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 banana bread makes a wonderful dessert or snack… especially when it is stuffed with mini chocolate chips.
Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bread – Stuffed With Chocolate!
This whole wheat banana bread recipe should take you roughly 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. For more great recipes, please visit Bread Dad’s section on Easy Banana Bread Variations. Bread Dad also has a printable and “pin-able” recipe at the bottom of this page. If you liked this recipe, we hope you will leave a comment below and give the recipe a 5 star rating. Thanks!
Key Ingredients – Whole Wheat Flour, Ripe Bananas & Mini Chocolate Chips
Ingredients – Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
- 8 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (softened)
- 2 – Large Eggs
- 3 – Bananas (ripe & large sized) – Roughly 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas
- 2 Cups – Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 Cup – Light Brown Sugar (packed cup)
- 1 Teaspoon – Vanilla Extract
- 1 Teaspoon – Baking Soda
- 1 Teaspoon – Baking Powder (aluminum free)
- 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
Servings – Roughly 12 slices
Equipment – Measuring cup & spoons, mixing bowl, long wooden spoon, 9 by 5 bread pan, oven mitts, silicon spatula, cooling rack and an oven.
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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.
- 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 or until golden brown.
- 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 1-2 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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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 our “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 our tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
- 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.
- Make sure to use 3 large bananas (not 3 medium bananas). Otherwise, the whole wheat banana bread might turn out to be a little dry.
- In case, you like to use cups versus banana “sizes”… 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! Use 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas for the most accurate results.
- 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. For longer-term storage, whole wheat flour should be stored in the freezer or refrigerator.
- 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 – Some people like to add spices to their banana breads. One of our amazing visitors (thanks Ellen for the tip!) likes to add 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves when she makes this recipe.
- Optional – If you want to create a healthier whole wheat banana bread, you can replace the chocolate chips with chopped walnuts, blueberries, cranberries, raisins, etc. Or you can use 50/50 blends to create many different whole wheat banana bread variations such as whole wheat chocolate chip banana nut bread!
- 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 our Bread Machine Honey Wheat Bread Recipe and 100% Whole Wheat Bread Machine 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.
- 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.
- 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. The baking parchment paper enables you to remove 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).
- If you have a problem with a banana bread recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (i.e. using the correct oven temperature), using the correct amounts of ingredients (i.e. 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 (i.e. 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.
- Always wear oven mitts when dealing with hot ovens, bread pans, etc.
- For more easy banana bread recipes (i.e. blueberry, cranberry, chocolate chip, vegan, oatmeal, etc.), please visit Bread Dad’s main Banana Bread Recipes section.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. Beginning bakers learn a lot from your baking comments, tips & recipe variations. Jump to comment section
Reference Sources
- Wikipedia, Banana Bread
- Wikipedia, Chocolate
- Wikipedia, Dietary Fiber
- Wikipedia, Whole Wheat Flour
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. If you enjoyed this recipe, we hope you will leave a comment & 5 star rating in the comment section below. Thanks!
Servings: 12 Slices
Calories: 355kcal
Ingredients
- 8 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (softened)
- 2 Eggs (large)
- 3 Bananas (ripe & large sized) – Roughly 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas
- 2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 Cup Light Brown Sugar (packed cup)
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder (aluminum free)
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 1/2 Cups Mini Chocolate Chips (use 1 cup if you want a less chocolaty "adult friendly" banana bread)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Mash bananas with a fork.
- 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.
- 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 or until golden brown.
- 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 1-2 hours. Gently slide a silicon spatula between the banana bread and the bread pan walls if the banana bread is stuck in the pan.
Notes
This is a Bread Dad recipe and may not be copied or reproduced. This recipe is copyright protected under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Legal Disclaimer
The nutritional information is provided using recipe widgets such as WP Recipe Maker. These figures should only be considered as an estimate. They should not be construed as a guarantee of accuracy given visitors may use different serving sizes, ingredients, etc. The information is only provided as a courtesy to our visitors. See our legal disclaimer for additional nutrition disclosures.
Nutrition
Serving: 1Slice | Calories: 355kcal | Carbohydrates: 55g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 256mg | Potassium: 216mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 36g | Vitamin A: 344IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 76mg | Iron: 1mg
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment & give us a 5 star rating. Beginning bakers learn a lot from your baking comments, tips & recipe variations. Moreover, it is ALWAYS great to hear from someone who has enjoyed our recipes!!!
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