Peanut Butter-Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips
85 comments » 
Last week, I had a bowl of browning bananas on the kitchen counter staring me in the face. I was about to make my grandma’s banana bread recipe, which is my all-time favorite, but at the last minute decided to try something new. Next to chocolate, banana might be my next preferred ingredient to eat with peanut butter. As a teenager, I would often eat peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Within the last year, I started eating a banana alongside a scoop of peanut butter for breakfast on mornings when I’m planning on going for a long walk, or to play tennis (obviously, in the summer!). I decided it was high-time that I infused my banana bread with some peanut butter and oh, while I was at it, throw some chocolate in there, too!
This is a very simple quick bread recipe, which consists of whisking the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another, and then folding them together. It takes less than 10 minutes to get it all mixed together, and then into the oven it goes! One of the things I love so much about baking is how many times the simplest recipes can provide the coziest feelings and warmest memories. Banana bread is high on my list of comfort foods; eating a slice reminds me of sitting around my grandma’s table with family, talking, laughing and forgetting the time.
Whether you have fond family memories that revolve around banana bread, or you simply love the combination of banana and peanut butter, this is a banana bread version that you don’t want to skip! You can even play around with the ingredients here – substitute different nut butters, use nuts (or bacon – Elvis!) instead of chocolate chips, or play around with different types chips. The thing I love most about simple, comforting recipes is the ease with which they can be adapted.
What would your ultimate combination be?
One year ago: Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes
Five years ago: Chewy Chocolate-White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Peanut Butter-Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips
Yield: 1 loaf
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
A recipe for an amazing banana bread infused with peanut butter and studded with chocolate chips.
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
3 medium bananas, mashed
½ cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
⅓ cup buttermilk
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chipsDirections:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x4-inch loaf pan and then line with parchment paper so that it hangs over the two long sides.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the banana, peanut butter, sugars, buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and fold together with a rubber spatula until completely combined and there are no spots with raw flour. Gently stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top into an even layer. Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick or thin knife inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs, 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. If your bread appears to be browning too quickly, place a tented piece of foil over it (I did this at the 45-minute mark).
6. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. The cooled bread should be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap; it can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days.
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Love the addition of buttermilk. Your bread looks so perfect – mine always gets too crispy on the outside and/or sinks in the middle. I’ll have to try out your recipe next time!
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I have tried a version of Peanut Butter-Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips but yours look so well put together!
I want to try this one! 
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Omigod. Banana bread is my all time favourite thing to make.. but peanut butter and chocolate chips! Gotta try it this weekend..
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Hi. ..wads e measurement in terms of grams n ml 4 1 cup of ingredient? =)
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Michelle on January 24th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
Hi Zhennie, When talking about ingredients and volume measurements (vs liquid), there is no set ounces to grams conversion. 1 cup of flour would be completely different than 1 cup of sugar. I have some basic conversions (as well as links to more comprehensive weight measurements) on this page: http://www.browneyedbaker.com/conversions/
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I just made a new banana bread at the last minute this week too! Blogging about it next week. I love your Grandma’s recipe and although I havent tried it, the pics look like my grandma’s loaves did. I love PB tons, but something about classic banana bread is always just fine too
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Yummy! I have brown bananas, chocolate chips and peanut butter in the pantry….and it’s 9 degrees here in eastern PA. This sounds like a winner! Can’t wait to whip some up this morning.
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This sounds fabulous! What a great treat!
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I’m with ya there…banana and peanut butter, banana and chocolate…you can’t go wrong!
I would love a slice of this for breakfast right now!
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Mmmm… I’ve always love peanut butter and banana together – this looks wonderful!
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I appreciate that you made this bread just for me!!! I love it!!!
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This is everything I want in life…err…I mean banana bread, lol. Fantastic recipe!!!
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Looks perfect for this frigid Pittsburgh day…thank you!!
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That looks so comforting. I love the combo of pb and banana too. Those two flavors just go together so well.
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You have the greatest quick bread recipes. I’ve made your banana nut and apple cinnamon breads and they were so so good! This is definitely one I will have to make very soon! Peanut butter, banana and chocolate chips…no better combination
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This really is genius. I get to make the trip to see my 95 year old dad next week, and I will take a loaf of THIS. He is a peanut butter nut- he will be so happy! THANKS!!
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Peanut butter and banana sandwiches are a guilty pleasure that I still enjoy now and then. The addition of chocolate chips…yummy! This will be another one of your recipes that I share with my family.
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Sorry, just thought of adding that Nutella might be scrumptious too.
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Stacy Daniels on April 11th, 2013 at 12:22 pm
try this… best banana bread I have ever had. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-hazelnut-banana-bread-50400000123581/
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Sounds and looks delicious!! I love banana nut bread and make it often so I think I will be making this one this weekend! Thank you!
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I just bought like 3 pounds of bananas that were on the brown side yesterday with thoughts of doing banana bread. Then this popped up today! So excited to give it a try!
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And time to let the bananas get brown! Plus, I have peanut butter I need to use up. Oh, this post had perfect timing.
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I’m going to try this too. I have a question, What if I don’t use the buttermilk? What does buttermilk add to a recipe?
I also love peanut butter. You should try a peanut butter banana smoothie. I use the Stoneyfield Banilla yogurt and put some honey in too. It’s awesome. Plus, the protein from the Peanut butter helps keep you full.
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Gayle on January 23rd, 2013 at 11:48 am
Buttermilk makes the absolute best, moist Banana bread. Huge difference. Try it you’ll love it.
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Michelle on January 24th, 2013 at 3:14 pm
Hi Kristina, Buttermilk does wonders in things like quick breads, muffins, etc. It gives them a fluffy, moist texture.
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danielle on January 25th, 2013 at 4:30 pm
but can it be replaced? i don’t want to buy a jug of buttermilk just for banana bread….
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Ted on January 25th, 2013 at 9:15 pm
Use the rest in buttermilk/spelt flour blueberry pancakes!
Ic buttermilk, 1c spelt flour, 1tsp baking soda, 3tbsp coconut oil, (Olive oil will work but tastes diferent) 1 egg, enough blueberries.
Mix the dry stuff, mix the wet stuff then ad to dry stuff. Use about 1/2 per pancake. Flip when top surface loks dull.
If you still have some buttermilk left, drink it! Yummy! Too sour? Add a bit of maple syruip or honey.
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Ted on January 25th, 2013 at 9:17 pm
Hmmm, not like Facebook is it? Can’t edit after sending. add not ad, 1/2 cup per pancake
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Michelle on January 27th, 2013 at 1:42 pm
You can substitute plain yogurt for the buttermilk. If you don’t want to purchase buttermilk for this recipe, I would recommend making your own with regular milk. You can find the instructions on the Substitutions page: http://www.browneyedbaker.com/substitutions/
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Sarah on February 16th, 2013 at 7:09 pm
You can make your own buttermilk by adding vinegar or lemon juice to regular milk. Much cheaper than buying a carton of buttermilk. Think it’s like a Tbs of vinegar/lemon to 1 Cup milk. Just let it curdle a bit, mix and use.
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I fell in love with peanut butter and banana on toasted whole wheat English muffins about a year and ago when I was craving one after my workout. I now eat it almost every day for lunch — it’s so stick-to-your-ribs satisfying! It goes without saying then, that this bread is right up my alley with one of my favorite flavor combinations. I’ve got something in common with Elvis!
Almost all of my baked goods have buttermilk in them. It adds moistness and a nice tang. I always have it, and I substitute low fat buttermilk in any recipe that calls for whole milk, sour cream or yogurt and it always comes out great. Thanks for the recipe, Michelle! I’ve got it pinned.
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I don’t know how I’ve never thought of peanut butter banana bread – makes SO much sense! (I love those sandwiches, too!) This looks delicious!
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Gorgeous bread. I love peanut butter in banana bread, and the chocolate chips are a great addition!
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Oh my God! Your blog is wonderfull! Very beautiful, very good, very delicious!!!! I love it! Bye bye, Lu
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I love adding chocolate chips to my banana bread! The last time I made banana bread, I also added peanut butter into the batter. The flavors work so well together!
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I don’t think this could get any better
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Peanut butter, banana and chocolate…aka the best combination in the world
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I love how tall this bread is. I have seen a lot of recipes for banana breads with sunken middle but this one looks perfect! Pinned!
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Bananas + peanut butter + chocolate = magical. Can’t wait to add this recipe to my rotation of banana bread options. I seem to have difficulty eating all of my bananas before they become too ripe to be eaten on their own and always have some brown bananas on hand for baking!
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ok. looks. so. good. Pinned it! Thanks so much !! Can’t wait to try.
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I recently made a Banana Bread with Chocolate & PB Chips – but brought it to a friend without photographing it! I am out of PB Chips, so look forward to trying this version
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I also have 3 brown bananas on my counter. I was too tired to bake tonight, now I am glad as I will definitely try this recipe. My favorite snack is a banana, a spoon and a jar of peanut butter. Adding chocolate to the combo sounds great!
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I love quick breads and the combination of the main ingredients in this one. My favorite ingredients are the chocolate chips.
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Perfect with hot chocolate this weekend.
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Looks like snack after a “hockey night in Pgh”
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I’m excited to try this – buttermilk AND peanut butter!!
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Oh wow, this is the stuff dreams are made of!! I have a banana-choco chip bread I make, but adding peanut butter is SUCH a fab idea. I bet this batter is delicious, too!!
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I just found your blog and I totally love it so far. I have a quick question regarding the Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Bread. Do the bananas have to be brown or can I use ripe yellow bananas? Also what does the tin foil tent look like, do you have a photo I can refer to? Thank you for you reply in advance.
Best regards,
Richard
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Michelle on January 24th, 2013 at 3:24 pm
Hi Richard, The bananas don’t have to be totally brown, but the bread with have the most flavor and be the moistest if you use bananas that are at least speckled with brown spots, as they have ripened. As for the tin foil tent, I don’t have a picture of my own, although you may be able to find one via Google, but you basically just take a piece of foil, fold it in half so it peaks in the middle, and place that over the loaf pan. This is to shield the bread from getting too brown, but the tented peak in the middle keeps the foil from touching the batter.
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I know what I’m making after work tomorrow! Looks awesome!
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Whoa! Sensory overload. This bread looks amazing!
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Banana bread with chocolate chips is one of my favorite quick and easy desserts and I just love the addition of the peanut butter here. So much goodness!
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This is comfort food for me!
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Wow…I’ve been slathering peanut butter on my banana bread for years and never even thought about baking it right into the bread. I’ll have to give this a whirl!
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Katherine Jones on April 14th, 2013 at 12:05 pm
Me too! Genius!
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I made this last night and it was another home run. Thank you. As usual, I used a gluten free baking mix called Pamela’s instead of the flour. I also used almond butter. This bread is good enough to be in a bakery even with the substitutions. Thank you again for your yummy taste buds. Easy recipes that I know will taste great
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Love this recipe! Will be linking back to this in my upcoming post
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It looks delicious, some months ago I did one but I put also orange and nuts…amazing!
http://bakercat.com/2012/08/01/pan-de-platano-con-nueces-y-con-chocolate-y-con-naranja/
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I made this the other night and it was sooo good! When my husband tasted it he said “Wow, you can really taste the peanut butter, the bananas and the chocolate”. In my opinion, that sums it up!
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This looks ultra yummy! Has so many of my favorite flavor combos! Must give it a try. Thanks for posting!
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Just came out of the oven. I’m so excited. Took a long time in the oven, but I’m sure it’s worth every minute. Smells great!
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Just baked this and I have to say, this is one of the best banana breads I have ever made! Melt in your mouth yumness!!!
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I will have to try this. I like the addition of pnut butter.
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So excited to try this! Ive been saving my bananas for a few days now to make bread and had a thought of peanut butter. Looked up the recipe and viloa=] my favorite way to eat a banana is with peanut butter. The best way to make a peanut butter banana sandwich is grilled, like a grilled cheese, but with PB and banana. You should give it a try sometime! Thanks for all the amazing recipes.
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I made this too. Followed the recipe exactly. It is so yummy. Thanks for sharing. I will probably do 4 bananas next time bc I like it more banana-y. It took the full hour 15 to bake.
Also my husband made buttermilk pancake his morning and they were so good. I can’t believe I lived his long wo buttermilk.
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Would the bread still turn out okay if I omitted the peanut butter?
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Michelle on January 28th, 2013 at 11:43 pm
Hi Greis, If you don’t intend to use the peanut butter, I would recommend my classic banana bread recipe (http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2010/09/17/banana-nut-bread/); you can substitute chocolate chips for the walnuts if you’d like.
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Made this tonight….yum! Easy, moist, and delicious!
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This was delicious! I made it this weekend and then promptly gave it away to get it out of the house. Ha! I think next time I will double the peanut butter- while it was definitely delicious I think a little bit extra peanut butter is in order.
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Mine came out really well – it was beautiful (and I did use a tent for the last 15 minutes). Thanks for the recipe! I had to put my own spin on it too, to give it a test. I cut the sugar in half, used only one teaspoon of vanila, and . . . no chocolate chips. I wanted to taste peanut butter-banana combo. My wife didn’t know I had messed with the recipe, and she REALLY liked it. Don’t worry, I’ll make my wife another loaf with the full sugar and the chocolate chips . . . !! [Note: I used bananas that were sligthly too ripe then frozen - then thawed of course (like my mom always did)].
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So I finally made this bread with a little whole grain twist and posted it today. It’s to die for delicious! This bread is the perfect balance of peanut butter, banana, and chocolate — no one flavor over powers the others. I think it might be interesting if I substitute 1/2 cup flour for unsweetened cocoa powder instead of chocolate chips next time? Hmmm. Food for thought. Thanks for a great recipe!
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I just finished baking this recipe and it turned out amazing!
Thank you so much, best combination ever. Love that you added peanut butter to it! In the bread it’s so subtle, but so wonderful too.
Looking forward to trying out more of your recipes in the future! (This was my first one of yours)
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I made this yesterday and it is the best banana bread my husband and I have had yet! I followed the recipe exactly except that I used white whole wheat flour and “made” buttermilk out of regular milk and cream of tarter. I baked it for 1 hour and 15 minutes, putting a foil tent over the top at the 45 minute mark and it turned out perfect! Thank you so much for a great recipe! I can never go back to making “plain” banana bread ever again
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Wow – this is reallly good. Unfortunately we lost electricity four minutes after I put the loaf in the oven and our generator took a couple minutes to kick on so I had a few issues with the baking part — but it’s very, very god. Just like the other post, I don’t think I’ll make banana bread any othe way again! Especially since my kids don’t really like banana bread, but this recipe they like. Thank you!!
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I the fact you used chocolate chips in this banana bread recipe.
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This tasted really good – I upped the peanut butter and choc chips and used regular milk.
I was wondering why you use parchment paper – I never have with quick breads, and this just caused the bread to “wrinkle” where the parchment was wrinkled and the batter that got on the edges of the paper burned. There is also an almost burned edge all along the upper side of the bread, while the rest is ok.
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This bread is DELICIOUS!! I used safflower oil, whole wheat flour, and added a bit of honey to my batter since my bananas weren’t that ripe. The outside got a tinny bit burned but it’s still really yummy. Thanks for the recipe!
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WOW! It looks awesome! I can’t wait to make this! Thanks for the great recipe.
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Just made this, although only had two bananas and also tried to healthify it a bit by substituting 1/2 cup of the white flour with wholemeal, reducing the sugar by half, reducing the chocolate chips by half (it was still a tad too chocolately for my liking, but very nice flavor otherwise). I also misread the amount of peanut butter and used only 1/4 cup, would definitely use at least 1/2 cup next time. Can just about detect it, especially in the smell, but it’s subtle. I also added some chopped up dried bananas to the mix since I had only had two fresh ones. That was actually a really good addition. In conclusion: the substituted wholemeal flour was fine, reducing the sugar and chocolate chips was fine, should have used more peanut butter, dried bananas were a nice addition. The result is a nicely risen, rich, delicious cake which is also actually very filling (thank goodness!). Now that it’s got peanut butter inside it I don’t need to spread it on top! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
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Just took it out of the oven! Smells and looks GREAT! Thank you for this recipe.
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I’d like to make this using a standard muffin pan instead of a loaf pan. Any suggestions on bake time? Love your blog!
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Michelle on April 26th, 2013 at 10:01 am
Hi Allison, I would probably start checking around 15 minutes just to be sure they aren’t over done.
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Looking Awesome..thanks for share this wonderful recipe..kids will going to love this yummy treat!
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Question: Why do I need to grease the pan AND use parchment paper?
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Michelle on April 30th, 2013 at 3:30 pm
Greasing the pan helps the parchment stick to the pan so it doesn’t just float up and crinkle when you pour the batter in.
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