Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This whole wheat chocolate chip banana bread recipe is delicious & easy to make. It is a fun way to sneak some whole wheat fiber into your children’s diet. This whole wheat banana bread is filled with sweet ripe bananas and tons of mini chocolate chips. You will like the added fiber and your kids will love the chocolate & bananas. Win win!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bread – Stuffed With Chocolate!

Recipe Sections

1. Ingredients
2. Instructions
3. Helpful Tips

Recipe Rating 5 from 13 votes Featured Comment Lisa “Delicious, beyond delicious actually! And I love that it has the whole wheat flour rather than white flour. I made a white flour one yesterday and decided to try a little healthier version and found this one. A keeper for sure!”

Excluding the baking time, this whole wheat banana bread recipe takes me about 10-15 minutes to prepare and clean up. Please be aware that this is an oven-baked whole wheat banana bread recipe. It is not made with a bread machine. You will also find a printable and “pin-able” recipe at the bottom of this page.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bread – Straight Out Of Oven

Ingredients – Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

• 3 – Bananas (ripe & large sized) – Use exactly 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas for the best results
• 8 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (softened) – Or you can use a neutral tasting vegetable oil such as corn, canola or light/mild olive oil.
• 2 – Large Eggs
• 2 Cups – Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 Cup – Light Brown Sugar (packed cup)
• 1 Teaspoon – Vanilla Extract
• 1 Teaspoon – Baking Soda
• 1 Teaspoon – Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon – Salt
• 1 1/2 Cup – Mini Chocolate Chips – use 1 cup if you want a less chocolaty & more “adult friendly” banana bread
• Optional – 1 Teaspoon – Ground Cinnamon – Some people really like to add ground cinnamon to the batter, especially if their bananas are not super ripe.

Servings – Roughly 12 slices

Equipment – Measuring cup & spoons, mixing bowl, long wooden spoon, 9 by 5 inch metal bread pan, oven mitts, silicon spatula, cooling rack and an oven.

Key Ingredients – Whole Wheat Flour, Ripe Bananas & Mini Chocolate Chips

Instructions – Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Mash bananas with a fork.
• Lightly beat eggs.
• Stir eggs, bananas and butter together.
• Mix in remaining ingredients (except the mini chocolate chips). Stir until batter is completely mixed.
• Add the mini chocolate chips to the batter. Stir in chocolate chips until they are fully mixed into the batter.
• Optional – Line the pan with baking parchment paper if you plan on adding chocolate chips to the top of your banana bread. The baking parchment paper allows you to lift the banana bread out of the pan without smudging the chocolate chips (which are very soft after baking).
• Pour the finished batter into a nonstick bread pan. Smooth out the top of the batter within the bread pan.
• Bake in the oven for 65-70 minutes at 325 F.
• Take out of oven and let the whole wheat banana bread cool down in the bread pan for 10 minutes. Do not remove the banana bread from the bread pan during this 10 minute cool down period. Use oven mitts as the bread pan will be very hot coming out of the oven.
• After 10 minutes, remove the banana bread from the bread pan. Place the banana bread on a cooling rack in order to completely cool. This cool down may take 1 to 2 hours. Gently slide a silicon spatula between the banana bread and the bread pan walls if the banana bread is stuck in the pan.
• Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully.

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Helpful Tips – Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

• The tips below are designed to help whole wheat banana bread “novices” and/or people with limited baking experience.
• Click on this “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include my tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on easy Banana Bread Recipes such as blueberry banana bread, eggless banana bread and cranberry banana bread.

• Use RIPE bananas for the BEST results. Ripe bananas are soft and usually yellow with many small black spots. Hard yellow/green(ish) bananas are too starchy and have a lot less banana flavor.
• Moreover, you should use EXACTLY 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas for the most consistent results (since bananas vary in size). This will prevent your banana bread from being too dry or too wet.
• FYI – 3 large-sized bananas equal roughly 1 1/3 to 1 2/3 cups of mashed bananas (not sliced bananas). 3 medium-sized bananas equal roughly 1 to 1 1/4 cups of mashed bananas (not sliced bananas). Of course, banana sizes can vary greatly… and my version of medium and large-sized bananas may differ from yours! Always measure your mashed bananas with a measuring cup or kitchen scale for more consistent banana bread results.

• This recipe uses a “kid friendly” 1 1/2 cups of mini chocolate chips (as this banana bread is stuffed with chocolate). For a more “adult friendly” whole wheat banana bread, you should probably use only 1 cup of mini chocolate chips.
• If you don’t have mini chocolate chips, you can use regular sized chocolate chips. However, I like to use mini chips because banana bread slices come out better (as the mini chip cause less interference/blockage with a cutting knife) and the smaller chips seem to spread out more with the banana bread & provide a better overall chocolaty taste to the whole wheat banana bread. Larger & heavier chocolate chips have the tendency to sink and may collect near the bottom of the banana bread.
• Optional – You can turn this into a chocolate chip banana NUT bread by replacing 50% of the chocolate chips with chopped walnuts or chopped pecans.
• Optional – If you want to create a healthier whole wheat banana bread, you can replace the chocolate chips with blueberries, cranberries, raisins, etc.
• Optional – Adding 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the batter can be a great help if your bananas are not totally ripe (because the cinnamon helps to “hide” any missing banana flavor).
• Visitors – Did you add anything extra to this banana bread? Different types of chocolate? Chopped walnuts? Spices? Fresh blueberries? Please post your banana bread variations in the comment section below.
• Visitor variations – In the comments section below, Jason said that he “used chopped dark” chocolate, Ellen likes to add 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves.

• Use FRESH whole wheat flour or the whole wheat banana bread might taste a little strange. Whole wheat flour can spoil quickly when left in your pantry for days at room temperature. Whole wheat flour does not last nearly as long as white all-purpose or bread flour at room temperature.
• Try to keep your ingredients (e.g. flour) in airtight food containers in order to extend their shelf life and avoid spoilage (e.g. exposure to moisture, pests and dust).
• Whole wheat flour (if stored in an open bag and not in an airtight container) can absorb a lot of moisture from the air. This extra moisture throws off recipes and can lead to banana bread collapses, etc.
• For longer-term storage, whole wheat flour should be stored in the freezer or refrigerator.
• For this whole wheat banana bread recipe, I used King Arthur Flour’s 100% Whole Grain Whole Wheat Flour. According to the King Arthur Flour package’s nutritional facts, this whole wheat flour has 3 grams of dietary fiber per 1/4 cup (or 12 grams per cup). Therefore, since this whole wheat banana bread recipe uses 2 cups of whole wheat flour, it should contain roughly 24 grams of whole wheat fiber (if you use something similar to King Arthur Flour’s whole wheat flour).
• If you like to make baked goods that contain whole wheat flour, you should also try out my Bread Machine Honey Wheat Bread Recipe and 100% Whole Wheat Bread Machine Recipe.
• If you are looking for another banana bread recipe that contains extra fiber, you should try out my Flaxseed Banana Bread recipe.

• This doesn’t happen often but if the top of the banana bread looks too moist or under cooked, you should try the “toothpick test”. Gently push a toothpick into the top of the bread and see if any batter sticks to the toothpick. If batter is sticking to the toothpick then it hasn’t completely cooked. Place the bread pan back into the still hot oven for another 2 or 3 minutes. Make sure to wear oven gloves because the bread pan will be very hot. After the 2 or 3 minutes, remove the bread pan and test the whole wheat banana bread again with a tooth pick.
• Instead of the “toothpick test”, some people (including me) like to use a digital bread thermometer to test if their banana bread is fully baked. Generally, a “quick bread” (e.g. banana bread or pumpkin bread) is done when the internal temperature reaches 200 to 205 degrees F. Just make sure to measure the temperature in the center of the loaf for the most accurate reading.

• Consider “greasing” your bread pan with butter (even if it is non-stick) because the chocolate chips may stick to the bread pan after melting during the baking process. Melted chocolate chips can sometimes make it difficult to get the banana bread out of the bread pan without breaking (unless the bread pan has been greased with butter). When greasing the pan, please give extra attention to the bottom of the bread pan (which is hard to reach with a silicon spatula).
• You can also try using baking parchment paper to line your bread pan if you have a problem with the chocolate chips sticking to the bottom of the bread pan. Baking parchment paper will also help you to avoid disturbing (smudging) any warm/soft chocolate chips on top of the bread when you lift the whole wheat banana bread from the bread pan.
• If you use baking parchment paper, you can sprinkle some mini chocolate chips on top of the banana bread batter for an even more chocolaty appearance. Baking parchment paper enables you to lift the whole wheat banana bread from the bread pan without touching the top of the finished banana bread (thus less potential “smudging” of any warm chocolate chips on top of the finished banana bread).
• Optional – If you are finding small white clumps of flour in your banana breads, you can use a fine mesh strainer or flour sifter to sift your flour (before mixing the flour with the wet ingredients). This “aerates” the flour and breaks up & screens out small flour lumps.
• Long-term storage – If you want to keep your banana bread for more than 1-2 days, you will need to freeze it. Please read Bread Dad’s How To Freeze Banana Bread for more details.

• If you have a problem with a banana bread recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (e.g. using the correct oven temperature), using the correct amounts of ingredients (e.g. don’t eyeball the measurements versus using a measuring cup or accidentally add a tablespoon when a teaspoon is called for), using the correct ingredients (e.g. baking soda/powder versus yeast or all purpose flour versus bread flour), etc. Please don’t “wing” things with recipes.
• In addition, you should always try to use relatively fresh baking soda & powder for the best results. For example, using baking soda from an open container (that has been deodorizing your refrigerator for months) may lead to subpar results. Old & hard baking soda/powder may lead to the rising problems and/or leave small bitter clumps in your whole wheat banana bread.
• Problem with sinking middles? Then check out my Why Does My Banana Bread Sink In The Middle? page for reasons & potential solutions.
• Always wear oven mitts when dealing with hot ovens, bread pans, etc.
• For more easy banana bread recipes (e.g. blueberry, cranberry, chocolate chip, vegan, oatmeal, etc.), please visit Bread Dad’s main Banana Bread Recipes section.

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Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, Banana Bread
2. Wikipedia, Chocolate
3. Wikipedia, Dietary Fiber
4. Wikipedia, Whole Wheat Flour

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