Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This chocolate chip banana bread recipe combines the rich flavours of dark chocolate and banana with a hint of zesty orange. It's great for family gatherings, a comforting dessert, or a tasty snack.

Bookmarks

• 🍰 What is This Banana Bread Like?
• Interesting Fact
• 📃 Recipe Ingredient Overview and Easy Substitutions
• ⏳ Time Overview and Recipe Difficulty
• 📷 How to Make the Chocolate Orange Banana Bread in Pictures
• ⚡ Useful Tips
• 👪 Yield/Portions and Serving
• How to Modify the Recipe
• How to Store My Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
• FAQ
• Orange Chocolate Banana Bread
• More Inspiration

🍰 What is This Banana Bread Like?

Our chocolate orange banana bread is the perfect no-fuss comfort treat that hits the right spot any day of the week.

Same as other recipes, it is baked in a loaf tin and can be served with butter or clotted cream, but despite the word 'bread' in its name, you can expect a rather cake-like texture; sweet and fluffy with a soft crumb. Bread or cake, it’s delicious, whatever, you name it.

It was Mary Berry's banana bread that inspired me to create this recipe. To keep things as simple as possible, I borrowed her famous all-in-one method and added a twist to her classic banana loaf by combining dark chocolate and aromatic orange.

Interesting Fact

Some historians believe banana bread became widely popular during the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s when many households struggled with the cost of living. Families couldn't afford to waste food, so instead of throwing over-ripe bananas away, resourceful housewives started using them to make banana bread.

Banana bread was also among the top trendy recipes during the Covid lockdown, side by side with sourdough bread. The searches for recipes skyrocketed during that time as people turned to cooking and baking to pass the time and try new things.

📃 Recipe Ingredient Overview and Easy Substitutions

• ripe bananas
• orange zest
• orange juice
• plain flour
• baking powder
• bicarbonate of soda
• salt
• caster sugar
• butter
• egg + egg yolk
• dark chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate slab)
• vanilla extract (optional)

Banana

This recipe is perfect for using up over-ripe bananas. They add a great deal of sweetness and moisture to the sponge.

Chocolate Chips

For an even chocolate distribution, it's best to use small chocolate chips. I recommend chopping them to make them even smaller - bigger pieces of chocolate will sink to the bottom of the tin.

You can use finely chopped, dark chocolate slab for a luxury feel.

The dark chocolate can be substituted with milk chocolate if you wish.

Orange

Orange zest and juice add an exciting fragrance that pairs great with sweet banana and rich chocolate flavours. The recipe will work without it, yet the taste won't be the same.

If you want to experiment, try to replace an orange with a lemon instead. It will give the banana bread a whole new twist.

⏳ Time Overview and Recipe Difficulty

Even though this recipe is asking for a number of different ingredients, the preparation is simple. It consists of the following:

Preparation (25 minutes)

• mashing the banana
• combining the dry and wet ingredients

Cooking (60 minutes)

It takes around 1.5 hours to make the recipe from scratch to finish.

📷 How to Make the Chocolate Orange Banana Bread in Pictures

⚡ Useful Tips

• Ensure your baking powder and bicarbonate soda are still in date.

• It's better to chop the chocolate into smaller pieces, even if you are using chocolate chips. Also, you can dust the chocolate with flour; it helps with even distribution and prevents the chocolate from sinking to the bottom.

• The mix might curdle a little after combining wet and dry ingredients. It won't affect the bake.

• Do not remove the banana bread from the oven too soon; the bread can lose its volume and become dense. To test the cake, insert a wooden skewer or a toothpick into a sponge. It should come up completely clean. Another sign is when the cake shrinks from the edges of the tin.

👪 Yield/Portions and Serving

This recipe yields one 2 lb loaf, sufficient for 8 - 10 slices.

How to Modify the Recipe

Gluten-free

It is easy to turn this chocolate chip banana bread into a gluten-free recipe. Simply swap plain flour for gluten-free flour 1:1.

I have good experience with Doves farm Gluten-free plain flour.

Vegan

To make the recipe vegan, you need to replace butter, egg and chocolate chips with vegan alternatives.

• Instead of eggs, use 50g more banana.

• Swap dairy butter for a non-dairy option - my favourite is Vitalite Dairy Free Spread

• Choose any vegan-friendly dark chocolate chips like Tesco Dark Chocolate Chips or a chocolate bar Lindt Excellence Dark 70% Cocoa Chocolate Bar

How to Store My Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Keep this banana bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days, or freeze the leftovers for up to 3 months to extend its shelf life.

FAQ

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