If you have overripe bananas, you must make this easy chocolate chip studded banana bread recipe! It comes together in a flash and is so moist and tender!
Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan with baking spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar and butter together on medium-high speed until fluffy and pale in color, about 3 minutes.
Mix in the eggs one at a time, stop and scrape down the bowl, then beat in the vanilla extract. Mix in the mashed bananas. (I like to mash the bananas with a fork so they are still a bit chunky.)
With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and mix together until almost combined.
Reserve a handful of the chocolate chips and stir the rest into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, and sprinkle the reserved chocolate chips on top.
Bake for 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove and finish cooling on a wire rack.
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Notes
Be careful not to overmix the batter! Overmixing can create a dense and tough loaf of banana bread as it develops the gluten in the batter. Mix just until the wet and dry ingredients are combined to ensure a super moist loaf. Overmixing can also cause the center of the bread to sink.
Sugar plays a significant role in ensuring the bread stays moist over time. I don’t recommend changing the amount of sugar added to the banana bread.
You can mash the ripe bananas until smooth or leave some chunks in there for more texture in the bread.
Ovens and the material of baking pans can vary, so the baking time might vary a little. If you’re concerned, you can use a skewer or toothpick to check if the bread is done right before the 60-minute mark. It should come out pretty clean or with just a few crumbs on it.
Allowing the banana bread with chocolate chips to cool before slicing will help the slices hold their shape. The bread may be crumbly when straight out of the oven.
To measure your flour correctly, I recommend using a scale. If you do not have a scale, spoon the flour into the measuring cup, then level it off with a knife. If you scoop directly from the bag of flour, you will overpack the measuring cup and get too much flour, leading to a dense loaf.
If you’re wondering if you could turn this into a chocolate chip banana bread muffin recipe, I recommend you check out my super easy banana chocolate chip muffins recipe!