Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Chocolate is a good enough reason to take a study break, right? Right. That has to be right.

Actually this recipe came about because I had a lot of bananas in the waaaay too ripe to eat stage sitting on my counter. I always have bananas like that on my counter, and I always leave them there with the intentions of capitalizing on their potential later on. Never throw away a banana! It’s illegal. Trust me, I’m a very official not-yet-licensed attorney.

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I’ve been meaning to make a chocolate banana bread for a LONG time, but somehow never got around to it. This version is based on my standby banana bread recipe, which I last posted when I made these Salted Caramel Banana Muffins.

I added more moisture to this version to balance with all the cocoa in the batter, and then added a healthy helping of dark chocolate chips and chunks. The result is blissful chocolate heaven, with a slight hint of banana in every bite. No complaints here.

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Double Chocolate Banana Bread

by Lauren

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 60 minutes

Keywords: bake quick bread dessert snack chocolate banana

 

Ingredients (6 jumbo muffins)

  • 2 eggs
  • 2/3 c. light brown sugar
  • 1/3 c. oil
  • 1 c. milk
  • 3 overripe bananas
  • 1 t. vanilla extract
  • 2/3 c. greek yogurt
  • 1 c. unbleached cake flour
  • 1 c. all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 1 T. baking powder
  • 1/2 t. baking soda
  • 1 t. instant espresso powder (optional)
  • 1/2 c. cocoa powder
  • 1 c. dark chocolate chips or dark chocolate chunks (I use a mixture of the two)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, milk, yogurt, mashed bananas, and espresso powder until very well combined (it will still be lumpy from the banana, that’s perfectly fine).

In a separate large bowl, stir together the flours, cocoa, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and brown sugar.

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients. Fold together JUST until the ingredients are incorporated, then fold in the chocolate chips.

Grease a muffin tin and pour batter evenly into the cups of the tin.

Sprinkle additional chocolate chips on top of the muffins (optional).

Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then remove to a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way.

Inhale the deliciousness.

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I can see myself eating these warmed up with just a little swipe of peanut butter. Holy yum.

20130310-DSC_0340My dog just ate my pomegranate flavored lip balm (at least he has good taste?) so I better attend to that.

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

I’m curious…

Do you have any favorite twists on banana bread?

Does your dog enjoy eating things that he shouldn’t?

5 Responses

  1. Nala
    |

    Lol, you just read my mind or saw into my kitchen rather! I have bananas that are too ripe to eat, so this recipe will come in handy! And yes I have had my dogs consume alot of …er..well …let’s say non edible stuff…..just the way it goes =)

    • Lauren
      |

      Haha, dogs will be dogs I guess! 🙂

  2. Elizabeth - SugarHero.com
    |

    I’m a total banana hoarder! I like them when they’re still a bit green, so once they have a few brown spots, they’re useless for eating plain. Let’s just say I eat a lot of banana bread and make a lot of smoothies at my house. 🙂 Totally adding these sexy muffins to the must-make list!

    • Lauren
      |

      I’m exactly the same! Any sign of brown and I’m not down with eating it plain anymore. I have no idea how people chomp down on spotty brown bananas…

  3. Katie
    |

    Hi! Trying out the recipe now! Can’t wait to taste it. Just one thing, the ingredients say vanilla extract but I don’t see it in the directions. I accidentally skipped putting it it. Oh well, hopefully they’ll taste OK anyway!