To me, a house just isn’t a home until you’ve baked a loaf of banana bread in it.
Banana bread was the very first post I ever did for a reason – it is, hands-down, my favorite baked treat to make. It’s incredibly forgiving and requires only one bowl to throw together; it’s so cozy, comforting, and just always hits the spot. I have many versions of banana bread here on my site, but there’s always room for one more, right?! A new banana bread for our lovely new home!
This dark chocolate strawberry banana bread was inspired by two things. Most importantly, Mother’s Day is next weekend, so I wanted to do something my mom would love – throw some chocolate in it! My mom is a total chocoholic, so no Mother’s Day celebration is complete without some chocolate. (Remember these glorious beauties??) Then, on Saturday we took a walk to our new neighborhood farmer’s market and I absolutely fell head-over-heels in love with the strawberries. There were the biggest, juiciest, sweetest in-season local strawberries I’ve ever seen, and we eagerly scooped up three containers. We saved most for eating straight up, but I couldn’t help but toss a big handful in my banana bread for that extra hit of color and incredible berry flavor.
I used this healthier banana bread as my base because I was feeling more banana-bread-for-breakfast than banana-bread-for-dessert (ahem, as I throw chocolate in it). The result was absolutely perfect – the combination of dark chocolate and strawberries just never gets old. This banana bread goes down in history as one of my ultimate faves! And I can’t imagine a better treat to wake up your Mama with next Sunday!! Do it UP.
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
- ½ cup honey
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 2 large bananas)
- ¼ cup almond milk
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. cinnamon
- 1 ¾ cups white whole wheat flour
- ½ cup dark chocolate chunks, tossed in a bit of all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups fresh strawberries, quartered and tossed in a bit of all-purpose flour
- Preheat your oven to 325°F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the melted coconut oil with the honey. Whisk in the eggs, then the mashed banana and the almond milk. (If your coconut oil starts solidifying as it comes into contact with the cold ingredients (mine did), just put the bowl on top of your stove for a few minutes to warm it up again!)
- Next, whisk in the baking soda, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon. Switch to a spatula and stir in the white whole wheat flour, folding lightly until combined. Lightly stir in the dark chocolate chunks and strawberry pieces. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 55-60 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for about 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool for another 15-20 minutes before slicing. Enjoy warm!
So much banana bread, so little time!!
