This is my take on a Dark Chocolate Banana Bread recipe adapted from food blogger Maria of “Two Peas and Their Pod.” My ingredients and measurements are a bit different from her original recipe.
I used unbleached flour, Hershey’s Special Dark, 100% cacao powder, 4 small brown, over ripe, previously frozen, then thawed, bananas, crushed walnuts, olive oil, agave nectar, and Ghirardelli bittersweet, 60% cacao, chocolate chips.
A printable version of my recipe is at the bottom of this post.
To start: Read the recipe, all the way through. Pre-heat your oven to 350°F. Then gather and measure all your ingredients.
Grease a 9-by-4 1/2 inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set it aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Mix in the crushed walnuts so they are powdery and covered. Set that bowl aside.
In a large bowl, mash the over ripe, brown bananas with a fork. Add the melted butter, sea salt, oil and stir until combined. Whisk in the agave, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth. Adding the sea salt to the wet mixture will help it dissolve.
Fold the dry ingredients with a spatula, into the wet ingredients. Be careful to not over mix. Fold in 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips, and pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan.
Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of chocolate chips over the top of the bread mixture. On the middle oven rack, bake for 50-65 minutes, or until a toothpick or thin skewer, inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. You might see some melted chocolate chips on the skewer, but make sure the batter is not sticking. This dark chocolate banana bread loaf was done at 50 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and set on a wire cooling rack.
Let the bread cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the bread and carefully remove it from the loaf pan. Let the bread cool on the wire rack another 5 to 10 minutes.
It should be baked all the way through, but still very moist. My version of this recipe is mostly dark chocolate in flavor, with the bananas keeping it very moist and the walnuts adding a nice crunch.
- 1 cup unbleached flour
- ½ cup Hershey's Special Dark, 100% cacao powder
- 1 cup crushed walnuts
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 4 small brown bananas (approximately 1 cup mashed, previously frozen, now thawed)
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 6 tablespoons of agave nectar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips, 60% cacao, divided
- Pre-heat your oven to 350°F.
- Grease a 9-by-4½ inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Set it aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda.
- Set that bowl aside.
- In a large bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork.
- Add the melted butter, sea salt, and oil and stir until combined. Adding the sea salt to the wet mixture will help it dissolve.
- Whisk in the agave, egg, and vanilla extract.
- Stir until smooth.
- Fold the dry ingredients with a spatula, into the wet ingredients, don’t over mix.
- Fold in ¾ cup of the chocolate chips.
- Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of chocolate chips over the top of the bread.
- Bake for 50-65 minutes, or until a toothpick, or thin skewer inserted into the center of the bread comes out mostly clean.
- Check at 50 minutes. (Oven times vary.)
- Remove the pan from the oven and set on a wire cooling rack.
- Let the bread cool in the loaf pan for 15 minutes.
- Run a knife around the edges of the bread and carefully remove from the pan.
- Let the bread cool on the wire cooling rack for another 5 to 10 minutes.
If you want another chocolate baked treat, try my Gooey Fudgy Dark Chocolate Brownies.
The recipe for ice cream is so easy if you have an ice cream maker. Just mix the ingredients, add them to the machine, step back and watch the magic happen. It’s that simple.
Using a hand mixer helps, but it’s not really necessary.
I pulse the frozen berries in my blender before I add them to the mixture.
You don’t need to mix for very long if you use agave nectar, but granulated sugar takes longer to dissolve.
Just cover and refrigerate the mixture for at least an hour, or you can even leave it over night.
Here’s the very berry ice cream after a few hours in the freezer. You should remove it from the freezer at least 10 minutes prior to serving. One quick caveat: you will love this so much you may not want to buy ice cream from the grocery store again.
