Banana Bread with Walnuts and Chocolate Chunks

Warm up from the inside out with banana bread with walnuts and chocolate chips. This hearty loaf will be your new crush and – guess what – it takes less than 10 minutes of work.

I call this the “People’s Choice” banana bread. One Friday afternoon, I posted a photo of an overripe bunch of bananas on my Instagram stories, with polls letting my followers vote on what I should make. The options? Bread versus muffins, nuts versus plain, and streusel versus chocolate. This made the winning combo of banana bread with walnuts and chocolate chunks.

I’ve used my mom’s recipe for banana muffins for my whole life. It’s a simple, no-frills, dairy-free recipe and still one of my most batter-covered recipe cards.

My favorite bananas to use for baking are wildly overripe. I mean, pretty much solid black, even mushy. They’re naturally sweet and that means you don’t have to use as much processed sugar.

Banana Bread with Walnuts and Chocolate Chunks

• Author: Sarah
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
• Yield: 1 loaf 1x

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

3 large mashed bananas (browned bananas taste best!)

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons maple syrup, separated

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan.

2. Use a potato masher or large spoon to mash the bananas, leaving some small chunks for texture.

3. Add other wet ingredients (sugar, oil, eggs) to bananas and mix.

4. In a separate bowl (or directly on top of the wet ingredients) mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

5. Mix together wet and dry ingredients, add 1 tablespoon maple syrup.

6. Add chocolate chips and half of the walnuts, stir just until combined. 

7. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

8. Pour the remaining walnuts into a small bowl and add 1 tablespoon maple syrup. Blend and pour on top of batter.

9. Bake for one hour, until browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.