This Marbled Banana Bread is easy to make and the perfect use for your leftover, very ripe bananas. The bread uses very basic ingredients, and it’s hardly any work to make the marbled look. Step up your Banana Bread skills with this simple recipe!
Lately, I’ve been on a Banana Bread craze. I can’t get enough of the fluffy and soft texture and banana and maple syrup sweetened taste. And while I love a simple Banana Bread, this Marbled Banana Bread takes the whole nana-bread-thing to the next level.
The best part is, that it’s hardly any work to make chocolate swirls, just add 3/4 of the banana bread batter into the loaf pan, then add cocoa powder, chocolate chips and a bit more rice milk to the last 1/4 of the batter, add it to the loaf pan and swirl it around. No need for an extra bowl or anything! Bake it in the oven until perfectly golden on top, check the inside with a wooden stick and off you go into banana paradise!
Warm slices of Banana Bread fresh out of the oven are the best. thing. ever.
- 4 very ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup plant-based milk e.g. rice milk + 1 teaspoon for the chocolate batter
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil , liquid
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon chopped chocolate or chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 320°F/160°C and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Peel the bananas, add them to a large bowl and mash them. To the bananas, add the plant-based milk, coconut oil and maple syrup. Give it a quick mix.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon powder and a pinch of salt to the wet ingredients and whisk everything together.
- Pour about 3/4 of the batter into the loaf pan. With the rest of the batter, add in the cocoa powder, chopped chocolate and 1 teaspoon of plant-based milk. Whisk and pour into the loaf pan. Swirl it around to create the marbled look.
- Bake it in the oven for about 1 hour or until golden brown on the top. You can use a wooden stick to test if your banana bread is done in the middle.
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So wait…why do I not make marbled banana bread every time I make banana bread again? Because you are so right, it’s barley any extra work and it’s so much prettier and CHOCOLATE!!! I’ve been sending all my ripe bananas to the freezer lately with how hot it’s been, but now I think marbled banana bread needs to happen very soon :)
There’s really no good reason not to make it marbled :) I’m stocking up on frozen bananas too. We’re getting 86 degrees today! Whoot. That screams for nice cream! Lots of nice cream :)
Hi! I just made this banana bread following your recipe. I find that it was denser than what I would have liked. Any ideas to lighten the crumb up? What about yeast?
A bit more baking powder should do the trick ;)
Hi, is there any way I can substitute oat flour for the flour in the recipe?
Thanks
Jen
Hi Jennifer, I haven’t tried this banana bread with gf flour yet, but oat flour should work. Let me know how it goes if you give it a try! :)
I just made this recipe and here are my thoughts:
-Maybe my bananas weren’t ripe enough (or not big enough) but I found the bread too lightly sweetened for my taste even after adding 2 Tbsp of sugar. I realize people like different sweetness levels, but I would describe myself as being on the but-not-too-sweet end of that spectrum. In case you need a baseline, I’m the kind of person that drinks their coffee black (without sugar), eats 90% chocolate, and will take rapini over sweets any day.
-I found the chocolate flavour too subtle. I definitely think this could be chocolatier.
-The bread was too dense for my taste.
-The bread wasn’t moist enough.
-Since there’s no loaf pan size directions the baking time could vary dramatically. For instance, I baked mine for 50 mins and I think it was over-cooked.
-You describe being able to “pour” the batter into the loaf pan an easily being able to make swirls. That wasn’t my experience at all. The batter was highly viscous and had to be “spatulad” into the loaf pan.
My suggestions: Add 1/4 of brown sugar or use really ripe BIG bananas, 1/4 Cup coconut oil instead of 1 Tbsp, Double the cocoa, and add 2oz of melted dark chocolate, and maybe 1/4 Cup more milk.
If I can find really ripe bananas today I’ll make it with my changes and report back with what I found.
Hi Jan,
thank you so much for your detailed feedback – I really appreciate you taking the time to write everything down!
I’ll have to make the banana bread again soon and adjust the measurements as needed :)