Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Banana Chocolate Chip Bread Recipe

Last updated on June 29th, 2023 at 08:19 pm

This soft bread is a delicious dessert that chocolate lovers won’t be able to get enough of.

If you had to try one pumpkin recipe this year, try this at least once. The pumpkin spices along with the soft moisture of the banana’s combined with the chocolate chips makes this bread so soft and delicious its unbelievable.

With some leftover pumpkin puree in the fridge, some ripe bananas and a few cups of dark chocolate chips in the cupboard. I knew this was going to be a great recipe.

After a bit of research I found the Mindful Hapa did a similar recipe. But there was a number of things that I didn’t want to use in my version, so after a number of changes I present my pumpkin banana chocolate chip bread!

What is Pumpkin Pie Spice?

Pumpkin pie spice is all the spices needed to make pumpkin pie in one convenient package. This is generally bought at grocery stores.

I even have my own recipe for making pumpkin pie spice here

What kind of Chocolate chips should I use?

In this recipe I used Dark chocolate chips because they taste the best to me. But you can use milk or white chocolate chips as well, even mini chocolate chips as well, all of them will work fine.

Substitutions

Gluten free flours – There are a number of options in this recipe. You can use almond flour which will add moisture to the bread, which might increase how much time you need to bake the pumpkin bread. Or a use bob’s 1:1 gluten free flour if you are not sure what kind to use.

Mashed bananas – 1 cup of apple sauce will replace the mashed banana. Plantains will work as a substitute, or 1 cup of mashed sweet potatoes.

Eggs – If you can’t eat eggs, you could add an extra 1/2 of a cup of mashed banana and if will act similar, and give you an even more moist banana flavor. Or add a 1/4 cup of plain yogurt, if you are out of bananas. These two options won’t change the flavor much, but if you don’t have those you can use 1/4 of a cup of a mashed avocado in a pinch. But it will alter the color of the pumpkin bread from an orange to a few shades closer to a green.

Sugar – You can use white or even coconut sugar in this recipe with a 1:1 ratio and it will be fine. It will cook faster than this recipe calls for though. So just keep an eye on it at the half way mark and on.

Flavor Options

Pumpkin spice – You can add more or less pumpkin pie spice to the recipe. If you are adding more I suggest you add another teaspoon of pumpkin spice to the mix if you want more the of the pumpkin pie spice smell and taste to be more prominent. At the current amount it is a nice soft accent to the other flavors of the entire loaf.

Mashed Bananas – This recipe uses two bananas to make this banana bread, but you can add more if you want more banana flavors. I suggest only 1 extra banana in the recipe since any more will increase the cook time.

Ingredients

1 cup of canned pumpkin puree (240g)

1 cup of over ripe bananas

2 large eggs

2/3 of a cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of melted butter (113 grams)

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour

4 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of chocolate chips (170 grams) + a handful of extra chocolate chips for sprinkling across top of bread.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper.

I suggest cutting 2 long sheets of parchment paper. One wider than the loaf pan and the other thin and longer than the bread pan. Then cut them down to size to fit the pan like the picture below.

Now I butter the inside of the bread pan, this will have the parchment paper stick to the bread pan so you can put it to the side and leave it until you need it.

2. mix pumpkin puree, mashed bananas and eggs together in a large bowl. Make sure you mash bananas well since they will be chunks in the bread otherwise.

3. Now whisk in brown sugar, melted butter and vanilla extract into the large bowl until smooth. I used the

4. In a separate bowl whisk together the all purpose flour, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

5. fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix until combined.

6. Stir in the 1 cup of chocolate chips into mixing bowl and mix them in as well.

7. pour batter into 9×5 loaf pan and spread evenly with spatula.

8. Sprinkle chocolate chips across top of batter.

9. bake at 350F for 70 – 80 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. It may take a few toothpicks since the bread will look done at the 40 minute mark, but the insides will likely not actually be done since it will take a long time for it to bake completely thought.

10. After it is finished baking, pull the bread out using the parchment paper along the side of the pan. The bottom and side will be slightly wet from all the moisture in the bread and butter on the sides of the Loaf pan.

Prepare a clean surface for the bread to place and cut the bread, a cutting board works great.

11. Serve and enjoy!

This Pumpkin banana bread recipe is extremely tasty and disappeared within a few days of my family trying it. This is the best banana bread recipe by wide margin just from the texture, softness and flavor of it. It surprised me how good it is.

How to store pumpkin banana bread

Store the Chocolate banana bread in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. Or store in the freezer for up to 3 months. If it lasts that long 🙂

Recipe notes

This recipe is a modified version of the Helpful Hapas recipe. She did a great job of the recipe, but I didn’t want to use all coconut sugar, or gluten free flours on this banana bread recipe.