Most banana bread recipes want three bananas. I had two, and I didn't feel like going to the store for one banana.
So this one is built for two. Greek yogurt makes up the moisture the third banana would have brought, which is why the loaf still comes out soft rather than dry and dense the way a scaled-down recipe usually does.
The chocolate chunks are the other half of it. Chunks rather than chips, so you get actual pools of melted chocolate instead of little dots.
If you have a third banana after all, my banana bread with streusel topping uses three and finishes with a brown sugar crumb. And if you want the protein version, my cottage cheese banana bread also works with two.
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Why You'll Love This
- It's built for two bananas, not scaled down from three. Most recipes that only need two are just a third of a bigger recipe, which gives you a short, dense loaf with too much crust. This one is a full-size loaf with the ratios adjusted.
- Greek yogurt does the missing banana's job. It brings the moisture the third banana would have, so the crumb stays soft instead of drying out. You don't taste it.
- Chunks, not chips. Chopped chocolate melts into pools rather than staying as separate dots, so you get streaks of it through the slice.
- Brown sugar rather than white. More molasses, which reads darker and works better against banana than plain sweetness does.
- One bowl for wet, one for dry. No mixer, nothing to soften first, and the butter goes in melted.
How Much Banana Do 2 Bananas Actually Make?
This is the part that decides whether a two-banana recipe works, and it's the reason people end up with a dry loaf.
You want about a cup of mashed banana, roughly 8 ounces or 230 grams peeled. Two large bananas get you there. Two medium ones don't, and two small ones are well short.
Bananas vary more than you'd think. A large banana is 8 to 9 inches, a medium is about 7. If yours came in a bunch from a regular grocery store they're probably medium, so measure rather than counting.
If you're short, top it up with milk to reach a cup. A couple of tablespoons is usually all it takes, and it does the same job the missing banana would have.
If you're over, that's fine. Up to a cup and a quarter and the loaf just comes out a little denser and more banana-forward, which most people prefer anyway.
Ingredients
- 2 large ripe bananas: About a cup mashed, roughly 230 grams peeled. Heavily spotted to mostly black, since that's where the sweetness and the flavor come from. See the section above if yours are on the medium side.
- Greek yogurt: This is the one doing the work. It brings the moisture the third banana would have brought, so the crumb stays soft rather than dry and dense. Full-fat is better than low-fat here. Sour cream works the same way.
- All-purpose flour: Spoon it into the cup and level it off rather than scooping. Packed flour is the fastest way to a dry loaf, and there's less spare moisture in a two-banana recipe to absorb it.
- Baking soda: It reacts with the acidity in the bananas and the yogurt, which is why there's no baking powder here. Check yours isn't past its date.
- Melted butter: Melted rather than creamed, which is why there's no mixer and nothing to soften first. It also gives a denser, moister crumb than creaming does.
- Brown sugar: More molasses than white sugar, which sits better against banana. It also holds onto moisture, which matters more here than it would in a three-banana loaf.
- Eggs: Structure and richness. Room temperature blends more evenly into melted butter.
- Cinnamon: A little. It doesn't make the loaf taste spiced, it just makes the banana read more like banana.
- Salt: Half a teaspoon. Without it the whole thing tastes flatly sweet.
- Dark chocolate chunks: Chopped from a bar rather than chips. Chips hold their shape by design, chunks melt into pools. Dark stands up against the brown sugar better than milk chocolate, though milk works if that's your preference.
- Vanilla extract: Rounds off the cinnamon and the banana.
See recipe card for quantities.
Substitutions
- No Greek yogurt? Sour cream is the closest swap, same amount. Regular plain yogurt works but it's thinner, so use a little less. Cottage cheese blended smooth also works, which is what my cottage cheese banana bread is built around.
- No brown sugar? White sugar works, you just lose the molasses note. A tablespoon of molasses stirred into white sugar gets you close.
- No chocolate chunks? Chocolate chips are fine, they just stay as distinct pieces rather than melting into pools. Chopped walnuts or pecans work too if you'd rather go nutty than chocolatey.
- Don't swap the flour. This is the one substitution I'd avoid. Gluten-free blends and whole wheat both absorb more moisture, and a two-banana recipe doesn't have spare moisture to give. If you want to try, add a couple of tablespoons of milk to compensate and expect a denser loaf.
- Unsalted vs salted butter. Either works. If yours is salted, cut the added salt back to a pinch.
How To Make It
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan and line it with parchment, leaving an overhang on the long sides so you can lift the loaf out.
- Mash the bananas. In a large bowl, until mostly smooth with a few small lumps left. Check you have about a cup.
- Whisk the dry ingredients. Flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a separate bowl.
- Add the wet ingredients to the bananas. Melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, Greek yogurt, and vanilla. Stir until combined. Let the butter cool slightly first if it just came off the heat, so it doesn't cook the eggs.
- Combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold until the flour streaks just disappear. Stop there. Overmixing develops gluten and gives you a tough loaf with tunnels through it.
- Fold in the chocolate. Toss the chunks in a spoonful of the flour first so they don't all sink to the bottom. Fold them through with a few strokes.
- Bake 55 to 60 minutes. Start checking at 50. A skewer should come out with a few moist crumbs, not clean. If the top is browning before the middle sets, tent it loosely with foil.
- Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then lift it out onto a rack and cool completely. Warm banana bread slices gummy, and the chocolate is still molten for the first twenty minutes.
Variations
- Streusel top. Cold butter cut into flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon until crumbly, scattered over the batter right before it bakes. It's the finish on my streusel banana bread and it works just as well here against the chocolate.
- Nutty. Half a cup of chopped walnuts or pecans folded in with the chocolate. Toast them first if you have five minutes, it makes a real difference against a sweet batter.
- Peanut butter swirl. Two tablespoons warmed until loose, dolloped on top of the batter in the pan, then dragged through with a knife. Don't stir it in or you lose the swirl and it just makes the crumb heavier.
- Muffins. Same batter in a lined muffin tin, about 20 to 25 minutes at 350°F. Better ratio of crust to crumb if that's what you're after, and they freeze individually.
- Espresso. A teaspoon of instant espresso powder with the dry ingredients. It doesn't taste like coffee, it just makes the chocolate read deeper.
What To Serve With It
- Coffee. The obvious one and the right one. Black coffee against a sweet, chocolatey slice is most of why banana bread exists as a breakfast food.
- Warm, with butter. A slice reheated for twenty seconds with cold butter on it. The butter melts into the crumb and the chocolate goes soft again.
- Vanilla ice cream. Turns a slice into dessert. Warm the bread first so the contrast does the work.
- Peanut butter. Spread on a cold slice. Peanut butter, banana, and chocolate is a combination that doesn't need defending.
- Fresh raspberries. If it's going on a plate for someone rather than eaten standing at the counter. Sharp against the sweetness, and the color helps.
Storage and Freezing
Cool it completely first. Wrapping a warm loaf traps steam and the crust goes soft and damp. Wait until it's at room temperature all the way through.
Room temperature, 3 days. Wrapped in foil or in an airtight container. It's actually better on day two, once the loaf has settled and the flavors have come together.
Skip the fridge. Cold dries banana bread out faster than the counter does. There's nothing gained unless your kitchen is very warm, and even then the loaf is worse for it.
Freeze in slices, not whole. Wrap individually or lay them on a tray with parchment between, then bag them. You can pull out one slice at a time rather than thawing a whole loaf. Keeps 3 months.
Thaw wrapped, on the counter, so the condensation forms on the outside rather than in the bread. A frozen slice goes straight into the toaster oven for a few minutes, which also melts the chocolate again.
Rose's Top Tips
- Measure the mashed banana, don't count bananas. About a cup. Two large ones get you there, two mediums won't, and in a two-banana recipe that gap is the difference between soft and dry.
- Spoon the flour, don't scoop. Scooping straight from the bag packs in noticeably more, and there's less spare moisture here to absorb it than in a three-banana loaf.
- Stop mixing the second the flour disappears. Lumpy is fine. Every extra stir develops gluten, and gluten in a quick bread means a tough loaf with tunnels running through it.
- Toss the chocolate in flour first. A spoonful from your measured flour, tossed with the chunks before they go in. Chunks are heavier than chips and they sink to the bottom without it.
- Check at 50 minutes, not 60. A skewer should come out with a few moist crumbs. Clean means slightly overbaked, and this loaf has less margin than most.
- Let it cool all the way. Ten minutes in the pan, then out onto a rack. Warm banana bread slices gummy, and the chocolate stays molten for a good twenty minutes after it comes out.
Recipe FAQs
You want about a cup of mashed banana, roughly 230 grams peeled. Two large bananas get you there. Two medium ones fall short, so top up with a couple of tablespoons of milk to reach a cup. Measure rather than counting, since banana size varies more than you'd expect.
Yes, and they're the ones you want. Blackened skin means the starch has converted to sugar, which is where the sweetness and the flavor come from. The only bananas to avoid are moldy ones or any that smell fermented or alcoholic.
Sour cream is the closest match, same amount. Plain yogurt works but it's thinner. Milk works in a pinch at about two-thirds the amount. The yogurt is standing in for the third banana here, so don't leave it out entirely.
Chunks chopped from a bar melt into pools, chips hold their shape because they're made with stabilizers to do exactly that. Both work, they just look and eat differently. Toss either in a spoonful of flour before folding them in, or they sink.
Usually too much flour, from scooping the measuring cup straight into the bag rather than spooning and levelling. The other cause is overbaking. Start checking at 50 minutes and pull it when a skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs rather than clean.
Yes. Same batter in a lined muffin tin, 20 to 25 minutes at 350°F. Start checking at 18, since muffins go from done to dry faster than a loaf does.
No. Cold dries banana bread out faster than the counter does. Wrapped at room temperature it keeps 3 days, and for longer than that freeze it in slices.
More Banana Recipes
- Banana Bread with Cottage Cheese, also two bananas, more protein, no chocolate
- Banana Bread with Streusel Topping, the three-banana version with a brown sugar crumb on top
- Raspberry Banana Muffins, same batter idea in muffin form, tart against sweet
- Eggless Banana Muffins, no eggs, no mixer, good when the fridge is bare
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Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread with 2 Bananas
Equipment
- 1 MIxing Bowl
- 1 hand mixer
- 1 loaf pan
Ingredients
- 2 large bananas ripe
- 1 ½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 pinch salt
- ½-1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅓ cup butter melted
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup full fat greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chunks dark,s emi-sweet or milk chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and grease a loaf pan or line it with parchment paper.
- Mash the bananas: In a large bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork or potato masher until smooth. You should have about 1 cup of mashed bananas.2 large bananas
- Mix the wet ingredients: Add the melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla extract to the mashed bananas. Stir until everything is well combined.⅓ cup butter, ⅔ cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, ½ cup full fat greek yogurt, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Combine the dry ingredients: In another bowl, mix together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.1 ½ cup all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 pinch salt, ½-1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients: Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring gently until just combined. Be careful not to overmix!
- Fold in the chocolate chunks: Gently fold in the chocolate chunks. You want to ensure the banana bread mixture is evenly distributed but not overworked.1 cup chocolate chunks
- Pour into the loaf pan: Transfer the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top with a spatula.
- Bake: Place the loaf pan in the preheated oven and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool and enjoy: Let the banana bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Dianne says
Is this 1/2 cup full fat yogurt or 1/2 a big tub?
Rose Sioson says
Great question—it's ½ cup of full-fat yogurt , not half of a tub. I just updated the recipe card to make that clearer. Thanks for catching it!