This is banana bread for chocoholics.
With thick ribbons of chocolate swirled into every bite, you’ll never look at banana bread the same way again!
Chocolate Marble Swirl Banana Bread
- 2 cups over-ripe banana, mashed well (480g)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract (8g)
- 2 tsp white or apple cider vinegar or lemon juice (10g)
- 2 tbsp milk of choice (30g)
- 1/4 cup oil or more milk of choice (oil version will be richer and better-textured; milk version will be lower-calorie… so it depends on what you’re going for and to whom you are serving the bread)
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup, agave, or honey (honey is not for strict vegans)
- 2 cups spelt, all-purpose, or Bob’s gf flour (240g)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp pure stevia or 1/4 cup sugar of choice
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips, optional
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder (15g)
Bring one cup or so of water to a boil. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 F, grease a 9×5 loaf pan, and set aside. Get out three large bowls and a small bowl. In one of the large bowls, whisk together all liquid ingredients. In a separate large bowl, stir together all remaining ingredients except the cocoa powder. Measure the cocoa powder into the empty small bowl and whisk in 1/4 cup of the boiling water (discard remaining water). Now combine the contents of the two large bowls until just evenly mixed, then divide the batter in half so there’s an equal amount of batter in each of the two large bowls. Pour all of the cocoa mixture into only one of the banana bread batters. So now you should have one chocolate and one non-chocolate batter. Scoop a thin layer of plain batter into the prepared loaf pan, followed by a layer of chocolate. Repeat until all batter is used up, then take a spoon and swirl the batters together—for just a few seconds so there are still two distinct colors present. Bake 50 minutes, then turn the oven off and leave the loaf in the oven 20 more minutes if it still needs to firm up. For best freshness, leftovers should be stored in the refrigerator or freezer.
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This looks wonderful! I like to keep my banana bread fat free so I can put a large amount of peanut butter on it when I eat it 😀
Just curious about the details of this recipe. When do you add the bananas – with wet or dry? When do you add the chocolate chips? In the instructions it says to boil 1 C of water, but only 1/4 is used with cocoa – what happens to the other 3/4 C water? We tried this for the 1st time, and ran into snags because I couldnt quite figure out specs. I did end up adding the water back in, but got a runny batter, so I am sure I ruined it. It is still in the oven, and we are hoping it might come out ok if we bake it long enough. Oh, BTW, we used unbleached almond flour as a sub for reg flour (my son has celiac).
Really love all your amazing and creative ideas, they are helping us make this new transition into the GF world a whole lot easier!
Hi Rory —
I think Katie had you boil “around a cup of water” because if you tried to boil only 1/4 cup of water, it would all evaporate by the time by the time it reached the boiling point. So you have to boil a bunch of water, then measure out 1/4 cup from what you boiled. You only should have added 1/4 cup water total.
Bananas are definitely a “wet” ingredient — notice how all the liquids are mentioned first in Katie’s recipe.
Usually in all the banana bread recipes I’ve made, you fold in chocolate chip last, because if they’re in there it makes it harder to mix the rest of the batter. I suppose you could add them just to the chocolate batter, or the “plain” batter, or both!
BTW, I’m sure it’s too late now, but once you added the extra water and realized it was a mistake, you could’ve turned them into banana pancakes! I just tried comparing two random recipes for banana pancakes vs. banana bread and it looks like the amount of liquid is the biggest difference.
Hope that helps!
Jessica, I made this recipe yesterday and with the exception of the water, had the same question as Rory. I added the bananas with the dry ingredients and immediately determined that it was probably meant to be added with the liquids. That aside, the bread turned out great. I just wanted to let you know how kind I thought you were to take the time to not only respond to Rory, but to look up a use for the batter with all the water! Thoughtful indeed!
I love the idea of chocolate banana bread.. why I didn’t think about it before! 😀
This looks too good, I cannot wait to make it!
DAMMIT why did I have to move back into my dorm TODAY with my limited supplies and bowl sizes. And if your pictures are the serving size, this is one generous recipe. Generous in size and just the idea in general was very thoughtful. Mixing bananas and chocolate into a convenient and aesthetically pleasing loaf was what everyone who reads this blog needed. No ESP needed to know that!
This looks DELICIOUS! A perfect option for when I need to use some ripe bananas so they don’t go bad since I already have a huge batch frozen in my refrigerator 🙂
Wow this looks amazing! Quick question: could you do half the oil with half the milk, instead of all oil or all milk? Kind of like a compromise between calories/texture?
Oh my, that looks so GOOD! I don’t know if there’s a better combination out there than chocolate and banana, unless its banana and peanut butter- I don’t know which one would win in a fight! But back to the point, that banana bread looks so spongy and swirly and… DELICIOUS!
I love it when you sort out what my breakfasts are gonna be- so helpful! 🙂
This sounds absolutely yummy, and by using milk instead of oil and leaving out the chocolate chips, it is only 3 points per slice on Weight Watchers. I’m taking this to the next ladies brunch I go to!
Bananas are great by themselves, but when you add chocolate to the mix…you have an awesome combo. I’ve made a cream cheese swirl banana bread…now I’m going to have to try this recipe (with a gf flour). Look delish!
That is one gorgeous loaf – not only beautiful but also much be so delicious.
THANK YOU!!!! I just bought a bajillion bananas yesterday (Fair trade organic for $0.29/lb?! Yes please.) – this is their calling.
I am making this promptly. May throw some espresso in there, too.
Hope you’re doing well, Katie =)
Thank you so much for posting this! I couldn’t make it fast enough when I found the recipe and it is so amazing!!! My hubby and 3 yr old have already finished off over half of the loaf since I cut it a few minutes ago 🙂
I love this recipe, especially as you’ve added all of the alternative ingredients where something is harder to find. Will definitely be bookmarking this as I bake a lot of banana based goodies 🙂
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This looks awesome! I was looking for something new to do for breakfast…this might be my answer 🙂
When do you put in the chocolate chips if using?
With the dry ingredients