Best Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe

4.89 from 17 votes

Best Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe

Our chocolate chip banana bread has been flying off the shelves worldwide for over a decade. It uses lots of banana and a not-crazy amount of brown sugar, giving it the perfect amount of sweetness and caramel-like flavor. If you bake it closer to 45 minutes, it can have an almost custardy texture on the inside that some people love. Or bake it closer to 60 minutes for a more traditional but still extremely moist crumb.

Prep Time10

Cook Time55

Total Time1 5

Course: Muffins and Quickbreads

Cuisine: American

Keyword: best chocolate chip banana bread recipe

Servings:

Calories: 202kcal

Author: Carolyn Gratzer Cope

Ingredients

1 pound (454 grams) very ripe bananas (3 to 4 large, weighed with skins still on)
4 tablespoons (56 grams) butter, melted
1 large egg
½ cup (100 grams) lightly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon brewed coffee if you have it
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups (180 grams) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled (see note)
½ cup bittersweet chocolate chips
½ cup finely chopped walnuts

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the center. Grease a medium (8-cup/9 x 5 x 3 inch) loaf pan.
In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork.
Mix in the melted butter.
Crack the egg into the bowl near one of the sides, tilt the bowl slightly, and use the fork to lightly beat the egg.
Add the brown sugar, vanilla, and coffee to the bowl and mix with the fork to combine well.
Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the batter.
Add the flour and mix with the fork until just combined.
Add the chocolate and walnuts and mix just until they're well distributed in the batter.
Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes to one hour, until a tester inserted in the center comes out without raw batter on it. (It's fine if it has some banana or chocolate.) In my oven, the sweet spot is about 55 minutes.
Cool in the pan on a rack for ten minutes (before unmolding to cool completely, if you're positively made of steel).

Video

Notes

When possible, it's best to weigh your ingredients for baking. If you don't have a kitchen scale, fluff the flour with a spoon and then lightly spoon it into your measuring cup, mounding it over the top. Then swipe the flat back side of a knife across the top to level the flour with the top of the measuring cup.
Instead of 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, you can use 1 ¼ cups plus 1 tablespoon whole wheat pastry flour if you like.
You can substitute chopped dark chocolate for the chips, or use your favorite chocolate chips if you prefer something other than bittersweet.
Variation: If you need an eggless banana bread recipe, this one is easily adaptable. Instead of the egg, use a flax egg: mix together one tablespoon of ground flax seed and three tablespoons of water. Let it sit for about five minutes so the flax can absorb a bit of the water. Then mix into the recipe instead of the egg. That's it!

Nutrition