A dark and rich chocolate banana bread with chunks of real chopped chocolate. You can bake this Chocolate Chunky Monkey Loaf in a loaf pan or make 12 perfectly sized muffins. Either way, they’re moist and delicious. And, best of all, with a secret ingredient, the amount of fat is reduced without compromising on the flavour or texture.
The secret ingredient? Avocado. No, really. Don’t worry, this doesn’t taste like avocado, it tastes like chocolate banana loaf. With a little less saturated fat than a normal loaf recipe. And it’s a great way to use up a soft avocado. And an over ripe banana.
Jump to RecipeAvocado in Chocolate Banana Bread?
Avocado is a good substitute for butter or oil if you want to reduce fat in a recipe. But it does mess with the chemistry of baking. There’s a little science about how butter and avocado differ when reacting to the other ingredients so including a small amount of butter avoids a baking fail. You need to use a ripe avocado so it creams together well with the butter. And cocoa powder is not just for flavour. Without it, your loaf would be green. Like Shrek. Not that appealing.
I have to give credit to my friend Marilyn for helping me get this right. She lives across the street and I often run over with a sample or two for her feedback. We both knew the first version needed some work so she pulled out her Grade 9 Home Economics textbook. That was awesome considering she’s been out of school for, well, let’s just say she has grandchildren. Who drive. Marilyn suggested a few process tips that really helped with the texture.
Tips for best results in sweet loafs
First, it’s so tempting to beat the bananas really well but actually, they’re best mashed with a fork. They will get too liquidy if they’re over mashed and there’s nothing wrong with a little piece of banana in this sweet loaf. Very ripe bananas work best and you can even freeze bananas to bake with. Make sure your banana is totally defrosted before you try to mash it.
Next, it’s also tempting to really mix all the ingredients well but they’re best mixed on low just until incorporated, then added to the baking pan. Otherwise you will end up with a dense, even rubbery loaf. The only beating is at the beginning when you cream together the butter, sugar and avocado. After that use low speed only.
Another important tip is about sour milk. It’s important to the chemical reaction with baking soda so make sure you use sour milk and not just regular milk. I don’t mean go buy expired milk, sour milk is just regular milk with either vinegar or lemon juice added to make it sour. The chemical reaction is what causes the bread to rise. Remember the science experiment where you made a volcano erupt in school? Baking soda and acid.
Finally, use parchment paper. It makes life so much easier for you. It can be a bit tricky to get it in the pan evenly but if you put a second loaf pan over top of the parchment and press down it helps to shape it. Then pour some of the batter, adjust the paper if necessary, then pour the rest of the batter in. Then after baking you can lift the loaf out of the pan once it’s cooled for a few minutes. You’ll be tempted to slice Chocolate Chunky Monkey Loaf before it has cooled but try to resist because it will fall apart if you don’t wait long enough.
If you’re making muffins, this recipe makes 12. Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon and fill paper lined cups to about 3/4 full. Baking time is about 22 minutes for Chocolate Chunky Monkey Muffins.
To make sure you get the maximum chocolate experience, this loaf includes cocoa powder and added chunks of chopped chocolate. I like to use semi sweet chocolate but any baking chocolate except unsweetened will work. The chunks of chocolate do tend to sink in the batter so you may notice there are more in the lower part. Which means you should eat the bottom first. Problem solved.
Here’s the recipe:
Chocolate Chunky Monkey Loaf
Ingredients
- ÂĽ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- â…” cup sugar
- 1 ripe avocado small to medium size
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 large egg
- 2 small ripe bananas, mashed with a fork or 1 large
- â…“ cup milk
- 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- â…“ cup cocoa powder
- 2 oz chopped semi sweet baking chocolate half a bar in a 2 bar package
- ½ tsp baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Use hand mixer or stand mixer to cream together butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add avocado and beat until well incorporated.
- Add egg and vanilla and beat gently. Stir vinegar into milk and add to mixer, beat gently.
- Mash banana with a fork being careful not to over mash. Add to mixer and gently combine on very low speed.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Add half to mixture, beat gently, then add other half and beat until just combined.
- Chop chocolate. Stir into batter.
- Pour into a parchment paper lined loaf pan. Or 12 paper lined muffin tins.
- Bake in lower area of oven for 1 hour or 22 minutes if making muffins. Test loaf after 50 minutes by inserting a toothpick into the middle of the loaf. If toothpick comes out clean the loaf is ready.
Hey Marci, if we absolutely can’t use avocado (allergies) , how much butter should we use instead?
Cathy
Hi Cathy! If you use 1/2 cup of butter and one extra banana (not too big of a banana) it should hopefully be about right. If you try it, let me know how it works out!
Can I use buttermilk instead of the milk and vinegar?
You sure can! Buttermilk has acidity similar to sour milk so it will work with the baking soda.