A delicious, moist, easy to make chocolate banana quick bread. Made with cocoa powder & applesauce – this decadent bread is almost guilt-free.
This was originally posted on December 12, 2014. I’ve updated the photos during some rainy day baking 🙂
It’s a miracle, once again, that this batter even made it into the loaf pan. Mixing this up, my daughter and I can’t keep sneaking spoonfuls of it. It’s like a banana brownie batter…yum.
I crave this bread often. I’ll cruise the produce section looking for ripe bananas so I don’t have to wait days and days for the bananas to get extra ripe or “rotten” as my daughter refers to them. This chocolate quick bread eats almost like a cake. The rich chocolate banana flavor, the texture and the scarce amount of oil – you’ll be amazed!
I used to make this bread with just the vegetable oil. I tried substituting applesauce for the oil but wasn’t happy with the results. The happy median is replacing half the oil with applesauce. Substituting half the amount with applesauce makes the bread a bit healthier and keeps it moist without it getting “gummy”. As for nuts, I prefer this with walnuts. You’ll notice in my photos I used almonds this time, only because I ran out of walnuts. Truth be told, I sit here right now looking at a pretty bowl full of nuts on my table. I was just too lazy to crack, pick and crush the walnuts. I had a bag of slithered almonds ready to go, with no work involved, so almonds it was.
Feel free to throw a cup of chocolate chips in the mix to make it extra rich.
This is nice and easy to throw together. Whisk dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with a fork and mix in eggs, oil and applesauce. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture. Do not over mix. Pour into your loaf pan, sprinkle some nuts on top and throw it in the oven. You’re done.
This should be finished in about 55 -60 minutes, just check with the almighty toothpick test. I cool it for about 20 minutes on a wire rack, remove the bread, and finish cooling on the wire rack.
I love this bread for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert or a snack. Any or all of the above in one day would suit me just fine. It’s perfect served as is, with a big glass of milk.
Thanks for stopping by! Happy baking!
Amanda ♥
- 1½ cup all purpose flour
- 1⅓ cup sugar
- 6 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa (heaping)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 large very ripe bananas
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup apple sauce
- 2 tablespoon walnuts, almonds or other nut, crushed
- (optional) 1 cup chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Grease/spray a loaf pan.
- In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, salt and baking powder. I use a whisk.
- In a small bowl mash bananas with fork or your preferred method.
- Mix eggs, oil and applesauce into mashed bananas.
- Add mashed banana mix to flour mix. Stir until blended - do not over mix.
- (optional) Fold in chocolate chips.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle nuts on top. Bake for 55 - 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan and let it cool completely on wire rack. Enjoy : )
Oh, this looks delicious and I have all the ingredients except my bananas aren’t ripe enough yet! Definitely will try In a few days. Thanks for sharing!
That’s the worst – having to wait for the bananas to ripen! We love this quick bread – it’s like yummy, moist chocolate banana cake. Hope you love it too : )
I’m waiting for them to be done. 15 more minutes.
Awesome! How did it turn out for you?
Can’t wait to test it out on my co-workers! They have complained about putting on a few pounds since they started working there, but they will make room for this bread, I’m sure!
Lol – I get the same kind of complaints! Hope everyone enjoys the bread!
Thanks for stopping by Angela 🙂
Okay, I made this bread and the cranberry chocolate chip muffins for co-workers. They were both a BIG HIT out of the ballpark! Thanks for making me look like a Master Baker! My boyfriend ate his chocolate banana bread with dark chocolate gelato, and it was nonstop compliments. It’s a calorie-naughty combo, but whatever! Will be tuning in for more recipes for the holidays, and have already made several recommendations to your website
Yay! So glad the bread & muffins worked out so well for you! Those cranberry muffins are one of my favorites – I bake them year round!
Thanks so much for stopping by and thanks for the recommendations ♥
Hi,
Recipe looks amazing and the cake looks delicious.
I want to try it right now!
I have all the ingredients except Apple sauce 🙁
What is the other substitute I can use?
Thanks in advance !
Any fruit sauce would work…or just more oil. Most quick breads call for all oil, but I try to lighten them up with a bit of applesauce.
This looks delicious! Im definitely going to try it. What kind of loaf pan do you recommend to use? 8×3 or 9 ×5?
Just made this- it is so good I can’t stop eating it. I hope there’s some left over for my kids for breakfast tomorrow!
Hi Cindy! I LOVE this bread – so happy to hear you do as well!
Thanks so much for stopping by ♥
I baked this for the first time two weeks ago and loved it. It eats like cake. I substituted coconut oil, went a little light on it and went a little heavy on the applesauce to compensate. Also did half almond flour, half wheat flour. Pecans and dark chocolate chunks were great additions. Overall, a delightful recipe. I am baking a new batch today for a party, and this time used bananas that had been previously frozen.