Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread with 2 Bananas
Banana bread built for two bananas rather than three, with Greek yogurt making up the moisture the third one would have brought. Brown sugar, cinnamon, and chocolate chunks folded through. One bowl for the wet, one for the dry, about an hour in the oven.
Servings: 10 people
Calories: 298kcal
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.
Notes
Yield. Not stated anywhere. A 9x5 loaf is usually 10 to 12 slices.
Measure the mashed banana, don't count bananas. You want about a cup, roughly 230 grams peeled. Two large bananas get you there. Two mediums fall short, so top up with a couple of tablespoons of milk. In a two-banana recipe that gap is the difference between soft and dry.
Use bananas that are heavily spotted to mostly black. That's where the sweetness comes from. The only ones to avoid are moldy or fermented.
The Greek yogurt is standing in for the third banana. It brings the moisture a three-banana loaf would have. Sour cream works the same way, and plain yogurt is thinner so use a little less.
Spoon the flour, don't scoop. Scooping from the bag packs in noticeably more, and there's less spare moisture here to absorb it.
Don't swap the flour type. Gluten-free blends and whole wheat both absorb more moisture, and this recipe doesn't have spare moisture to give.
Stop mixing the second the flour disappears. Lumpy is fine. Overmixing develops gluten and gives you a tough loaf with tunnels through it.
Toss the chocolate in flour first. A spoonful from your measured flour. Chunks are heavier than chips and they sink without it.
Check at 50 minutes. A skewer should come out with a few moist crumbs, not clean. Clean means slightly overbaked. Tent with foil if the top browns before the middle sets.
Cool completely before slicing. 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.
Muffins. Same batter, lined tin, 20 to 25 minutes at 350°F. Start checking at 18.
Storage. Wrapped at room temperature 3 days. Skip the fridge, it dries the loaf out faster than the counter. Freeze in slices up to 3 months, thaw wrapped, and a frozen slice goes straight into the toaster oven.
Nutrition
Calories: 298kcal | Carbohydrates: 41.1g | Fat: 12.5g | Saturated Fat: 7.9g | Cholesterol: 58mg | Sodium: 6695mg | Fiber: 1.9g | Sugar: 22.4g
