Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
on Apr 07, 2018
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This Chocolate Chip Banana Bread is the best banana bread recipe around. It’s moist, super flavorful, has a perfectly domed top, and filled with chocolate chips. 
If you have brown bananas sitting around at home – I think the right answer is always to make chocolate chip banana bread. It’s moist, flavorful, perfectly dense, big on banana flavor, filled with chocolate chips, and has that perfectly domed shape with large crack down the center. Plus – banana bread is the perfect breakfast, snack or dessert.
To be honest – it was no small feat to find the perfect chocolate chip banana bread recipe. Some were too dry, others just sank in the middle. I wanted a recipe that was big on bananas, not too complicated, and had ALL the characteristics of banana bread that you’d expect. So after a lot of experimenting, here’s the run down on this recipe.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe
If you want to get straight to the recipe, you can go to the bottom of the post. But for all the banana bread science and all my tips – keep reading. 
For the ingredients:
- Very brown bananas –> This gives soooo much flavor
- Melted butter. Using melted butter means you can skip the electric mixer. Plus butter is more flavorful than oil.
- Light brown sugar because it adds moisture and a delicious hint of caramel to the recipe. You can also use a combo of white sugar and brown sugar if you prefer.
- 2 eggs for tenderness
- Sour cream to prevent dry banana bread
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour. Make sure to give it a whisk first, then spoon and level it into the measuring cup so that you don’t add too much.
- Baking soda and baking powder to make it rise perfectly
- A little salt
- Then tons of chocolate chips. I prefer to use mini chocolate chips because I like the ratio of banana bread to chocolate better.
The whole thing comes together in about 10 minutes using only 1 bowl, and then it’s time to bake. 
Ok – onto some common issues/questions about banana bread.
Can I use yellow bananas in banana bread? Unfortunately, you need brown bananas for lots of flavor and moisture. But if you only have yellow bananas, you can bake them in the oven on a cookie sheet (with the peel on) at 325F for 25-30 minutes and they’ll brown right up.
Should you use oil or butter in banana bread? I find that oil can cause banana bread to be too greasy. However in my experiments, banana bread recipes that start with beating the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer were too dry. Using melted butter was the perfect compromise.
Why was my banana bread dry? Dry banana bread is usually caused by one (or a combination) of 3 things. Too much flour, over mixing the batter, or not enough bananas. Make sure to spoon and level the flour instead of scooping it out when you measure it – otherwise there can be too much. Then only mix the batter until it’s just combined – otherwise it can get tough and dry. 
Why did my banana bread sink? This is probably the most common issue with banana bread. About 90% of the time, it’s because it didn’t cook for long enough. Also, cooking at too high of a temperature can cause this. I cook my banana bread at 350F for about 60 minutes. Often it takes even longer. Also – Make sure your baking soda isn’t expired.
How do you prevent banana bread from over browning or burning? Make sure to use a light colored aluminium pan. Dark aluminium absorbs the heat can cause over browning. Then after about 40 minutes of baking if the loaf is getting too brown, tent a piece of aluminium foil and place it over the top of your loaf. Adding too much sugar can also cause over browning. 
This chocolate chip banana bread recipe is moist, flavorful and filled with so much chocolate. Make sure to follow all my tips, and you’ll get the perfect banana bread every time.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cup mashed bananas, , 3-4 bananas
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
- Line a 9x5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper or grease and flour.
- In a large bowl stir together the mashed bananas, melted butter and sugar.
- Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract. Then stir in the sour cream.
- In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Carefully fold the flour mixture into to banana mixture. Followed by 3/4 cup chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips on top.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 50 to 70 minutes. If the top starts to brown too much, around 40 minutes through tent a piece of aluminium foil over top.
- Allow to cool and then slice.
Perfect recipe! Absolutely delicious. I added some walnuts also 🙂
This bread is amazing!! I think this makes three recipes of mine that I have now replaced with recipes from you!!
Thanks so much Vicki! I definitely have a HUGE weakness for banana bread
OMG Fiona….you have done it again!! Made this bread this morning and the hubs couldn’t stop talking about it. I have used the same recipe for banana bread for around 15 years. And while it is great, yours can’t be beat in the moisture department. THIS is my new banana bread recipe now. Thanks so much for sharing.