Banana Chocolate Chip Bars {Farmhouse Style}

Mashed bananas and applesauce make these homemade Banana Chocolate Chip Bars so easy and delicious! It’s hard to beat fresh banana bread with warm chocolate chips for breakfast or a snack.

Banana Bars with Chocolate Chips Recipe

Slightly overripe bananas are mashed up into a common banana bread recipe and sprinkled with chocolate chips to make the most delicious treat!

These Banana Bars with Chocolate Chips are a favorite on our farmhouse table!  We love making this spin on banana bread into a bar and adding plenty of chocolate chips! Even better, this quick bread can be mixed up and baked in about 30 minutes.

Banana bars are so quick to mix up and bake. Simple flavors make one of my favorite recipes.

This base dough mix would taste great in muffins, a loaf of banana bread or in bars.  We like the chocolate chip banana bars because they are the quickest to make!  Spreading the batter in 9 x 9-inch baking pan is quicker than spooning out into muffins and bakes much more quickly than a loaf of bread.

We have enjoyed these basic banana bars with chocolate chips so much that we made another version of Loaded Banana Bars here.  If you have a more complex palate and like a little crunch in your bite be sure to check out our Loaded Banana Bars and Banana Pecan Bread too!

A Simple Toddle Snack Recipe

This recipe will always hold a special place in my heart because my one year old snuck up to the table while I was taking pictures and started picking the chocolate chips out of the bars.  However, you eat these enjoy them!  We do share a love for warm melted chocolate in a piece of delicious banana bread!

My mother-in-law shared this recipe with me and I’m grateful because it’s so good!  All of the ingredients can be tossed in the mixing bowl and ready to bake before the oven is preheated.  These are the kind of quick recipes that we love!  I also like that this is a smaller batch of banana bars, so we can enjoy a breakfast and a couple of snacks before they get old.  We do store extra bars in the refrigerator.

Ingredients Needed

Mashed Bananas – slightly overripe, but not too brown and mushy bananas work best and create the best flavor. This is the point where a black spot or two may be beginning to form, but are sparse. Trim out any bad spots in the bananas before using.

Applesauce – unsweetened is best, but sweetened works fine too. Applesauce is a great source of moisture in the bread!

Eggs – provide protein and other nutrients, structure and richness.

Sugar – because we like recipes to be a little sweeter.

All-purpose flour – The main ingredient and substance in this recipe.

Baking soda – Helps the bread rise, be sure this ingredient is mixed evenly throughout the entire batter to work properly.

Cinnamon – Adds a warm flavor to baked goods.

Salt – gives balance to the bread.

Recipe Tips

• 1 1/4 cups of mashed bananas is about 3 medium bananas or 2 large ones
• If only 1 cup of bananas is available the remaining 1/4 cup can be filled with applesauce. Know that applesauce is very neutral so don’t decrease the bananas too much as they add so much great flavor.
• We often sprinkle up to 1/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips on top for more of a dessert bread.
• Semi-sweet chips can be easily substituted for chocolate chunks or mini chips.
• We like to use overripe bananas that are a bit too soft to eat, but not totally brown
• Totally brown bananas will have a very strong taste
• Different pan sizes can be used in this recipe, but baking time will need to be adjusted accordingly
• Store extra bars in an air tight container in the fridge to extend shelf life.

How To Make Chocolate Chip Banana Bars 

Grease a 9×9 or slightly larger baking pan and preheat the oven to 350F.

Begin by mashing bananas. I like to use a fork.

Place bananas in a mixing bowl and stir in sugar, applesauce.

Add eggs.

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Slowly add dry ingredients and mix well.

Fold in chocolate chips and pour into baking pan. 

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Sprinkle some more chocolate chips on top.

Bake and enjoy warm or at room temperature.

What to Do With Lots of Bananas

We’re continually building our recipe library of great recipes to use lots of bananas or browning bananas.  We have a variety of breakfast, brunch, snack and dessert recipes that are delicious!

• Banana nut muffins 
• Banana Jumbos
• Frosted Banana Bars
• Easy Banana Cream Delight
• Banana Split Cake

Other Delicious Brunch Recipes

• Bacon Breakfast Casserole
• 34 Best Brunch Recipes
• Everything Bagel & Sausage Casserole
• Best Strawberry Muffins
• Blueberry Mystery Cake
• Blueberry Muffins {Farmhouse Style}

We hope you enjoy these banana treats as much as we do!

Printable Recipe for Chocolate Chip Banana Bars

Post originally published October 10, 2018 and updated on January 4, 2022.