Easy Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe

This easy chocolate banana bread recipe is rich, intensely chocolatey, and unbelievably soft and moist inside. It’s so good, it never lasts long.

I don’t know whether to call this chocolate banana bread a quick bread or a dessert, because it fits both perfectly. The cocoa powder adds serious chocolate flavor while ripe bananas bring natural sweetness and help keep the loaf tender.

I used our popular banana bread recipe as the base, but since cocoa powder can dry baked goods out a bit, I’ve added an extra egg and a little sour cream (yum!). They are the secret to why this turns out so rich, perfectly chocolatey, and honestly, the best chocolate banana bread we’ve made in our kitchen.

Key Ingredients

• Bananas: If you’ve followed any of our other banana recipes, you probably already know what I am going to say. Use very ripe bananas with plenty of brown spots. The riper, the better! This recipe calls for three medium bananas.
• Cocoa Powder: Choose natural unsweetened cocoa powder (like Hershey’s or Ghirardelli). Dutch-process cocoa isn’t ideal for this recipe because it doesn’t react as well with baking soda.
• Flour: All-purpose flour works perfectly. White whole wheat or whole wheat should work, too (although the loaf may turn out slightly less moist).
• Baking Soda and Baking Powder: I use both to get that tall, evenly risen loaf you see in our photos.
• Butter and Oil: Melted butter adds a lot of flavor, while a bit of vegetable oil keeps the loaf extra moist, even after it’s been sitting on the counter for a day or two. I use the same combo for my favorite chocolate cake.
• Sugar: I mostly use brown sugar, but like mixing in a little granulated sugar for a bit more lift and moisture.
• Eggs: Three eggs give this loaf structure, help it rise, and keep it moist.
• Sour Cream: I love baking with sour cream since it adds tenderness, moisture, and a really lovely flavor. Use full-fat sour cream. You can substitute plain Greek yogurt. I also use sour cream when making this banana cake!
• Salt and Vanilla: These bring out the chocolate and banana.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make the Best Chocolate Banana Bread

Tip 1: Mix the hot butter and cocoa powder first. Whenever I bake with cocoa powder, I always make sure that some time rehydrating the cocoa is built into the recipe. Hot butter is perfect for this, helping break apart any clumps and bringing out the flavor of the cocoa. I do this for brownies, chocolate cake, and pretty much any chocolate recipe with butter and cocoa.

Whisk the hot butter with both sugars, vanilla, and the cocoa powder before adding any more ingredients.

Tip 2: Make the batter. Next come the eggs, mashed bananas, and sour cream. Then, when that’s combined, you can fold in the dry ingredients. Pretty easy!

Tip 3: Bake the bread. This bread rises nicely at 350°F and stays soft and moist in the center without browning too much on the outside. I bake my loaf in a 9×5-inch pan with an 8-cup capacity, and I recommend you do the same. A smaller loaf pan might cause the batter to overflow.

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