Easy, homemade Chocolate Chip Banana Coffee Cake! This recipe takes the best of banana bread and coffee cake and combines it into a delicious breakfast treat. A super moist cake speckled with a chocolate chip streusel is the perfect side for a hot cup of coffee!
Easy Chocolate Chip Banana Coffee Cake
I have the best of intentions when I buy bananas. I will eat them as a healthy snack; post-workout pick-me-up; or in a breakfast smoothie. However, using them all for these purposes rarely happens. Enter Chocolate Chip Banana Coffee Cake. Now we have a use for those leftover bananas!
Bottom line – this is a very easy breakfast treat recipe. It comes together quickly and there are not a lot of trick plays to make it delicious.
Chocolate Chip Streusel Topping
Ok. So maybe what makes this cake so good is the chocolate chip streusel topping. Bananas and chocolate are a natural pairing. Cake and chocolate are, well, nothing less than perfect together. I’m taking the common denominator of the two and making a pretty decadent streusel topping for this banana coffee cake.
Tips for making the streusel topping
- Make it first. There is nothing worse than getting ready to put the cake in the oven and realize you haven’t made the streusel yet. No – I haven’t done this … 😉
- Pulse until just combined. You don’t want to overmix the topping. You want bigger chunks of the chocolate chips. Trust me.
Turning Banana Bread into Coffee Cake
I love coffee cake. As demonstrated by my Applesauce Coffee Cake recipe. I am a lukewarm fan of banana bread. But when you combine the two, I become a converted fan of the fruit bread. A good coffee cake is moist and tender, and when you add bananas to it, the moistness factor is almost guaranteed. The flavor of the banana is not overly assertive, and you get the best of both worlds in this breakfast cake.
Chocolate Chip Banana Coffee Cake
EQUIPMENT
INGREDIENTS
Coffee Cake
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons milk, room temperature (any kind)
- 2 tablespoons full fat sour cream, room temperature
- 3 small very ripe bananas
Streusel Topping
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup walnuts (optional)
- 2/3 cup light brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees and adjust oven rack to the middle position. Lightly grease and flour an 8-Inch baking dish.
- In the bowl of a food processor, add the chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts, and melted butter. Pulse until the mix is just combined and coarse. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the sugar, room temperature butter, and beat on medium speed until fluffy. Add in the milk, sour cream and bananas and continue to beat until all ingredients are combined. The batter will be a little lumpy because of the bananas.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients on medium-low speed, until just combined. Turn off the mixer and finish incorporating the ingredients by using a spatula – scraping down the sides of the bowl.
- Pour half of the batter into the prepared baking dish. Then sprinkle half of the streusel on top of the batter. Pour the remaining batter and top and very gently spread out with a spatula. Top with the remaining streusel.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. The cake can be served directly from the baking dish – no need to transfer to another platter.
NUTRITION ESTIMATES
about the author ...
I'm Erin and I'm all about desserts - and a little bit of butter!
I've tested, written, and photographed hundreds of recipes on my website. Here you'll find the tastiest small batch desserts - all homemade, all simple, and all for you! Click here to learn more about me!