As I was looking through Dining In for recipes, this banana bread caught my eye. I went through a phase of searching for the perfect banana bread recipe. This one from Cookie + Kate is a great, healthy version but I’ve never found a decadent one. Alison’s has cocoa in it and she describes it as “more cake than bread” and since I love cake, maybe this recipe would be the love child of two of my favorite treats: chocolate cake and banana bread.
This loaf seemed like it could be a little on the sweet side. I wasn’t crazy about the Demerara sugar coating the entire loaf. There’s an entire banana arranged on top of the loaf too, which I’ve done before with a recipe from America’s test kitchen. I didn’t think it was worth it. Still, I was drawn to this recipe and decided to try it out. Since I always have full fat yogurt or sour cream in the fridge, I used that. The recipe favors mascarpone but I didn’t feel like buying some for $5 since I had a huge container of sour cream lying around. Someone is still on the Keto diet in my house (unfortunately).
Chocolate banana bread smells so good as it bakes!
This is what I heard when my family came home on the day I made this recipe. There were delighted questions of “what’s that?” and “can I taste it?” from my curious two year old. One word of warning about this recipe. It takes 90 minutes to bake this loaf! I’ve never had any baked good take so long with the exception of meringues. What makes it worth it is how this banana bread improves from sitting on the counter. We’ve been snacking on it for a few days now. I liked it more the second and third day vs. right out of the oven.
The batter comes together fairly easily. If you have an electric mixer, it would come in handy here as you have to cream butter and sugar together. The loaf bakes up to a moist, dense (in a good way) banana bread. The bananas temper the flavor of the chocolate and the chocolate keeps it from being a very banana-y loaf. It’s a nice middle ground between the two flavors. As for the top? The cut bananas adorning it were caramelized with the Demerara sugar sprinkled over it. A definite bonus and I kept wishing there were more bananas on top.
Do you want to alter this chocolate banana bread? Here are a few ways.
If you are a chocoholic, you can add 3/4-1 cup of chocolate chips to the batter. Walnuts or pecans would be a nice addition too. If you’re into boozy treats, a 1/3 cup of Bourbon would complement the flavors of this loaf nicely. Even though Alison says this banana bread probably wouldn’t be appropriate for breakfast, that’s exactly when I ate it today. Topped with peanut butter, I kept thinking I was eating a Reese’s peanut butter cup. For dessert, I think a slice with a scoop of ice cream and some chocolate sauce would be decadent. Not bad for a loaf I was so skeptical about.
The video.
Chocolate Banana Bread
Ingredients
- non-stick cooking spray (for the pan)
- 1/2 cup (70 g) Demerara sugar, divided (for sprinkling)
- 1 1/2 cups (190 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (25 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/3 cup (55 g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (40 g) light brown sugar (packed)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 5 ripe bananas (4 mashed, 1 sliced in half, lengthwise)
- 1/2 cup (120 g) mascarpone, sour cream or yogurt (full-fat)
Method
- Preheat oven to 350º F. Spray a 9″ x 4″ loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Add 1/4 cup of the Demerara (or regular if you don’t have Demerara) sugar and tilt pan to coat all sides. Remove excess.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk well and set aside.
- In a stand mixer or a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream butter, granulated sugar, light brown sugar and vanilla on high for 3-5 minutes or until super fluffy. Scrape down sides of bowl and add the egg. Beat until light and fluffy again, about 2 minutes.
- Mixing on low, slowly add dry ingredients. Beat just until combined. Fold in mashed bananas by hand, using a spatula. Then fold in the mascarpone, sour cream or yogurt just until blended.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and smooth out the top. Lay the sliced banana, cut side up, on top. Sprinkle with the remaining Demerara sugar. Bake for about 90 minutes or until cake tester comes out relatively clean and sides start to pull away from pan. Cool completely before slicing.
Notes
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Did you try this recipe?
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Looks amazing!!
Thanks! We enjoyed it for a full week. 🙂
When you add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, they barely come together without liquids. It is not possible to fold in the banana
Hi Joelle. I’m sorry to hear that you had some trouble with this. Yes, the flour, when added to the butter, should make a pretty crumbly looking mixture. The bananas and sour cream turn it into a thick batter. Did you watch the video for reference on how the mixture looks at every stage? Also, I strongly recommend weighing flour when baking, since no two people measure out flour the same way with cups. I usually include weight measurements for everything too so people can do this. I hope you have better results next time. Please let me know if you need more help.