Next Post
Nine of My Favorite Things this Week.
This post may contain affiliate links, please see our privacy policy for details.
I made you this nourishing 7 ingredient chocolate chip ricotta banana bread because on Friday’s we NEED chocolate.
And since chocolate plus banana is honestly one of my favorite combos, I decided to make a Healthy January recipe out of the two. You guys are so very welcome. 🙂
In all seriousness, while I may hate these photos, I LOVE this bread. In fact it’s possibly my favorite banana bread recipe. It’s so quick, so easy, so healthy and so good! Wow, that was a lot of SO’s, but honestly, this bread is amazing. What I love most is that, unlike most banana bread recipes, this one is not overly sweet in any way and it has some serious, serious banana flavor happening, which is everything I could want in a banana bread.
I feel like often times banana bread recipes can be so overly sweet that they actually lose the yummy banana flavor. This is probably because I am the world’s biggest banana loving freak, but whatever, bananas are the best. Plus, they’re pretty much the only fruit, other than dates and avocados, that I would ever dare to pair with chocolate.
The second best part to this bread, other than it’s deliciousness? The fact that it has only seven ingredients, yes, only SEVEN! Eight if you count, salt which I am not. AND it would only be six ingredients if you left out the chocolate…but then, I am not sure why anyone would do that.
I was out hiking a week or so ago and thinking about recipes, as I normally do when hiking, when the thought hit me that I had never seen a banana bread recipe that used ricotta cheese. I’m sure it’s been done, but I personally have not seen it, and the idea intrigued me so much. I love anything ricotta, chocolate, and banana, so I knew right away that I had to try it out.
My goal was to create a super moist bread, but use minimal ingredients. I’m all about the whole “less is more” thing right now, and with this banana bread I wanted the banana, chocolate and ricotta to shine.
The ingredients are as follows…
…bananas: a total of four, for some serious banana flavor and moist bread.
…ricotta cheese: for a major protein factor and killer flavor.
…eggs: heart healthy fats and another major protein (maybe I should have called this protein packed banana bread?).
…vanilla: because I simply cannot make banana bread without vanilla…it’s a must.
…whole wheat flour: got to have those whole grains.
…baking powder: for some lightness
…chocolate chips: enough said.
Yes, you guys, you read that right. Zero added sugar. None. I just want to put it out there that this bread is not sweet. I mean, it’s sweet from the bananas and chocolate, but it’s just not overly sweet. It was perfect for my tastes as well as my family’s, so I feel like you guys will LOVE it too. If you really only love a sweeter banana bread, try adding a few tablespoons of your favorite sugar or even honey.
Also, I know some of you might question the ricotta as being healthy, but personally, I see it as a protein packed food, loaded with calcium.
This bread is not only has nourishing ingredients, it’s also nourishing for our souls. Seriously. Especially on a Friday after a grueling long, sometimes seemingly never-ending, but still awesome, week. Yes, it’s safe to say that I am happy it’s Friday! And happy to have some time to make another loaf of this bread. It’s only been a few days, but I’m in need of a chocolate fix and this bread literally takes maybe ten minutes tops to throw together and get into the oven. It’s the perfect sweet and healthy treat for tonight.
I love to eat this bread warm out of the oven, with a side of ice-cold (goat) milk, but it’s still great at room temperature. Since this bread is not very sweet, you can drizzle it with a little honey before serving for a touch of extra sweetness. Honey compliments the flavors of the ricotta really well and is perfect drizzled on while the bread is still warm. SOOO GOOOOD.
Perfect to make tonight or sometime this weekend. Who is ready?
WATCH THE HOW-TO VIDEO HERE:
Nourishing 7 Ingredient Chocolate Chip Ricotta Banana Bread.
Servings: 18 servings
Calories Per Serving: 79 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 4 medium ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat or whole what pastry flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- pinch of kosher salt optional
- 1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
- honey for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 9x5 inch bread pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the mashed bananas, ricotta, eggs, and vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder and pinch of salt. Mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Transfer to the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. I like to bake mine around 45 minutes for an extra doughy bread! Drizzle with honey if desired. Enjoy warm or at room temp...but warm is best!
That would be me!! Let’s do this weekend thing already.
Made this yesterday and it’s almost gone. So moist!!! It’s a keeper when I’ve got a ton of Costco bananas to use up!
Hi Margaret! I am so glad you all loved this recipe! Thank you!
I really wanted to love this recipe, but I agree with some of the other posters that the texture is off. It has the consistency of bread pudding: it’s very dense and doughy. I cooked mine for the recommended 45 minutes, and then added on and extra 15 minutes (checking every 5 for doneness) and even so it still ended up being very wet, but the outside was starting to look dark so I don’t think it could have cooked for longer. I just looked over the recipe again now and realized that in the recipe description, you call for baking soda, but in the ingredient list and instructions, it asks for only baking powder. The soda probably would have lightened it up a bit? I will say, the flavour was excellent! I was a bit skeptical of the no sugar, but it didn’t need it at all.
Hey Bethann, I am so sorry for the trouble. I do use baking powder in this bread (the write was a typo!). How big of bananas did you use? I am wondering if maybe you had more mashed banana than was needed which would require a longer cooking time on the bread. Any details you can give on how you made the recipe would be super helpful. Again, so sorry for the trouble!
Hi Tieghan, can the whole wheat flour be substituted with all purpose Gluten Free flour? My mom is celiac and I wanted to make this for her but not sure if the change in flour would affect the recipe!
Thank you!
I normally love all of your recipes, but this one just didn’t do it for me. It was decent when it was fresh out of the oven, since we put honey butter on it. The next day it turned mushy-like (it looked like uncooked dough even though it was definitely cooked) and lost its taste. It was so strange!
I hate sharing negative feedback since you’re my favourite blogger, but I wanted to share incase it helps someone. 🙂 I was trying to use up the extra container of ricotta that I bought for lasagna…but next time I think I’ll hold off from putting it in a bread recipe. I definitely like your other (more classic style) loafs better!!
Hi Becca! I am so sorry this did not turn out well for you. Is there any questions I can help you with to make this better next time?
I did this. I used walnuts, because, walnuts. I think I love you.
This will be a regular in the rotation.
That is so amazing! So glad you loved this Kay! Thank you!!
I’ve made this a few times and it is DIVINE – I think it’s especially crazy that the only sweetener in the bread itself is bananas! It’s super healthy AND delicious (especially with those chocolate chips, of course)..
Quick question: would this freeze well? I need to use up some ricotta and bananas but I’m going out of town soon..
HI! Yes, this freezes great! Please let me know if you have other questions. Glad you love this recipe! Thanks! 🙂
Hi Tieghan!
I’ve made this bread three times since I saw it in your healthy recipe roundup. It’s amazing! I have a mild gluten allergy so I used Traders Joes gluten free all purpose mix ( my new go to cheap mix) (I swear I’ve tried them all by this point. Trader Joe’s and cup4cup are my favorites!) and just changed 2 tsp baking powder to 1 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp baking soda. The ricotta helps ensure that the bread stays really moist ( avoiding a common shortcoming of gluten free goods) my sister in law tasted the bread and said that it was perfect except that it wasn’t gluten free and I told her it actually was and she couldn’t believe it!
Also side note I made your bonfire brownies gluten free and they were amazing! (I’ve yet to adapt one of your desserts to gluten free and have it be a fail and I’ve made quite a few of your recipes!) But using gluten free pretzels in the bonfire brownies for some reason baking them made them stale? Even though I opened a new bag for the brownies. The next time I just left them off but kept the gluten free graham crackers ( I recommend Scharr) and it came out fabulous!!
Sorry for this book length comment! ( I hope you enjoyed Austin!)
I am so happy this turned out amazing for you and was gluten free! I am sure this will help a ton of people with gluten allergies, so thank you for sharing!
Made this recipe with only two changes, I subbed blended cottage cheese for the ricotta and used less than a cup of chocolate chips. The banana bread is amazing. Tastes best to me when warm/toasted and drizzled with honey. I served it to friends and they loved it as well (even without a drizzle of honey). Next time I will use a whole cup of chocolate chips.. Excellent recipe!
I am so happy you loved this Lillian! Thank you so much!
This is my daughter’s favorite banana bread! I have made it dozens of times. Can you please help me tweak it to make a chocolate banana bread? Add 1/2 cup cocoa powder? Thanks for all you do, happy 2018!
HI! I would use 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup cocoa powder. Please let me know if you have other questions. So glad you and your daughter love this recipe! Happy Holiday’s 🙂
I made this banana bread without the chocolate chips. Instead I put a cup of chopped pecans in it. I also put chopped pecans on top with shredded coconut. My family and I loved it.
My question is can I make this same recipe and add pumpkin to it for a pumpkin bread? Or do you have a pumpkin bread recipe?
HI! So glad you love this recipe! I am not sure about adding pumpkin, but I think reducing the banana by 2 bananas and using 1/2 cup pumpkin would work well. My pumpkin bread recipes are below. Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Thanks! 🙂
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/chocolate-cinnamon-swirl-pumpkin-brioche-bread/
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/molten-chocolate-pumpkin-streusel-bread-heavy-chocolate-streusel/
Loved this recipe because ricotta is delicious and no added sugar is a bonus. I threw in some grilled pine nuts too. Thanks for sharing!
Yum! SO happy you loved this Kristin! Thanks!
Is it possible to make these as muffins? If so different baking temp or time?
Yes! I would bake them for 12-15 minutes. Let me know if you have questions. Hope you love this!
This is my new favorite banana bread! I only had 2 bananas so it did not come out as sweet. However, it is super moist. I added butter and honey to a slice straight out of the oven and I was in heaven!
Ah so happy you liked it Rebecca! Next time it will hopefully be even better with more bananas (:
Thank you!!
I have the Banana/Ricotta bread in the oven right now. However I had Ricotta in the fridge and 4 ripe bananas and chocolate chipse but I didn’t have any whole wheat pastry bread in the house, and I was in a rush to make it since I had most of the ingredients. I’m hoping it comes out alright without the pastry flour. I’ll let you know when it’s baked because I’m so excited to try this recipe. (love the Ricotta,bananas and chocolate chips.) Hope I didn’t mess up the recipe and that my 9 year old grandson will eat it. He loves the banana bread I make with sour cream.
I have the Banana/Ricotta bread in the oven right now. However I had Ricotta in the fridge and 4 ripe bananas and chocolate chipse but I didn’t have any whole wheat pastry bread in the house, and I was in a rush to make it since I had most of the ingredients. I’m hoping it comes out alright without the pastry flour. I’ll let you know when it’s baked because I’m so excited to try this recipe. (love the Ricotta,bananas and chocolate chips.) Hope I didn’t mess up the recipe. Hopefully my 9 year old grandson will eat it. He loves the banana bread I make with sour cream.
Awh that is great! I hope it turns out amazing for you Claire! Let me know how it is! Thank you!