In keeping with the theme and overall speed of this recipe, I’m keeping this post on the shorter side.
I love banana bread. I love seeing those dark flecks from the banana running throughout it. I love the aroma that fills the house when you bake it. I love the soft, tender, dare I say, moist yield of the cake—oops, sorry… bread—and I love when someone for whatever reason gives or serves me banana bread that they’ve made. It’s been a long time since I’ve made banana bread—banana pancakes are a different story—so I recently decided to change that.
Actually, that’s a lie. I decided to change that about a week ago. Before my partner left for a work trip out of town he started freezing the bananas I bought him. Smoothies, ya know? Normally he waits until the peel starts to turn a bit brown but because he was going out of town—and rightly knew I would ignore them on the counter—he froze them a bit early. He went to go grab the last two off the counter when I screamed “NO!” and lunged across the kitchen. Okay… I just screamed, “NO!”. I didn’t move from my seat. You know me too well. Anyway, I had plans for them there ‘nanas.
About a week later he had no more than walked through the doorway when he clocked the bananas on the counter still. I was met with a “what the hell?!” All part of my master plan. For truly good banana bread your bananas have to be DARK. Like, black… Like to the point where you can’t pick them up without them almost falling apart in your hand. If you were to just look at the bananas hard enough they’ll just fall apart and melt. This is a culinary long con—you’ve gotta be in it for the long haul.
But now I’m rambling. The important part is that there’s chocolate. I love chocolate. I love chocolate a lot (I also love sucking on a Werther’s original until it melts and then shoving a fistful of chocolate chips in my mouth… but that’s a different story). The important thing to note here about the chocolate is that you use Dutch processed cocoa powder—NOT natural cocoa powder. Not all cocoa powders are created the same; not only does Dutch processed taste more chocolatey—and isn’t that the point?—but the type of cocoa really affects the final bake depending on the other ingredients used. Natural cocoa powder is acidic so it’s usually paired with baking soda in baked things, the heat of the baking process creating a levening agent that gives the cake (or whatever) its rise; alternately, Dutch-processed cocoa powder is treated with an akaline solution, neutralizing its acidity. Naturally (har har!) this means that it needs baking powder to help it rise. If you go swapping the two freely in any old recipe you could end up throwing off the chemical balance of whatever it is that you’re baking. Oh, and full disclosure… I used a mix (fairly equal) of Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I prefer the Saco brand) and King Arthur’s black cocoa (oh, $#!@ that stuff is good!).
I make this in the food processor and it’s incredibly quick—and that’s incredibly quick for me, the person that makes a 15 minute meal take 45—but there’s nothing stopping you from using a fork or potato masher from mushing up the banana and a wooden spoon or rubber spatula from mixing all the rest together. I prefer to lift the processor out of its cabinet. I like living on the edge.
Okay so… black bananas, black cocoa… that about sums it up. So let some bananas rot and come hang out with me and the rest of the chocoholics. We’re the cool kids.
Oh, and follow me on BLOGLOVIN’. Thanks.
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 8 - 10 (one 9" x 5" loaf pan) | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | Passive Time |
| 50 - 60 minutes | 50 - 60 minutes |
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Banana bread is sooo good but you know what makes it better? Chocolate.
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- 1/2 cup butter melted and cooled slightly
- 2 bananas INCREDIBLY ripe—almost black
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup sour cream full fat
- 1 t-spoon baking soda
- 1-1/4 cup flour
- 1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder ***SEE NOTE
- 1 cup chocolate chips divided (I like half semi-sweet and half dark chocolate)
- Small pinch instant espresso powder
- Small pinch kosher salt
- Preheat the oven to 350° and line a 9" x 5" baking tin with parchment paper (it sticks better to the pan if you spray the pan down with some baking spray or grease with a bit of butter first). If you let some parchment hang over the edges it makes lifting the bread out of the pan much easier.
- Lug out the food processor, plunk in the peeled bananas—they'll be virtual mush at this point—and pour in the butter, sugar, and salt. Puree for 10 seconds until combined.
- Crack in the eggs and add the sour cream to the processor and pulse just 3 times to start to combine them into the buttery-banana base.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and espresso powder (yes, you have to... you don't want clumps of cocoa powder, trust me) either straight into the processor (carefully) or into a separate bowl (which you'll pour into the processor). Pulse this together just 5 more times.
- Remove the lid and the blade from the processor and fold in just half of the chocolate chips with a rubber spatula, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as you do so to make sure everything combines, but without over mixing—in all, probably 5 folds.
- Pour the dark batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake 50 - 60 minutes, until the center is softly set. Let it cool outside of the oven for about 15 minutes before removing it from the tin (by grabbing and lifting on those parchment hangovers) and letting it cool on a wire wrack either for a few more minutes or until completely cooled to room temperature. It's delicious at any temperature, really.
- The cocoa must absolutely be Dutch-processed (I prefer Saco Foods brand). If you use natural cocoa powder you won't get the same results as it will react differently with the baking soda and sour cream.
- For the cocoa powder, I love a mix premium Dutch-processed cocoa powder by Saco Foods with King Arthur's Black Cocoa powder—so intense.