Double Chocolate Banana Bread – Stay at Home Chef

Got some over-ripe bananas sitting on the counter? This double chocolate banana bread is a great way to use up those brown-spotted bananas sitting on your counter when your family decides they're out of bananas. With a little cocoa powder and a generous helping of chocolate chips, this bread is less like bread and more like chocolatey goodness. In just 10 minutes of preparation, you'll fill your room with mouth-watering aromas for an hour. It's moist, decadent and tastes like cake. Overripe bananas were never so good!

If you find yourself inundated with ripe bananas, another delicious way to use them is to make ours Easy Banana Muffins or banana cake.

Banana bread is ideal for breakfast or snacks, but by adding this deep layer of chocolate, we've made it perfect to serve for dessert as well. That is if it lasts that long. Thinking you're a professional baker, your family will flock to the kitchen at first. This Double Chocolate Banana Bread would be lucky to make into dessert – we leave it in less than an hour after it comes out of the oven. It's that good! Maybe make an extra loaf, just in case.

Material notes

• Banana: Very ripe, the peel is equal parts yellow and brown, or mostly brown.
• the egg: You can use your eggs straight from the fridge, room temperature for easy mixing and better growth. To bring chilled eggs to room temperature quickly, place them in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes.
• butter: You can substitute with vegetable oil or unsweetened applesauce.
• Brown sugar: You can use light or dark brown sugar for this.
• Cocoa powder: Use unsweetened cocoa powder or Dutch-process.
• Chocolate chips: You can use milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips depending on your sweet tooth preference.
• All-purpose flour: We do not recommend using whole wheat in it.

Bananas ripen quickly

We know they're not pretty, but you really want your bananas to be overripe for your banana bread. As bananas ripen, their flavor intensifies, giving you a stronger and more pronounced banana flavor. If your family goes through bananas before they hit that completely brown and spotty spot, we've got a little trick.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and place the peeled yellow bananas on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, placing each banana on its side. They should be lined up like breadsticks on the baking sheet. Once the oven is preheated, place the baking sheet in the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes. The outside of the banana will start to brown spots – you're basically caramelizing these bad boys. Remove from the oven and let the bananas rest on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes. At this point, your bananas will be completely browned (it's okay if there's still some yellow on the side of the banana peel). When cool enough to touch, peel each banana and you're ready to roll.

Muffins and mini loaves

Make your Double Chocolate Banana Bread Muffins on the go! For extra-large, bakery-style muffins, divide the batter into 4 Texas-sized muffin tin (6-ounce capacity)and bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes. For standard muffins, line a Regular 12-cup muffin tin (3-ounce capacity) Line each cup with paper liners and fill two-thirds of the way. Bake at 350°F for about 12 minutes. If you want to make smaller loaves, divide the batter in half Two 5.75 x 3-inch mini loaf pansand bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes.

All of these baking times are approximate, so check the doneness by inserting a toothpick into the bread or muffins when you think they're done. If the toothpick comes out clean, your masterpiece is done and can be taken out of the oven. If the breadcrumbs or batter sticks to the toothpick, give it another 1-2 minutes of baking time, then check again.