If you like chocolate, you’ll love this spin on classic banana bread. I modified my favorite banana bread recipe to make this delicious chocolate banana bread.
This recipe uses lots of banana and unsweetened cocoa powder. It makes a moist flavorful bread, suitable for breakfast or afternoon tea.
While the bread will remind you of the chocolaty goodness of brownies, it doesn’t have the fudge-like sweetness of brownies. It’s lighter and less sweet. However, you could add a dollop of whipped cream on a slice and call it dessert.
Tips
- I tried adding 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom to a batch and it was very good.
- You will have a little more batter than you need for 1 loaf. Using cocoa powder in place of flour causes the batter to rise more than the original recipe and it will overflow the pan. Trust me, I’ve had several overflows, resulting in oven cleanup. Use a mini loaf pan or a couple of ramekins for the extra batter.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 3 1/2 or 4 bananas (approx 1 1/2 cups mashed)
- 2 tablespoons sour cream or creme fraîche
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup walnuts
Directions
Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and a mini loaf pan.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together and set aside for later.
Add the sugar and eggs to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whip attachment and beat them on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). If you use an electric hand mixer it will take about 8 minutes.
Turn the mixer down to the lowest speed and slowly drizzle the oil into the sugar and eggs mixture, blending it until it is just incorporated. Do not put the oil in all at once. You want to keep the mixture airy and light.
Add the mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla to the sugar and eggs and blend on low speed until just incorporated.
Fold in the dry ingredients. When blended, fold in the nuts.
Pour about 3/4 of the batter in the loaf pan and the remainder of the batter into the smaller baking container. Bake for between one hour and an hour and 15 minutes. When ready the bread springs back when you press it with your finger or a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean. The smaller loaf will take a lot less time (start checking it at about 30 minutes). The bread may be a little cracked on top.
Cool in the pan for about 30 minutes. Transfer it from the pan to a cooling rack and cool a little longer.
Tightly wrap the bread to store it. You can keep it at room temperature for several days or you can freeze it.
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