?
Another thing I love about this chocolate chip banana bread is that you can make it in muffins too. Banana Bread Muffins are some of my favorite things to pack in my daughter’s lunch. With chocolate chips – even better!
Variations for this Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe
- Milk: use buttermilk OR use milk + 1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice. You can also use nondairy milk and add 1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice.
- Gluten Free Banana Bread: you can use 1:1 Gluten Free All Purpose Flour in place of the flour
- Whole Wheat: make whole wheat banana bread using 1 cup all-purpose and 1 cup whole wheat flour.
- Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Bread: Reduce chocolate chips inside batter to 1 cup and use ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans.
Tips for the perfect banana bread:
- Pan Size: I recommend using a 9×5-inch or 10×6-inch baking pan for this bread. Or, use two 8×4-inch pans or three mini loaf pans.
- You can make chocolate chip banana bread muffins using muffin pans.
- You can substitute soy or almond milk in this bread, but add 1 teaspoon of vinegar so the baking soda is activated.
- It will brown a lot on the outside while it’s baking. If it’s browning too much, reduce the oven temperature by 25°.
- How you know banana bread is done: It will form a nice crack on top. Once a toothpick comes out mostly clean right outside the crack, the bread is done.
- Cooling: Let it cool a bit before slicing or the chocolate chips will create holes in the bread.
- Why does my banana bread collapse? If your crack collapses after baking, it’s because it was underdone. It’s still good and will have a little gooey spot right on top, but for best results do the toothpick test right next to the crack!
FAQ
I recommend using a 9×5-inch pan for best results. You can also use an 8×4-inch pan and make a couple muffins alongside.
For this recipe you do – the banana bread rises and is nice and fluffy thanks to baking soda and the reaction with the sour milk/buttermilk.
This happens when the bread is not done in the center and it will collapse along the crack. Make sure to test the bread in the center of the crack and the toothpick should come out with just a few crumbs sticking to it.
Test the bread in the center of the crack with a toothpick – it should come out with just a few crumbs sticking to it.
This happens because the chocolate chips are heavier than the batter. Don’t stir them in – fold gently, plus add more on top before baking. You can also toss the chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon of flour to help them not sink.
This can happen when you use a dark coated pan and/or your oven is too hot. If you notice the bread getting too dark, lower the oven temperature to 325°F.
Other Banana Bread Recipes:
- Cinnamon Sugar Banana Bread
- Cinnamon Pecan Banana Bread
- Banana Bread Coffee Cake
- Banana Muffins with cream cheese
Have you made this recipe?
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Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 medium overripe bananas
- 2 large eggs
- 7 tablespoons sour milk or buttermilk (To make sour milk: add 1 teaspoon vinegar to milk and let sit 5 minutes)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups (248g) all-purpose flour
- 2 cups (340g) chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9x5with nonstick cooking spray. You can use an 8×4-inch loaf pan and make 1-2 muffins alongside.
- Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer (and hand mixer is okay too).
- Add the bananas, eggs, sour milk, and baking soda to a blender. Mix until liquefied. Alternately, mash the bananas with a fork and then stir the eggs, milk, and baking soda into the bananas.
- Pour half of the banana mixture into the butter mixture with 1 cup of flour and mix until just combined. Repeat with the rest of the liquid and flour. Do not overmix!
- Stir in 1 ½ cups chocolate chips.
- Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips. Bake approximately 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean (test right next to the crack).
- Cool at least 10 minutes in pan.
Recipe Notes
- This also makes 12 muffins (bake time approximately 15 minutes).
- You can substitute equal amount vegetable oil for the butter.
- You can substitute equal amount soy or almond milk for the milk, just add 1 teaspoon vinegar to the blender to activate the baking soda.
- Don’t have a blender? You can make this by hand as well; just mash the banana with a fork.
Nutrition Information
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Click here for easy ways to use overripe BANANAS
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Chocolate Chip Banana Bread is a heavenly quick bread recipe full or banana flavor and rich chocolate chips. Everyone loves chocolate for breakfast!
Last Updated on April 19, 2021
All text and images © DOROTHY KERN for Crazy for Crust. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be accurate.
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Published on: May 10, 2020
Ok, I hope you aren’t like me and look at the comments before trying this recipe! I have a ceramic loaf pan and it turned into a… salvageable disaster! I did the toothpick test, just next to the crack like the said, and it came back clean. This was at 55 minutes, half way between her suggested end-time range. I let it cool, and when I went to flip it out (thank God onto a parchment sheet and cooling rack) it cracked and started falling apart because the middle was COMPLETELY RAW! There was probably 3/4 cup of raw dough, and my beautiful banana bread was disintegrating before my eyes! So I quickly fitted the loaf pan back over the bottom, grabbed the cooling tray, and flipped it back into the pan. I then covered the top in aluminum foil and let it cook in 10-minute increments until—using a KNIFE—it was done. It ended up taking about 30 more minutes to fully cook. For this type of pan, I would almost suggest bumping the temperature up to 375°F and checking around the 30 minute mark to make sure the top isn’t burning. When you believe the top it done, cover it in aluminum foil—this slows down the cooking of the top, while continuing to cook the center. I hope this helps!!!
I’m so sorry! It must be partially the pan. I know with pie dishes, ceramic cooks faster so it probably cooked the edges quicker than the center.
I am confused on checking oneness, it said recheck on the side of crack and then said in the center, which is correct
If you check in the crack it should come out with a few crumbs. On the side it will come out clean.
Hi..
Can I use brown sugar instead of white sugar?
Delicious! I used mini semi-sweet chocolate chips and added a little cinnamon. We’ll gobble this loaf up in a couple of days, or maybe one, and I’ll bake another.
Do you think if I doubled this I could bake it in a bundt? TY!
I think so, yes. Usually 2 loaf pans = one bundt pan, so let me know how it turns out!
Thanks for that Dorothy it worked a treat
Xx
Dawn
Stay safe 😀
I am NOT a fan of adding chocolate chips, however I enjoy adding cinnamon and perhaps nutmeg. I will sometimes add chopped dates or golden raisins (I plump the raisins by soaking in water about an hour and then pour off the water and let raisins dry on paper toweling for a few minutes). I usually add chopped pecans, and sometimes I will use the candied ones. I’ve also used peanut butter chips (not sure if those are still around) and butterscotch chips and even white chocolate chips….Just play with the recipe and create your own favorite. In my home, bananas disappear quickly so I have to make it a point of buying “over ripe” from the store !
How do I stop all the chocolate chips going to the bottom of the loaf?
If that becomes a problem, just toss them in 1 tablespoon of flour before they go in the batter next time. I also sometimes sprinkle some on the top of the loaf before baking!
Call me crazy, but I’ve never really been a fan of chocolate chip banana bread….that is, until I tried your recipe tonight. It was delicious and perfect in all the right ways. We love banana bread in our house and this will be my new go to recipe for banana bread for my kids. SOOO GOOD. Thanks so much for sharing!
I have made a lot of Banana Bread variations. This is by FAR the best recipe I have tried to date. Excellent!