Banana Bread Brownies

4.92 from 23 votes

Banana Bread Brownies are the perfect combination of a moist banana bread swirled with a dense chocolate brownie. They are a must make dessert!

Prep Time20

Cook Time45

Total Time1 5

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Author: Krissy Allori

Equipment

Mixing Bowls

Ingredients

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1 cup ripe bananas mashed, 1 large banana usually yields about 1/2 cup of mashed banana

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line with parchment or grease an 8x8 inch baking pan.
Combine dry ingredients: Stir the 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt together in a bowl.
Brown butter: In a medium sauce pot over medium heat, melt 1/2 cup unsalted butter. Continue to cook while it foams and whisk constantly until it browns and you see some brown specks at the bottom and it starts to smell a bit toasted. Remove from heat.
Mix base ingredients: Once the butter cools a bit, add 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar and2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract. Next, beat in 3 eggs one at a time with a spoon. Gradually add the dry ingredients and stir the batter until it's evenly moistened. Divide the batter in half into two separate bowls.
Mix the brownie portion: Add the 1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips to one of the bowls and stir until combined. This mixture will be very thick.
Mix the banana bread portion: In the second bowl of batter, stir in the mashed 1 cup ripe bananas.
Prepare banana bread brownies: Spread 1/2 of the chocolate batter into the bottom of the prepared baking pan, and follow with all of the banana batter. For the remaining chocolate batter, you can either spoon it on top or you can put it in a plastic bag, snip off the corner, and squeeze it onto the banana batter in lines. Use a butter knife or a spatula to swirl the two batters together to create a marbled appearance.
Bake: Place the baking dish in the preheated oven and bake until the brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool them in the pan, cut into squares, and serve.

Notes

Banana tips:

Any time you bake with bananas, you'll want to choose ones that are very ripe. My preference is to use bananas that have an equal amount of yellow and brown.

Before you peel the banana, give it gentle but firm squeezes up and down until the entire fruit it mush. Then, when you peel it the entire banana will still stay whole but will already be perfectly mashed for your banana brownie batter.

Baking tips:

The chocolate portion of the batter is very thick. You may even need to use your hands to spread it evenly across the bottom of the pan.

If your chocolate brownie portion is too thick to squeeze on through a plastic bag, just use a spoon to throw globs on top of the banana batter. Then use a butter knife to swirl it all together. I've made this banana brownie recipe many times and it always seems to turn out perfectly.

Storage:

I highly recommend storing leftover banana bread brownies in the freezer in an air tight freezer bag. It prevents me from eating the entire pan in one sitting and because they stay so incredibly moist, you can eat them straight out of the freezer because they're soft!

Nutrition