Chocolate Banana Gingerbread.
Quick breads are a dangerous treat in this house.
I’m pretty darn sure that most times the bread grows legs and runs off, just like my butter. I did go out and buy more butter, by the way. Though I’m fully anticipating on finding a pound of it in between my boxes of shoes or behind the bar with the wine. If that tells you anything.
So here’s the deal. I really am not gingerbread fan. At least not true, rich, spicy gingerbread. And it’s not because I don’t like ginger. After all, I married one.
But when it comes to plain ole’ gingerbread, we just don’t mesh. So I took it upon myself to add some of my other favorite flavors. Don’t let the chocolate and banana disgust you. It is divine.
Just check out the creamy, gingery batter:
Delectable enough to eat with a spoon. If you’re into eating raw eggs, sugar, butter and molasses, that is. But you know I’m a fan of this batter since I love golden, sparkly things. So pretty that my attention span was just zapped.
If I am being honest, I wasn’t completely sure how the flavor combination would turn out. Even if it was a fail, I’m sure I would eat it any way.
Luckily, it was a giant success. Don’t you love when that happens? I judge my successes by how much Mr. How Sweet closet-eats over the sink with a diet Coke in hand when he thinks I’m not looking. I’m always looking.
Complete with a mountain of chocolate chips, this bread was perfect for killing my gingerbread craving. It had just enough spice to warm me in the crisp, autumn weather, the slightest hint of banana flavor, and just a enough chocolate to… well, let’s be honest – there can never be enough chocolate. Ever.
Chocolate Banana Gingerbread
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup molasses
2 medium bananas, mashed
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup chocolate chips
2 tablespoons raw turbinado sugar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine flour, salt, baking soda and spices in a bowl.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla, and mix until pale yellow and smooth, about 3 minutes. Stir in molasses and mashed bananas. Add half of dry ingredients, just mixing until combined, then add buttermilk. Add remaining dry ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips.
Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray and pour batter in. Top with raw turbinado sugar. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
And sure enough, there is barely one (thin) slice left on the counter. Stupid legs.
91 Comments on “Chocolate Banana Gingerbread.”
I came home today planning to make plain old banana bread…then I saw this and i knew i HAD to make it. So I did :) Just ate two pieces. Delicious!
Glad you liked it!
wow this looks amazing!! I’m not a big fan of ginger bread either but my sister makes it pretty often and tops it with whipped cream, I might have to try this out for Thanksgiving this year :)
I think I could devour that loaf!
That looks so stinkin good! I need to go pick up some molasses!
hehehe this post is hilarious :) And the bread sounds amazing!!
Can’t say I’ve ever tried this flavor combo before–but I will take your word for it! :o)
“After all, I married one.” BAHAHAHAHA :-D
I just realized- I have the same measuring cups as you. I bake like the stars! LOL
I’ve been craving gingerbread too! Bananas and choco chips are the perfect additions. To anything.
What an interesting – and inspiring! – combination!!! I am definitely going to try this out :)
This looks so yummy and interesting! Hmm…chocolate and ginger? AND banana?
I’m curious!
Is the molasses absolutely necessary? I don’t own any and would not use it much so I am wondering if there is a good substitute.
Also, would fresh ginger work for this?
I’m sure you can leave the molasses out, but I am not sure what kind of effect that would have. You’d probably have to add more liquid or mashed bananas somewhere. Same with the ginger – if you use it fresh, I would at least use a microplane to grate, but honestly, I have no idea how that would turn out. If you try, let me know.
I enjoy “gingerbread” but I usually dont love small lame gingerbread cookies. This = The obvious solution :-)
I have a pretty serious gingerbread problem… I can never get enough of it, especially this time of year. I am going to be making it ASAP… Maybe even this morning for breakfast.
I tried this last night, and pulled it out after 45 minutes. Toothpick came out clean. But I found out quickly that I’d poked the bread in the wrong place, because a good third of the batter hadn’t cooked at all. My loaf was a lot bigger than yours looked in the picture.
Should I have split the batter between two pans?
We will definitely be trying this again. The flavor of the cooked parts was phenomenal! I’m thinking muffins…
What size loaf pan did you use? Mine is 10 1/2 by 6 by 3. That could be it, or it could just be the temperature of your oven, because they all differ. So sorry it didn’t work out, but I’m glad you like the baked parts!
I’ve gotta say, I’m not the biggest hot and spicy gingerbread fan either but I love the idea of meshing the flavors with banana and chocolate so you still get that hint of gingerbread but in a tolerable kind of way. delicious.
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SO good! The smell is so yummy…perfect for Christmas time!
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hi! :) I just wanted to say that I’ve made this twice now and both times it came out really well! I did want to ask what kind of chocolate chips you used… I used milk chocolate chips both times with good results, but I was wondering if dark/semisweet would be better? Thanks!
I used milk chocolate, but I think dark would be delicious too!
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Hey Jessica, I’m a big fan of your site..this recipe looks great!
I was wondering if it would work if I made it as muffins instead? I don’t have a loaf pan. Thanks!
Muffins? Yes, ma’am. I baked them for 20 minutes and they were nice and crisp on the outside and on the inside they were moist and chocolatey. Winner!
I made this last night with a few substitutions and it was amazing! The smell as it was baking was awesome! I used brown sugar instead of granulated and left out the molasses because we prefer things less sweet. I still found it plenty sweet. I added walnuts and used dark chocolate chips (Ghirardelli 60%). I didn’t have turbinado sugar so I just put a little granulated on top. It took waaaaaaaaaaaay longer to bake, but it was great. I will be making this again!
I have just made this as my first attempt at gingerbread and I’m a bit so/so about it. I love ginger and spices but my batter was a lot darker than the pics shown here and I think there was too much molasses for me, I found the taste too prominent. I baked these as 12 muffins for 18 minutes. A nice change to using up old bananas but i’ll alter the recipe next time.
Hi Jessica,
I’ve just made my second attempt at making this bread. My first attempt I baked it for 45 minutes and tested with a toothpick, seemed done. However after taking out of the pan I realized it was basically raw. So I bumped it up to 65 minutes this time. I still feel like the toothpick isn’t coming out clean in some places but some of the corners were starting to burn. Have to wait until it cools before I find out if it really is cooked.
Any suggestions for me to make this work a bit better??
Thanks :)
Jackie
This was amazing!! Even my hubby who is very fussy said this was divine. This is a keeper, to be made again and again. Note, I halved the choc chips, used a tablespoon of syrup instead of molasses and feed puréed pear. Yum !