A moist and tasty Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Peanut Butter. The perfect way to use over-ripe bananas!
Banana Bread Recipe
I know it sounds cliché, but there really is no better use for over-ripe bananas than to make them into a banana bread of some sort.
I usually reserve such bananas for my Easy Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, but as I wanted something a bit more homely today, I thought a Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips was more fitting.
And I should confess that this banana bread recipe also contains peanut butter!
Easy Banana Bread
Bananas are a staple item in our home, always in the fruit bowl, always sliced up for the children at breakfast, and always a lifesaver when the children are suddenly hungry between meals and need something nutritious to snack on.
But sometimes we get distracted by other foods on offer, or the bananas start to ripen more quickly than expected.
Ripe or over-ripe bananas are best to use in baking because the more ripe a banana is, the sweeter it is, thereby lending natural sweetness to whatever it is that you are making.
Using Frozen Bananas
I frequently peel and freeze the bananas in zip-lock freezer bags, ready to be used later in a smoothie or even defrosted and mashed to use in baking.
For quicker defrosting, I recommend breaking the banana into large chunks before freezing.
Banana Bread vs Banana Cake
I’m not quite sure what the difference is between a banana bread and a banana cake – I think the former is more dense and bread-like in texture, whilst the latter is essentially a cake which uses bananas to sweeten and moisten the cake.
But both terms are often used interchangeably and, I think, banana bread is the more widely used term.
I love to serve this particular Banana Bread still warm from the oven. So comforting on a cold day like today in Zurich (it’s -6°C today!).
More Cake Recipes
If you are looking for more cake recipes, you might also like:
Apple Spice Cake with Caramel Glaze
Easy Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
PrintBanana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Peanut Butter
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: Makes 1 loaf
- Category: Cakes
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
A moist and tasty Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Peanut Butter. The perfect way to use over-ripe bananas!
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Pin Recipe
RateIngredients
- 75 g (1/3 cup) crunchy peanut butter (see Kitchen Notes below)
- 200 g (1 1/3 cup) plain flour (all-purpose flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of fine salt
- 125 g (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, softened
- 200 g (1 cup) caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 3 large very ripe bananas
- 100 g (1/2 cup) chocolate chips (milk or dark)
- 1 large ripe, but firm, banana
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F) (without fan).
- Line a loaf pan with a 1 litre (4 cup) capacity with baking paper.
- Place the peanut butter into a small saucepan and heat gently over a low heat, just until it has warmed through and has become runnier in texture. Set aside to cool slightly while you get on with the rest of the recipe.
- Measure the flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl.
- Cream the butter and sugar together using a stand mixer or electric beaters.
- Add the vanilla extract.
- Add one egg, followed by a tablespoon of the flour mixture. Beat until everything is incorporated.
- Add the second egg, and then slowly beat in the rest of the flour mixture.
- Mash the ripe bananas and add this to the batter.
- Mix everything together.
- Stir through the chocolate chips.
- Pour the warmed peanut butter into the batter, and use a wooden spoon to gently marble it by folding it through once or twice. You don’t want to fully mix the peanut butter into the batter.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan.
- Slice the firm banana in half lengthways and arrange it on top of the batter.
- Bake for about 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. The baking time will depend on the shape of your loaf pan – some are wider or taller than others.
- Remove the cake pan to a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes, before carefully unmoulding the cake and letting it cool completely on the wire rack.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
Kitchen Notes
WHICH TYPE OF PEANUT BUTTER
I like to use crunchy peanut butter to give the cake a bit of texture, but smooth peanut butter works just as well.
OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer’s handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly.
CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: Makes approx 10 slices
- Calories: 392
- Sugar: 32.4g
- Sodium: 174.5mg
- Fat: 18.2g
- Carbohydrates: 54.3g
- Fiber: 2.9g
- Protein: 6.3g
- Cholesterol: 64.1mg
#eatlittlebird
Update
This recipe was first published on 1 March 2018. It has been updated with more comprehensive recipe notes.
Yum, my son loved smashing up bananas for a cake at the weekend, but banana and peanut butter sounds amazing!
Oh yes, my son loves to do that too! We have a mini potato masher just for this task 🙂
Firstly your photos are so gorgeous I nearly shed a tear. Secondly banana bread is my all time fav. But the addition of chocolate chips!? Wow, gotta try this!!
What a stunning banana bread! Totally pinned this to my bread board!
This looks beautiful, love the chocolate chips in there 🙂
This bread looks so decadent. Pinning!
YUM! I can’t WAIT to try this! This looks so delicious! Thank you for this great recipe!
This is the best banana peanutbutter recipe I put mini chocolate chips in it and some walnuts used smooth peanutbutter because that’s all I had
Hi Rebecca,
So glad you enjoyed this recipe! Love the addition of walnuts. Thanks for popping by!
Loved it! Definitely making this again soon.
So delicious! My son said it was the best banana bread he had ever tasted! It looked very pretty too.
This is a delicious recipe! I make banana bread regularly and this combo with peanut butter was so good!
Very delicious recipe, thank you!