Finally, 3 overly ripe bananas managed to remain in my fruit basket without my husband throwing them out into the compost. You see, he doesn’t understand that those blackish-brown bananas are the star ingredient to super yummy banana bread. Typically, he will throw them out before I even get an opportunity to make anything out of them. He finds them disgusting. Not this time! These bananas were hiding under a bag of pretzels, yeah for me! So this afternoon I thought I would make banana bread with these bad boys. Not just any banana bread either. Sour cream chocolate chocolate chip banana bread! Are you feeling me? Can I get an Amen!?
After pulling the loaves out of the oven, my kids and I devoured one within 5 minutes. This is probably the best banana bread I have ever had. I even tweaked my own recipe and it turned out amazing. I’ll take a slice of this bread over cake any day!
Because I used mini chocolate chips, you could see and taste little bits of melted chocolate in each bite. And the banana bread was incredibly rich and moist. Like the weirdo I am, I felt compelled to put a pat of butter on each slice (yes I ate 3 slices), not that it needed it. I’m a butter addict, what can I say?
I’m pretty sure you’re not interested in my butter addiction so here you go, the recipe for this yummy chocolate banana bread. Enjoy
- 1 stick of salted butter, softened to room temp.
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 large ripened bananas mashed ( or 2.5 small bananas)
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 Tbl. cocoa powder
- ½ cup of sour cream
- 1 cup of mini chocolate chips (regular chocolate chips work too)
- optional ½ cup of chopped walnuts
- Preheat over to 350 degrees.
- Lightly grease a 9x5 loaf pan, or 2 mini pans with non-stick spray.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Stir in egg, mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla until well blended.
- Add baking soda, cocoa, and flour.
- Mix everything until well incorporated (about 3 minutes in a Kitchenaid mixer).
- Add chocolate chips and nuts (if applicable).
- Pour batter into loaf pan(s) and bake for 50 minutes - 1 hr.
- Insert a tooth pick into the center of the loaf and check to see if it comes out clean when you pull it out.
- Remove from heat and allow bread to rest in the loaf pan for 10 minutes.
- Invert the loaf pans onto a cooling rack. Enjoy warm or cold.
Tammy says
OMG-I have made many banana breads, but this one was awesome! I loved the addition of the sour cream and cocoa. It came out SO moist and delicious. Will be trying more of your recipes! Thank you!
Eley says
I just discovered your site and perusing your recipes has gotten me emotional! You know how food is- passionate and intense. I don’t know you, but I feel like we are friends already!
Can’t wait to try this recipe! My husband is a big fan of bananas and chocolate and this sounds like a perfect combination 🙂
Thanks.
Natalie says
Alice-Great recipe! Just made it this evening as a treat for my co-workers tomorrow. Used whole wheat flour (all i had) and used walnuts instead of pecans. I tried a little bit and it was delish. May be slightly less moist due to whole wheat flour but still VERY good:)
YUM
Theresa Strauch says
Just made this banana bread and LOVED it! Making another batch tomorrow for the builders working next door. Thank you!
Rebecca says
Just discovered your website when I was searching for a choc chip cookie recipe (I have a favorite, but am always open to try another). Your website is fabulous, the photos draw me in and inspire me to create. Thank you for creating such a fun site…I do have an idea for you, I have always frozen my old brown bananas. The freezing process creates a more favorful banana and I dont have to wait for the fresh ones to brown up. I hope this is something new for you, its so great to be able to share ideas with others! Keep up the fabulous site!
alice says
Katy: I’ve substituted yogurt for sour cream with regular banana bread just fine. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work here.
Katy says
Do you think you could use plain yogurt instead of sour cream and have it turn out the same?
Mike says
I was looking for something good but not the same o same o and boy I do have to say I am glad I came apon your site. They were the best thing I have ever made. I added a 1/4 c. apple sauce to it. Thank you for sharing the recipe. If you are looking for something to hit the sweet tooth this is sure a must to make. Goes good with a big glass off cold milk… 🙂
Stephanie says
Hey Alice! I wrote a post about this recipe and your wonderful blog today 🙂 http://allaboutami.tumblr.com/post/6595423779/chocolatebananabread
I love “Savory Sweet Life”- thank you so much for sharing and keep up the good work!
Jes - oh, buckets says
found your recipe on inspired by charm today and made it immediately!
http://www.inspiredbycharm.com/2011/05/sour-cream-chocolate-banana-hazelnut.html
*SO* good!
Julia says
I made this with five bananas instead of two, and used 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup of lowfat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Several of my coworkers said this was the best thing I’d EVER made, and I bake for work nearly every week. This recipe is AMAZING.
S says
Hey, I saw above that you said you were tweaking the recipe to make it lighter or lower in fat – were you able to successfully do this? If yes, can you post the recipe for that, too? I’m trying to eat a liiiittle healthier haha.
Thanks!
Leslie says
Hi. I just wanted to write and thank you for this divine recipe. I made it around the holidays and just searched my files for the recipe. It’s truly a keeper. Thank you!
Chelsea says
Hi, are the baking times different for the mini loaf pans? If so, what are the times?
Sandra says
Can I bake this in a bundt pan?
Melinda says
Alice you are a genius! My family went crazy for this. I normally don’t care for banana bread, but this was fantastic!
Sam RFID says
I love the fact that you can make a lot of delicious recipe using banana, thanks for sharing this wonderful and tasty ideas.
adrene says
I love this recipe! I deliberately brown my bananas just for this recipe. I actually omit the sour cream, add two more bananas and put the batter in muffin tins filling them to the top. Baking them for 17 minutes in my convection oven makes them incredibly moist…we can’t even wait to let them cool! It is the best banana bread recipe I have ever made. Thanks for sharing!
arielle eckstut says
fabulous recipe. made it in mini muffin tin, so they were delectable little bites. like others who commented, i made it with my daughter (who is 3) which made it all the more fun!
Meghan says
This was so great! I made with my daughter and it was so much fun! (She mashed the bananas of course!) I added 1/3 cup of flour to the recipe and only used 3/4 cup of choc chips. We really enjoyed the bread/dessert/etc. And ummm when still warm I added that butter. So amazing! We’ll be following your site and looking for more yummy treats and meals to try.
Tee says
Thanks so much, Alice! I did find it rather dense (not in a bad way) but wished for more height. Or maybe just making 1.5x of the recipe for a nice tall bread loaf pan is the trick? I’ll make it again with an extra 1/2c flour, and will cut the butter and sub in yogurt. But would you ever swap oil for butter in a cake recipe?
It’s very kind of you to respond is such detail. Thanks again! Loooove your desire to perfect a recipe 😉
alice says
Hi Tee,
Funny you should comment. I am re-working the recipe so it isn’t so dense. It does have a lot of sour cream and the butter isn’t too bad in my opinion. I made up the recipe when I had two lonely bananas. Most of my cake recipes all originate from a base recipe I’ve been using for years as a cake decorator. I made this cake two days ago and added an additional 1/2 cup of flour to help with the height. It was a little bit taller and kept its nice moist texture. What I typically do with many of my cake recipes is use yogurt, sour cream, buttermilk, heavy cream, and regular milk interchangeably. You could easily use any of these and it would work fine. If you want the cake less dense.. cut the butter in half. Hope this helps!
Tee says
Hi Alice,
I made this last night, and it turned out exactly as you pictured. The height dropped a tad after being taken out of the oven, and I couldn’t wait for 10mins to let it cool, I had to dive in, so cutting into it right away may have something to do with the slight deflation.
However, I’m wondering how I could lighten the recipe? Could I sub in 1% yogurt instead of the sour cream? I used light 5% sour cream. And the butter seems like a lot – the bread was quite greasy on my hands when I handled the piece. Could I cut it down to 1/4 cup and add an extra banana, perhaps?
Thanks for this fantastic recipe! Did you come up with it on your own, or do you start with another base recipe and tweak ’til it’s perfect?
keep it up and thanks!
xo
Refrigerator Water Filter says
Hmm what a treat for Chocolate lovers…
Mike
Samantha says
I made this last night and just about died from how good this was! I used dark cocoa powder and wanted to finish it all right away. Luckily, I resisted and will be adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream to my dessert plate tonight!