Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Sour Cream Banana Bread

I took Martha Stewart’s classic banana bread and made it better by turning it into Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Sour Cream Banana Bread.

Martha Stewart’s Banana Bread

Years ago, in her Entertaining Cookbook, Martha Stewart suggested serving banana bread for a wedding meal. Anyone else find banana bread a strange wedding food?

Do you think Martha of 2021 would agree with Martha of the early 1990s that suggested banana bread as a wedding food… I am not sure that she would.

Regardless of where you serve it, the banana bread that she suggested you serve at a wedding is by far the best banana bread that I have made. It has been a tried and true favorite for my family for probably twenty years.

Many of the recipes in Martha’s Entertaining Cookbook are fancier than I would normally make. They tend to be recipes that someone who caters dinners and parties would use.

However, mixed in all these fairly gourmet recipes are a few really simple ones. Years ago, as in long before I ever had a food blog, I tried the sour cream banana bread that was in the Martha Stewart Entertaining Cookbook. It was an immediate favorite.

I have been asked for this recipe so many times over the years. I shared Martha Stewart’s Banana Bread way back in 2008. It one of the first recipes that I shared here on my site. ( I have updated it with directions for how you can also make it gluten free. )

Chocolate Banana Bread

We love the combination of chocolate and bananas, especially in banana bread. Long before I started my year of Martha Stewart Cooking Challenge I converted her banana recipe that I loved into a chocolate banana bread.

We love it as much, if not more than the original.

When I I recently realized that I had never shared the chocolate version with you I knew it would make a great recipe for my Martha Stewart cooking challenge.

This isn’t really Martha’s recipe since I changed it. But it really isn’t mine either since all I did was decrease the flour and add cocoa. I am calling it Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Banana Bread, but I guess it is more like Martha Stewart’s Banana Bread Recipe made better with chocolate.

I am sharing both the regular and the gluten free version with you, so this works for my regular readers and my gluten free ones!

Ingredients

• butter room
• sugar
• eggs
• all purpose flour or Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Flour Blend or Krusteaz gluten free flour blend works well for a gf version
• baking soda
• salt
• Dutch processed cocoa
• bananas
• sour cream
• vanilla
• chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl cream butter, sugar, and eggs.
3. In another bowl combine the dry ingredients and add to the butter mixture. Mix well.
4. Add the bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Stir well.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Pour into a well-greased loaf pan.
7. Bake for 55-60 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes then turn onto a rack to cool.

Frequently Asked Questoins

Can I make it gluten free?

Yes, you can make Martha Stewarts Banana Bread gluten free. This recipe works well with Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour blend or Krusteaz gluten free flour blend.

You can find more information about making it gluten free on my post about the best flour to use in gluten free banana bread.

Can I use low fat or fat free sour cream or yogurt in the recipe?

Low fat sour cream works, but it is not as good. The taste and texture are not quite the same. I have never tried fat free sour cream in this recipe, but I am guessing that I would not be the same.

You can use plain yogurt in this recipe, but it is not the same. I have done it when I was out of sour cream, but we could tell a difference.

What if I don’t have Dutch processed cocoa?

You can use regular baking cocoa in Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Sour Cream Banana Bread, but again it is better with Dutch processes cocoa.

Martha Stewart’s Entertaining Cookbook

From what I can tell Martha Stewart’s Entertaining Cookbook is no longer published, but you can find used copies.

I like this cookbook and am glad I own it, but it is not one that I use often. The banana bread recipe and one or two other ones are the only recipes I have made from this cookbook.