Healthy chocolate banana bread

This healthy chocolate banana bread is gooey and moist, full of banana and almond flour and studded with dark chocolate chips. Sweetened only with coconut sugar, it's just on the right side of sweet, and makes a great breakfast or afternoon snack. I love it with tea, coffee, or a thin smear of coconut oil on top.

When this paleo banana bread came out of the oven, its smell wafting through the small apartment, I knew: this is love. I had an inkling to the enormity of this feeling when I was stirring in the chocolate chunks, imagining the bliss that lay in store.

But now, as I see the black, silky chocolate chips break down into ribbons of the sweetest molten chocolate paradise, running through the almond and coconut flour body like veins, I am stupefied by just how strongly I feel about this healthy banana bread.

If you only make one chocolate chip banana bread recipe, this should be it.

Is this chocolate chip banana healthy?

In a word, yes - this banana bread with chocolate chips is healthy.

This banana bread is flourless, gluten free, grain free, and free of refined sugars. It has NO butter - just coconut oil that lends this bread another layer of aroma and flavor.

The sweetness in the bread comes from the bananas, and the coconut sugar. This almond flour banana bread structure comes from eggs, coconut flour and almond flour (though you can also make it with flax eggs).

And while being good for you, this chocolate chip banana bread recipe tastes darn good.

How I came up with this almond flour banana bread recipe

I developed this bread when, for one month, I tried to maintain a vegetarian paleo diet. After a month of reading labels and agonizing over whether I can eat store-bought mustard (I did), I discovered one simple thing: eating healthy and carbless felt GOOD.

While following paleo recipes, I felt energized. It was easier to get up in the mornings. Afternoon naps no longer seemed as necessary to life as oxygen and running water. My stomach stopped hurting all the time, and my bloated feeling went away.

I lost weight, sure; but it wasn't even so much about that as about the new feeling that seemed to course through my body: I felt lithe, strong, unencumbered.

So I made the decision to keep paleo every three months. And soon, it became a way of life.

But it didn't mean that every once in a while, I didn't want to snack on something sweet.

And that's where this healthy banana chocolate chip bread in: letting you eat something sinful while feeling virtuous about it.

Why I love this healthy banana bread recipe

This banana bread with chocolate chips is the result of MANY tests. And after trying scores of recipes, testing flour combinations and trying to decide if I preferred chocolate to walnuts or raisins, I finally came up with Best Banana Bread Recipe.

I keep going back to this chocolate banana bread over and over again, because:

• It is truly healthy while tasting amazing - without white sugar, white flour or butter, this bread is instead full of things that are good for you: bananas, almond flour, coconut flour, coconut oil and dark chocolate.
• The texture - this is moist chocolate chip banana bread in the best way possible. The texture of the bread is soft and creamy, and I love having it beside my tea.
• You can use chocolate chunks or chocolate chips
• Great way to use up overripe bananas
• Freezer-friendly
• Perfect for fall and winter

Ingredients for making banana chocolate chip loaf

• ripe bananas
• melted coconut oil - you can also use vegan butter or vegetable oil, but I like to use coconut oil as it keeps it healthier and gives it a nice shine.
• coconut sugar - you can also use brown sugar
• eggs or flax eggs for vegan chocolate chip banana bread
• almond milk or applesauce (or more banana)
• vanilla extract
• ground cinnamon
• nutmeg
• cloves (you can also use pumpkin pie spice)
• baking soda
• kosher salt
• coconut flour
• almond flour
• unsweetened baking chocolate or chocolate chips - use a high quality dark baking chocolate or these vegan chocolate chips.

How to make healthy chocolate banana bread

Prepare the oven and baking dishes

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper.

Mix wet ingredients

In a large mixing bowl and using a wooden spoon, mix coconut oil into the mashed bananas.

Add in the coconut sugar, eggs or flax eggs, almond milk/ applesauce, vanilla and spices. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.

Add dry ingredients

Add the flours last, mixing just enough to incorporate - take care not to overmix!

Fold in chocolate

Stir in the chopped baking chocolate, and fold to combine.

Bake chocolate chip banana bread

Transfer mixture into a buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 50-70 minutes to one hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack.

Top Tips

• Line pan with parchment paper for easy removal. Or better yet...
• Keep this chocolate banana bread in the pan: I tend to keep my chocolate paleo banana bread in the pan, and don't bother taking it out. However, if you're looking to serve it, you may want to try - just be very, very gentle and accept that it may break as this is a very moist chocolate chip banana bread recipe.
• Decorate banana bread with more melted chocolate and dried banana chips for a fancier appearance for special occasions.
• This banana bread is very moist - it WILL take longer to bake due to the high water content in the bananas, applesauce or milk and the almond flour. The bread will be ready when a tester inserted in the middles comes out clean.
• Make it special: For special occasions, I like to make this chocolate banana bread look extra special by topping it with a chocolate glaze, banana chips and walnut pieces.

FAQ about this banana bread with almond flour

When to serve banana bread with chocolate chips

Sweetened only with coconut sugar, this banana bread is just on the right side of sweet. Therefore it makes for a great breakfast or afternoon snack.

I love it with tea, coffee, or a thin smear of apple butter or coconut oil on top.

I also particularly enjoy serving this chocolate chip banana bread during fall and winter. It lends itself to gloomy weather.

Anyway you slice it, this chocolate paleo banana bread is the bee's knees.

But the bottom line is, will I keep eating paleo?

I enjoyed keeping paleo so much that I even felt bad going back to my normal eating (pescetarian, lactose-free, low on yeast, low on sugar); alas, an impending trip to Argentina beckoned me with its ice cream and bowls of pasta.

I missed the heft of a piece of cake, the feeling of drinking tea and dunking a perfectly formed shortbread cookie into it.

So I think a purely carbless life is not for me. I'd rather stay gluten free, dabbling in keto recipes once in a while.

With paleo banana bread, you don't need to give up your healthy lifestyle and carbless diet to enjoy sweetness!

Accompanying dishes

You can serve this incredible gluten free banana bread with the following healthy paleo dishes:

Similar healthy desserts

Liked this chocolate chip banana bread? Here are other healthy dessert recipes you may like:

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