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Chocolate Chip Banana Bars are a delicious ripe banana recipe and the perfect way to use up brown bananas. Soft sweet banana snack bars dotted with milk chocolate chips, and made with greek yogurt for lots of moisture.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bars With Greek Yogurt
afternoon snack, simple flavors, banana chocolate chip bars, in bar form,
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Perfect after-school snack
- Made with Greek yogurt or extra protein and moisture
- Healthier(ish) banana bars
- Delicious way to use up ugly, brown, ripe bananas
Simple Ingredients Needed
- Butter : I use salted butter when baking but unsalted butter can also be used if preferred.
- Granulated Sugar
- Light Brown Sugar
- Vanilla Greek yogurt
- Baking Powder
- Salt : I normally use sea salt when baking.
- Large Egg
- Mashed Overripe Bananas : About 3 medium sized bananas is what you’ll need for 1 cup mashed banana.
- Vanilla Extract
- All-Purpose Flour : I use unbleached all-purpose flour.
- Milk Chocolate Chips
How To Make This Easy Banana Recipe (Printable Recipe Card)
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×9-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray, or line it with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer, or use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, light brown sugar, baking powder, and salt until it’s thoroughly combined. About 1-2 minutes.
Add in the mashed bananas, egg, and vanilla extract. Beat until combined well.
Add in the flour and milk chocolate chips, and beat on low speed just until combined and no flour streaks remain in the batter.
Evenly spread the batter into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle some extra milk chocolate chips on top if wanted.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean, the bars will be puffy and the edges slightly pulled away from the pan.
Let the bars cool completely, inside the pan on a wire cooling rack, for 1 hour. The bars are yummy eaten slightly warm but they cut much nicer when they are fully cooled before cutting and serving. Enjoy!
How To Store Leftovers
Keep leftovers stored at room temperature, in an airtight container, for up to 3 to 4 days. Make sure to put a piece of wax paper or parchment paper between layers when storing.
You can also freeze the bars. Wrap each individual bar in plastic wrap and then place the wrapped bars in a freezer-safe Ziploc bag or container, and freeze for up to 2 months. Let a bar(s) thaw at room temperature or in the fridge.
Pro Tips From The Test Kitchen
- When spreading the batter into the baking dish, it’s much easier if you drop spoonfuls of it all over rather than just one pile in the center. I like to use a plastic spoon to spread the batter but you could also use a spatula that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray.
- My family prefers the vanilla flavored Greek yogurt but you could also use plain Greek yogurt instead.
- Milk chocolate + banana is the best combo; but you could use dark chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, or miniature chocolate chips instead. Or try a mix.
- I like to line the pan with parchment paper and leave a bit of an overhang. This makes lifting out the bars so easy and they’re much easier to cut out of the pan. A tip I use, is to spray the pan first with cooking spray and then put the parchment paper inside the pan. The spray helps the parchment paper stay in place and stick.
- This recipe also works with white whole wheat flour (not whole wheat flour).
- These bars will not continue cooking once you take them out of the oven, so it’s really important that you make sure they’re cooked properly. I like to use a wooden toothpick; insert into the center of the bars and it should come out clean or with melted chocolate on it. If it comes out with wet batter then you need to cook the bars for longer. The edges will be pulled away from the sides of the pan, and then top of the bars should look dry and done, and puffy.
- Regular vanilla or plain yogurt works as well if you don’t want to use Greek yogurt.
More Ripe Banana Recipes
- Banana Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting
- Buttermilk Banana Bread
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Nutella Banana Muffins
- Banana Coffee Cake
- Cinnamon Banana Bread Muffins
- Banana French Toast
- Peanut Butter Banana Muffins With Chocolate Chips
Chocolate Chip Banana Bars
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons butter softened
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
- 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt (Greek yogurt or regular)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×9-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray, or line with parchment paper for easy removal and cutting. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer, or use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, and light brown sugar until it's thoroughly combined and creamy. About 1-2 minutes.6 tablespoons butter, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- Add in the mashed bananas, yogurt, egg, and vanilla extract. Beat until combined well.1 cup mashed ripe banana, 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add in the flour, baking powder, salt, milk chocolate chips, and beat on low speed just until combined and no flour streaks remain in the batter.2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon sea salt, 1 cup milk chocolate chips
- Evenly spread the batter into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle some extra milk chocolate chips on top if wanted.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean, the bars will be puffy and the edges slightly pulled away from the pan.
- Let the bars cool completely, inside the pan on a wire cooling rack, for 1 hour. The bars are yummy eaten slightly warm but they cut much nicer when they are fully cooled before cutting and serving. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- When spreading the batter into the baking dish, it’s much easier if you drop spoonfuls of it all over rather than just one pile in the center. I like to use a plastic spoon to spread the batter but you could also use a spatula that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray.
- My family prefers the vanilla flavored yogurt but you could also use plain yogurt instead. Use Greek yogurt or regular yogurt, depending on your preference. I like the Yoplait French vanilla yogurt in this recipe.
- Milk chocolate + banana is the best combo; but you could use dark chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, or miniature chocolate chips instead. Or try a mix.
- I like to line the pan with parchment paper and leave a bit of an overhang. This makes lifting out the bars so easy and they’re much easier to cut out of the pan. A tip I use, is to spray the pan first with cooking spray and then put the parchment paper inside the pan. The spray helps the parchment paper stay in place and stick.
- This recipe also works with white whole wheat flour (not whole wheat flour).
- These bars will not continue cooking once you take them out of the oven, so it’s really important that you make sure they’re cooked properly. I like to use a wooden toothpick; insert into the center of the bars and it should come out clean or with melted chocolate on it. If it comes out with wet batter then you need to cook the bars for longer. The edges will be pulled away from the sides of the pan, and then top of the bars should look dry and done, and puffy.
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
I’d love to see it! You can share it with me on @togetherasfamilyblog and follow on Pinterest @together-as-family-blog-recipes or Facebook @togetherasfamilyblog for more!
Yum! Jax would love these. I worry about our grocery bill when he is older too!
Boys sure like to eat 🙂 I thought it was only going to get bad when he’s a teenager, nope, it starts way earlier than that 😉
Totally late to your party! Love this recipe! Didn’t have vanilla yogurt so I went with strawberry. My sister gave me 12 ready to use bananas yesterday, so she’s getting this in return!
These look beyond amazing, I love the flavor profile! 🙂 Yummy!
Cathy
Thanks Cathy 🙂 They’re really good and one of our favorite snacks to have around the house. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Love chocolate and banana! Looks amazing. visiting from What’s Cooking Wednesdays. Pinning!
Thanks for visiting Kim. I agree, chocolate and banana is the best combo!
Made these today and they turned out well, I made it x 1.5 to do a 9×13 pan. I don’t like banana too much so it was a little too much for me. But my daughter loved them. Great snack if you like banana and easy, thanks!
Thanks Anne. My kids all love bananas so these are favorite with them too. I have a hard time with banana as well…. I blame it on my first pregnancy 🙂
The ingredients states 1egg but in the directions it says eggs (plural). Is it one egg or two. I’m ready to make them now so I probably won’t hear back right away so I don’t know if they’ll come out right
Hi Gayle! So sorry I am late getting back to you. It is just 1 egg. I will change the plural egg(s) in the directions. Sorry for the confusion 🙂
Can you use regular yogurt or do you have to use Greek?
Regular yogurt will work just fine 🙂
I made these in mini cupcake liners and they turned out so good. Such a yummy recipe. Thank you for sharing.
Tasted awesome thanks for recipe! Do u store on bench or in fridge?
Either one. Whatever you prefer. I like them cold but usually they just end up sitting out on the counter cause my kids eat them so fast 🙂
These sound delicious! Would almond or coconut flour work in this recipe?
I am not sure. I’ve never worked with either of those so I am not sure if it’s an equal substitution or not. So sorry I can’t help more.
I made these for the first time last night. I had some very ripe bananas and usually make muffins but I wanted to try something different. They were so simple to make and made for a nice breakfast this morning. I will definitely be saving the recipe to make again!
In between a cake or cookie
Great for a family
Great taste
I just wanted to see if this can be made with no egg.
My go to replacement for egg in a baking recipe is a flax egg. Just Google ‘flax egg recipe’ and a bunch of options will pop up. I’ve never tried it with this recipe so I’m not sure how it will turn out but that is what I would do to replace the egg. Let me know how it turns out!
So good! I made for breakfast this morning and the whole family loved them!! I used a higher protein vanilla Greek yogurt for some added protein! Delicious and healthy! We will definitely be making them again!
Love the idea of switching up the yogurt for more protein. Thank you for your comment!
instead of pouring into a pan and cutting later, I used reusable muffin tins and works like a charm! plus it’s transportable with ease!
Great idea! Thanks for commenting!
can I I use white whole wheat flour?
You shouldn’t notice a difference except that the bars could appear slightly darker. Let me know how it turns out!