Double Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe

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Sarah Hamelman

Writer at Cedar Hills Homestead

Sarah lives 4,200 feet up on a mountain in northwestern Montana, where she homesteads, raises her two toddlers and writes professional SEO content. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, kayaking, fishing, skiing, trail riding, and exploring the Kootenai National Forest that surrounds her cabin.

Latest posts by Sarah Hamelman (see all)

• Extra Sweet Pumpkin Pie (Made from Scratch) - November 18, 2023
• Double Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe - November 13, 2023
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Banana bread is one of my go-to sweet treats because it’s so simple to make and only dirties one bowl (which is a real bonus when you don’t have a dishwasher). This variation, Double Chocolate Banana Bread, is my most-often made sweet treats.

I have added several variations near the bottom of this post to help you alter this recipe for your taste and to even match the seasons.

Ingredients for Double Chocolate Banana Bread

• 3 overripe bananas (may slice one for aesthetics; check the variations section below)
• 2 room temperature eggs
• 1/2 sour cream
• 1/2 c butter (usually 1 stick)
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1 tsp baking soda (if using all-purpose flour)
• 1/3 c brown sugar
• 1/3 c cane sugar (white)
• 1/2 c baking cocoa
• 1 tsp salt (if using unsalted butter)
• 1/2 c dark chocolate chips (optional)
• 1 tbsp vanilla (optional)
• 1/4 walnuts or pecans (optional)
• 1/4 c oats (optional)
• 1 tbsp cinnamon (optional)

Directions for Double Chocolate Banana Bread

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a medium to large bowl, peel and smash three bananas. You may slice one of the bananas lengthwise into thirds, using one of those thirds as a decorative top for the bread (optional). Smash the other two sliced pieces in.
3. Mix in each of the wet ingredients first; mix these will.
4. Next, add in the dry ingredients. Be careful not to overmix these. Chocolate chips should go in last so they don’t fall to the bottom of the bread ‘batter.’ If you gently coat them in flour they will stay closer to the top of the banana bread loaf.
5. Grease a bread pan and pour the batter in.
6. For better presentation, lay a slice of banana (cut lengthwise) on top and generously coat it with chocolate chips, nuts, brown sugar, or even quick oats.
7. Bake until an inserted butter knife comes out clean. If you added a generous amount of chocolate chips, this may be more difficult to gauge. At my elevation (4,200 feet) with a metal bread pan it is about one hour. With that said, it may range from 30 to 80 minutes, depending on the size of your pan, your elevation, and what your container is made of (metal vs ceramic vs glass vs cast).
8. Allow the loaf pan to cool to a temperature where it doesn’t hurt your fingers to touch, usually fifteen minutes. Gently flip the bread out, and let rest an additional five minutes before slicing.
9. Enjoy! This is perfect for pairing with a tall glass of milk or a hot cup of coffee. It tastes even better if you have a novel to read. 🙂

Substitutions, Variations, and Other Notes

Banana bread is one of those phenomenal recipes that you can easily transform into whatever you desire. So long as you have bananas, flour, salt, butter, and sugar on hand, you can make it using what you have on hand.

• You can swap out the sour cream for Greek yogurt (vanilla flavor is excellent here)
• Try omitting the baking cocoa and replacing it with berries, especially huckleberries, saskatoons, or blueberries.
• I typically use walnuts or pecans, though hazelnuts are a great addition too.
• Try omitting the baking cocoa in favor of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ground cloves for fall-themed banana bread.
• For winter-themed banana bread (Ginger Banana Bread), omit the baking cocoa for ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ground cloves.
• I prefer dark brown sugar over light, but this is entirely up to your personal taste.
• Powdered sugar makes a great topping, too.

Final Thoughts

Thank you so much for reading our recipes, and double thanks if you take the time to make it. I would love to see your pictures and hear about any changes you made to make it your own.

Kayla and I are working on making this site accessible and genuinely helpful, and we promise it will always be 100% AI-free. We want to share more recipes that we have extensively tested and regularly share with our families. Alongside that, we will also add more homesteading content.

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