If you’re going to eat chocolate for breakfast, you might as well make it extravagant and skip the cocoa-dusted granola or the "healthy" muffins with five chocolate chips in them. Make banana bread that leans into it – chocolate batter, chocolate chips, and melted dark chocolate. No extras, no swaps, no almond flour.
This banana bread doesn’t come out fluffy or cake-like. It’s dense, rich, and holds together without crumbling. The bananas keep it moist without turning it into pudding. The chocolate shows up in every bite. It’s not a dessert pretending to be breakfast. It’s breakfast that just happens to be loaded with chocolate. You can make it in one bowl if you're not picky, but two bowls keep it neater. One for wet ingredients, another for dry. Use ripe bananas – the spotty ones that are almost mushy inside. If they're just spotted, mash them and wait an hour. If they're still yellow, find something else to bake.
Triple Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup Cadbury Bourville Dark chocolate, chopped finely
- ½ cup chopped dark chocolate or chunks
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until smooth. Stir in the melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix until combined but not foamy.
- In another bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add it to the banana mixture and stir with a spoon or spatula. Don’t overmix; stop when you no longer see dry flour.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and chopped dark chocolate. The chunks will sink a bit while baking, which is fine.
- Pour the batter into the pan and spread it evenly. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes. Start checking at 50 minutes. A toothpick won’t come out clean because of the chocolate, but it shouldn’t come out wet with batter either.
- Let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then lift it out and cool completely on a rack. If you cut it while hot, it’ll fall apart. If you want clean slices, wait.
- Eat it cold, warm it up, or toast it with butter. It holds for a few days wrapped on the counter, longer in the fridge.
Tips and Tricks (That Actually Help)
- Use bananas that are borderline unusable: Soft, black-skinned, and collapsing in your hand is ideal. If they still have yellow patches, you're too early. Don’t bother with “ripening hacks” in the oven; they don’t develop the right flavor or moisture.
- Melt butter, then cool it slightly: Pouring hot butter into eggs scrambles them. Let the butter sit for a minute or two before mixing it in. If you can touch it without flinching, it's ready.
- Sift cocoa powder and flour if you want an even crumb: Cocoa clumps and hides in batter. You don’t have to use a sifter – just push it through a fine-mesh strainer with a spoon.
- Don’t use Dutch-processed cocoa unless you know what you’re doing: It won’t react with baking soda the same way. Use regular unsweetened cocoa (like Cadbury) unless you're adjusting leavening.
- Cut the sugar by a tablespoon or two if your bananas are sweet: Bananas vary. If they’re leaking juice when you mash them, you don’t need the full ¾ cup of sugar. Alter it slightly to avoid over-sweetening.
- Mix with a spoon, not a whisk or mixer: You want the batter combined, not aerated. A wooden spoon or stiff spatula gives you control without overworking the gluten.
- Add chocolate chunks last and fold gently: Chips can handle more stirring. Chunks melt into the crumb and need to be placed, not mashed in. Overmixing will sink them to the bottom or break them up too much.
- Test for doneness in two spots: Because of the melted chocolate, one spot might seem underdone while the rest is fine. Check closer to the center and again near one end.
- Let it rest before slicing: Warm banana bread is soft and falls apart. Let it cool for at least 30 minutes if you want it to hold shape. For clean slices, wait until it’s fully cool and use a serrated knife.
- Don’t store it in the pan: It steams and turns the crust soggy. Wrap it in parchment and foil once cool, or store in a container with a paper towel underneath to absorb moisture.