Our chocolate chip banana bread has the best moist texture and amazing flavor thanks to bananas, brown sugar, butter, and lots of chocolate chips. You need three ripe bananas for my favorite chocolate chip banana bread recipe.
I love this easy banana bread with chocolate chips, and my son loves it even more! We fold chocolate chips into the batter and scatter even more over the batter just before baking. Use milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, or a combination!
You don’t need fancy equipment to make this chocolate chip banana bread. The easy recipe is adapted from our classic banana bread, which has many happy 5-star reviews, so you know it’s good.
Key ingredients for chocolate chip banana bread
- Bananas: For the best banana bread, use over-ripe bananas. I’m talking brown and speckled bananas. They are sweeter and make the baked bread soft and moist. I have shared tips for quickly ripening bananas in our original banana bread recipe.
- Chocolate chips: You can use your favorite chocolate in this recipe. After some experimentation, my family loves a combination of regular and mini chocolate chips. The mini chips melt more into the banana bread batter, making it extra delicious.
- All-purpose flour: I like the texture of AP flour, but this recipe works with whole wheat or white whole wheat flour (whole wheat makes the bread a bit denser). A few readers have used 1:1 gluten-free flour in our recipe with success.
- Baking soda: Helps the bread rise and brown.
- Salt, vanilla extract, & cinnamon: Add flavor to our banana bread and make it taste amazing.
- Butter: Makes the best banana bread! It adds a buttery flavor to the baked bread. We use olive oil when making lighter banana bread, which I love, but I still give the edge to butter on taste.
- Brown sugar: Keeps our quick bread flavorful and moist. You can swap other sugars, but the texture of the bread may change.
- Eggs provide structure and stability to the bread. We use two eggs. To make this recipe egg-free, use 2 flax eggs or aquafaba.
How to make chocolate banana bread
I love how easy this chocolate chip banana bread is to make. Nothing smells better than this batter with bananas, butter, and chocolate baking in the oven.
To start, whisk together your dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Then, add your ripe bananas to a bowl and mash them with a fork.
Now, whisk in melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. We can thank the brown sugar and butter for how moist this bread turns out. Fold in the dry ingredients and your chocolate chips. I’m adding regular and mini chocolate chips in the photo. I love how the mini chips melt into the batter.
Pour the batter into your loaf pan, then scatter a handful of chocolate chips. Bake chocolate chip banana bread in a preheated 350 °F oven until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, usually taking 55 to 65 minutes.
How to tell chocolate chip banana bread is done
Bake the banana bread until the top is golden brown, and a thin knife (like a pairing knife) inserted into the center comes out clean (minus melted chocolate). If you have an internal thermometer, you can check the temperature by inserting it into the center, and it should read between 200°F and 205°F.
Storing tips
- Room temperature: Wrap banana bread or place it into an airtight container and store it for up to 3 days.
- Refrigerator: Wrap individual slices or the entire loaf (place them into an airtight container) and store them in the fridge for up to a week.
- Freezer: Double wrap with one layer of plastic wrap and one layer of aluminum foil, then freeze for up to 6 months. Freeze whole loaves or individual slices. Thaw on the counter for a few hours, remove the plastic wrap, rewrap with foil, and then bake in an oven preheated to 350 °F. You can also reheat in the microwave, but remove the plastic wrap and foil before microwaving.
More banana recipes
Easy Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
-
PREP
-
COOK
-
TOTAL
This is our favorite chocolate chip banana bread recipe. It’s so good that you’ll want to make two loaves. For the best banana bread, your bananas need to be ripe. It is even better if they are overripe, brown, and speckled. I love adding regular and mini chocolate chips to the banana bread batter. The regular chips hold their shape, while the mini chips melt into the batter.
Makes 1 loaf, approximately 12 thin slices
You Will Need
1 ½ cups (195g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 medium bananas or 1 ½ cups mashed, very ripe bananas are best
8 tablespoons (115g) butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup (150g) light brown sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature, see tips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (180g) chocolate chips
Directions
1Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 °F (176 °C).
2Butter and flour an 8 ½-inch by 4 ½-inch loaf pan. Or grease the pan and then line it with a sheet of parchment paper (as shown in the video). See tips for pan sizes.
3Optional: Place the loaf pan on an insulated baking sheet or two regular baking sheets stacked on the other to promote even baking.
4Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together and set aside.
5Use a fork to mash the bananas into a chunky paste in the bottom of a large bowl.
6Whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla into the bananas until well blended.
7Switch to a large rubber spatula, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and then add the dry ingredients in two parts, stirring until the flour disappears and the batter is smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips, saving a handful to add to the top of the loaf.
8Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Scatter the reserved chocolate chips over the top.
9Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. If you have an internal thermometer, you can check the temperature by inserting it into the center, and it should read between 200 and 205°F.
10Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the bread and cool completely before slicing.
Adam and Joanne’s Tips
- Best pan: I use an aluminized steel 1-pound loaf pan, which is 8 ½” x 4 ½” (from USA Pans). For glass loaf pans, consider decreasing the oven temperature by 25 °F and baking a little longer. Stoneware pans may also need temperature/time adjustments, but it is hard to say without testing the specific pan. If using a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan, the banana bread will not be as tall, and the baking time will be less by 5 to 10 minutes.
- Chocolate chips: Use milk, dark, or white chocolate chips for this banana bread. Chocolate chunks or chopped chocolate from bars also work well.
- Butter: Use salted or unsalted butter in this recipe. I like my banana bread when made with salted butter, which adds an extra 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the batter.
- Room temperature eggs: To quickly bring eggs to room temperature, add the cold eggs to a bowl with lukewarm water for a few minutes. Drain and repeat.
- Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values.
Nutrition Per Serving
Serving Size
1 slice
/
Calories
291
/
Total Fat
14.1g
/
Saturated Fat
8.4g
/
Cholesterol
51.4mg
/
Sodium
169.4mg
/
Carbohydrate
39.5g
/
Dietary Fiber
2.6g
/
Total Sugars
23g
/
Protein
4.4g
