I LOVE BANANA BREAD…I’ve been seeing a lot of videos of chocolate banana bread recently, I felt like I needed to make one too.
So here we are, double chocolate banana bread!
I have to say, I think I love this so much more than regular banana bread. It has great flavour, it’s very fluffy and also so moist, I love it.
Video Tutorial
Ingredients for the double chocolate banana bread
Here are the ingredients you are going to need to make this banana bread:
- Bananas – you want to use super ripe bananas for banana bread. If your bananas are not ripe, don’t worry I’ll go into how to ripen then later on in the blog post.
- Cocoa powder – it’s best to use unsweetened cocoa powder.
- Hot water – this is used just to hydrate the cocoa powder, it will make the cocoa powder more chocolaty.
- Oil – for moisture. I used vegetable oil but any flavourless one works.
- Granulated sugar – caster sugar works too.
- Buttermilk – also for moisture.
- Eggs
- Plain flour – also known as all-purpose flour.
- Baking powder – to help make the banana bread fluffy.
- Salt – to enhance the flavours.
- Chocolate chips – I used milk chocolate chips, you can use whatever kind you want.
Ingredients substitutions
There are a few ingredients that I used in here which I usually get asked if there are any substitutes for.
So here are some possible substitutions:
The oil
You can either use butter or oil in banana bread. Butter adds great flavour, oil adds moisture.
However since this is a chocolate banana bread, the chocolate flavour kind of takes over. So I feel like the butter doesn’t add much to the flavour.
So I used oil instead.
If you wanted to use butter, you could. The banana bread will be slightly less moist, but it will still taste great.
Just get 180g of unsalted butter and melt it!
The buttermilk
This was also added for moisture.
If you don’t have buttermilk, plain yoghurt works great, or you can also use sour cream.
Or instead you can make a buttermilk substitute by getting 100ml of whole milk, add 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice to it and give it a mix. Leave this aside for 10 minutes and then it is ready to use.
The plain flour
If you wanted to make things easier, you could just use self-raising flour. Then you don’t need to add the baking powder and salt.
Just use the same amount! If you do use this, please remember to leave the baking powder and salt out though!
Baking your bananas
The first things I did, before making the batter for this banana bread, was bake my bananas.
When making banana bread, you want to use bananas that are very ripe because this is when they are the sweetest and the softest.
I like to just bake mine until they turn black, just so that they’re extra sweet and soft.
If your bananas are already pretty ripe, you don’t have to do this. But honestly I recommend doing it. It doesn’t take long and it makes the banana bread better in my opinion.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Pre-heat your oven to 180c/350f.
- Add your bananas onto a tray and place this into the oven.
- Bake them until they turn black, then flip them over and bake until the other side turns black too.
- Once done, leave them to cool completely.
- To take them out of the peel, the easiest way is to cut one side off, then squeeze until all the banana has come out.
What tin to use
I baked my banana bread in a bundt tin, I feel like banana bread looks prettier when it’s in circular formation.
Also I lost my loaf tin, I don’t where it has gone.
But you could bake this in a loaf tin if you wanted to. Just grease and line your loaf tin with some baking paper.
You might have some batter left over if you do make it in a loaf tin though, you could just bake this leftover batter in cupcake cases or in a smaller tin!
Baking the banana bread
This banana bread does bake for a while. It took around 1 hour 20 minutes for me.
Most bundt cakes do bake for a while, there is a lot of batter inside one tin so they need some extra time in the oven.
Because of this long baking time, the top of the banana bread can become too crispy. So I recommend, after like 40 minutes, add some tin foil on top of the tin.
This will keep the top of the banana bread soft.
Side note, if you are using a loaf tin, the baking time might be a little different. After 40 minutes, just keep an eye on it, it is done when a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
The ganache
I poured a ganache on top of my banana bread, you don’t need to add this, but it was a nice addition.
To make it, all you need to do is heat some milk chocolate and double cream together, until the chocolate has melted. Whipping cream works too!
You might have noticed but my ganache was a little thin. Let me tell you what happened….I poured too much cream into my bowl. I didn’t want take it out so I just went with it.
Yours will be a little thicker. If you want it to be thinner though, just add more cream into it!
Here are some recipes that I posted recently that I think you might like:
Double Chocolate
Banana Bread
Ingredients
- For the banana bread:
3 large bananas
50g cocoa powder
80ml hot water
180ml vegetable oil
300g granulated sugar
100ml buttermilk
2 eggs
300g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
250g chocolate chips
- For the ganache:
150g milk chocolate
60ml double cream
Directions
- Making the banana bread:
- Start by pre-heating your oven to 180c/350f. Also generously grease a 9 inch bundt tin.
- Place your bananas on a tray, with the peel on, and put these in your oven. You want to bake these until the become black on both sides. Once done, leave them too cool for 10 minutes. You could skip this step if your bananas are already very ripe.
- In a large bowl, add the cocoa powder and hot water. Whisk this until combined, then take the peel of the bananas off and add them into the bowl. Use a fork to mash them.
- Add the oil, sugar, buttermilk and eggs into this. Whisk until combined.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this into the other bowl and whisk just until you get a smooth batter. Now fold in the chocolate chips.
- Pour this into your tin and then bake for around 1 hour 10 minutes - 1 hour 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into it come out clean. After around 40 minutes, I covered the tin with some tinfoil, just to stop the top of the banana bread from getting too crispy.
- Once baked, let it cool for about 10 minutes, then take it out of the tin and leave it on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Making the ganache:
- In a bowl or jug, add the chocolate and cream. Heat this in your microwave for 30 seconds, then take it out and give it a stir.
- Place this back into the microwave and heat for 15 seconds this time, take it out and stir again. Keep repeating this until the chocolate has melted and you get a smooth ganache.
- Pour this over your cooled banana bread, then cut into it and enjoy!
