If you’re a fan of Banana Bread you can’t miss this recipe!
This Cocoa Banana Bread is one of the best discoveries I’ve ever made: a moist and super chocolatey cake destined to vanish in seconds.
It’s very simple to prepare: blend ripe bananas, add the wet ingredients (eggs and oil), mix and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa and baking powder), stir in some chocolate chips and chopped nuts and it’s ready to be baked.
The banana-and-chocolate combination is, as everyone knows, a winner — and if these two ingredients were to get married, this would be the perfect union.
You’ll pull from the oven a wonderfully fragrant cake ready to be served in slices beside a glass of milk to start the day off right.
The Chocolate Banana Bread is absolutely one of my family’s favorite recipes: a rich banana loaf speckled with chocolate chips and nuts — impossible to resist.
If you have ripe bananas that nobody wants to eat anymore, don’t throw them away — make this super-indulgent Chocolate Banana Bread, it will be a guaranteed success!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Budget-friendly
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Cooking time: 50 Minutes
- Portions: 9.5-inch pan
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Energy 409.19 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 56.80 (g) of which sugars 30.28 (g)
- Proteins 7.39 (g)
- Fat 19.56 (g) of which saturated 3.20 (g)of which unsaturated 9.12 (g)
- Fibers 3.33 (g)
- Sodium 170.16 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 80 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 3 bananas (ripe — about 13 oz (370 g) of banana flesh (about 1 2/3 cups mashed))
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour ((200 g))
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar ((150 g))
- 2 eggs (medium)
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil ((80 ml — about 5 tbsp + 1 tsp))
- 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (or hazelnuts (50 g))
- 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips ((100 g))
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tbsp baking powder ((14 g))
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ((30 g))
- dark chocolate chips
- walnuts
Tools
- Electric hand mixer
- Loaf pan
Steps
Preheat the oven to 356 °F. Butter and flour a loaf pan or line it with baking paper to easily remove the Chocolate Banana Bread once baked because it is particularly moist.
Use a blender or food processor and purée the bananas until smooth and lump-free.
Transfer the banana purée to a bowl, add the sugar and the eggs and blend everything together with an electric mixer. Add the vegetable oil and mix again.
In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa and baking powder and stir with a spoon.
Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the banana mixture and mix with a mixer until all ingredients are well incorporated. Finally fold in the chocolate chips, a pinch of salt and the chopped nuts using a spatula.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, add a few chocolate chips on top and bake in a conventional oven at 356 °F for about 55–60 minutes. Before removing from the oven perform the toothpick test. Remove the Chocolate Banana Bread from the oven and allow it to cool before removing it from the pan.
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NOTES
BANANAS: For this recipe I used fresh bananas but you can also use frozen bananas. Since not all bananas are the same size I recommend weighing them: you will need about 13 oz (370 g) of banana flesh.
Want to know how to freeze bananas? When you have overripe bananas at home with skins full of dark spots that could attract tiny flies, don’t throw them away! Put them, still in their skins, into freezer bags. Before using them, thaw them (just take them out the night before and place them in the refrigerator). When you’re ready to use them, squeeze the flesh directly into a bowl to remove any liquid they released and put them straight into the blender.
SUGAR: In this recipe I used brown sugar because I like the particular flavor it gives, but you can safely substitute it in equal measure with granulated sugar.
NUTS: You can replace the walnuts with the same quantity of hazelnuts.
FLAVORINGS: You can add cinnamon to enhance the banana and chocolate flavors or 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
DECORATION: Before baking, you can decorate the chocolate banana bread with chocolate chips, chopped walnuts or hazelnuts, or banana slices.
STORAGE
The Cocoa Banana Bread stays fresh and soft at room temperature for up to 2 days. To keep it fresh for a few more days, store it in the refrigerator.
