Decadent raspberry chocolate banana bread

Today I have one of my favorite breakfast recipes for you. It combines two of my favorite flavors into a pretty standard banana bread recipe. I've been making this for awhile (and I can't for the life of me remember where I got it since it's handwritten on a recipe card!) It is absolutely delicious though and you'll find yourself unable to stop eating it!

This is a slightly sweeter version of a traditional banana bread with chunks of fresh raspberry and chocolate throughout. I usually serve this sweet bread for breakfast, but we've had it for dessert also. Serve warm with or without whipped salted butter.

Raspberry Chocolate Banana Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated white sugar
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 ½ cups mashed ripe banana (3-4 bananas)
1/3 cup plain low fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup halved fresh raspberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9x5-inch glass loaf pan with cooking spray.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and butter with an electric mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the banana, yogurt, and vanilla: beat until blended. Stir in the flour mixture, just until moist. Don't over-mix. Stir in the chocolate chips and then gently stir in the raspberries. If you want, you can sprinkle a few additional chocolate chips and raspberries on the top to make it look pretty.

Related reading: How to make vanilla extract from scratch.

4. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake on center rack for 50 to 60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Remove from pan and cool completely on the wire rack.

Now, while I do make this bread from scratch, feel free to cheat and add the raspberries and chocolate chips to a banana bread mix if that's more your speed. I'll admit, I've done it more then once! Also, if you don't like the rich chocolate flavor of the dark chocolate chips, you can use milk chocolate instead....or even white chocolate.

How to ripen bananas quickly

One of the problems I often have when making banana bread is that I sometimes want banana bread when my bananas aren't ripe enough! (like in this picture below, they look ripe but they were still too firm to mash) I found a solution though. Simply put the bananas in the oven at 300° for 30 minutes. Make sure you put them on a parchment paper lines baking pan though because they will 'leak'. 

After 30 minutes remove baking pan from oven and allow to cool. You'll probably have the easiest time opening the bananas from the bottom. Open over a bowl and the inside should just fall out of the peel. Mash lightly and you're good to go.

Hopefully you enjoy this raspberry chocolate banana bread as much as we do!

Looking for a similar recipe? Check out my Cranberry almond bar recipe, it's simple to make an oh so yummy!

~L

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