Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Scones
These chocolate chip banana bread scones are perfection! If you love banana bread AND scones, you’re going to love this easy recipe!
Every single time I make scones, I give myself this internal lecture: Mel! Why don’t you make scones more often?!?
I love them. But clearly don’t make them often enough.
They are the perfect compromise between a biscuit and a muffin. Sweet, flaky, soft, tender, and so very yummy, scones are absolutely delightful IF they are made right.
And making great baked scones at home is easy if you start with a good recipe. This chocolate chip banana bread scone recipe is a really, really good recipe.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Scones
With a super soft crumb, these banana bread scones are flaky and ultra moist. The banana flavor comes through perfectly without overpowering, and the chocolate chips? Definitely not optional.
The scone dough is pretty basic as far as scone doughs go.
The dry ingredients are whisked together before cutting in a little butter. You can use a pastry blender or two forks to do the job.
OR, you can leave the butter whole (in stick form) and grate it in with a box grater and then just toss it with the dry ingredients.
Once the butter is in small pea-size pieces, add the wet ingredients:
- cream or buttermilk
- mashed bananas
- a little bit of vanilla
Mix for a second and then toss in the chocolate chips or chocolate chunks. Once the chocolate is added, I get in there with my hands and finish up the mixing and gentle kneading.
The key to perfect scones
Don’t over mix! Just like a good muffin batter, it’s that simple.
Over mixing scone dough can over develop the gluten which makes the scones dry and tough (it also melts the butter which is not ideal – you want the butter to stay clumpy so it melts in the oven creating pockets of steam which then creates layers of flakiness).
Pat the dough into a long, skinny rectangle. I like to cut my scones into small-ish triangles. But you can change up the shape and pat the dough into a circle or into a larger rectangle.
Use a bench scraper {aff. link} or sharp knife to cut the dough into wedges. The dough should be pretty soft, so dipping the edge of the knife lightly into flour between each cut may help.
Place the scones on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
At this point you can bake right away (I always do; I don’t like to wait) OR you can refrigerate the dough until it firms up a bit. About an hour or up to 24 hours.
Sidenote: this scone dough works great baked in a scone pan, too. I’ve made them in this mini scone pan {aff. link} with great results (cute, perfect, little scones!)
Bake those beautiful little scones for 15-20 minutes until just lightly golden.
Let them cool and then drizzle them with the sweet (and just slightly tangy) glaze. YUM!
Why do my scones twist and fall over when they bake?
The answer is – it could be due to a lot of things! And it happens to me with a few scones every batch. No worries; they still taste great!
Here are a few tips that might help:
- don’t twist or turn the knife while cutting – make straight even cuts
- if the dough is super super soft and sticky, add a bit more flour
- chill the scones before baking to firm up the butter/dough
- place them closer together on the baking sheet so they use each other to rise up instead of out
- cut them smaller
No matter how they look coming out of the oven, the flavor of these banana bread scones is pure heaven.
Who knew banana bread was actually always meant to be a scone??
The mashed banana also helps keep these scones really soft and moist for days. And I love the texture of the crumb – it’s just every so slightly different than a traditional scone and absolutely perfect.
If you have bananas that are on their way to the ends of the earth, forget banana bread (just this once!) and make these scones! You won’t be sorry.
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Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Scones
Ingredients
Scones:
- 2 ⅔ cups (379 g) all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup (71 g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (113 g) salted butter, cubed
- ⅔ cup cold heavy whipping cream or buttermilk (see note for buttermilk)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup (about 151 g) mashed very ripe bananas (1-2 medium bananas)
- 1 to 1 ½ cups (170 to 255 g) chocolate chips, mini or regular or chocolate chunks
Glaze:
- ½ cup (57 g) powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon sour cream or buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon warm water
- Dash of vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt (if using buttermilk, see note for adding baking soda). Add the butter. Using a pastry blender or two forks, cut in the butter to the flour mixture until crumbly and the butter is in small pea-sized pieces. Alternately, you can grate the butter into the flour with the large holes of a box grater and toss to combine with the flour (don’t cut the butter into chunks, leave it whole as a stick).
- In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the cream (or buttermilk), mashed banana and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture. Stir with a fork or rubber spatula until it starts to come together and forms large clumps. Add the chocolate chips or chocolate chunks.
- Using your hands, knead the dough until it forms an cohesive mass and most of the dry ingredients are incorporated.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter and pat into a long, skinny rectangle, about 15-inches long by 2 1/2-inches wide. (You can alter the dimensions if you want larger or smaller scones.) Using a sharp knife or bench knife, cut the rectangle into 12 wedges or triangles.
- Place evenly spaced on the prepared baking sheet. At this point, you can cover and refrigerate for an hour to firm up the dough (or up to 24 hours) or bake right away. If baking right away, the scones might lose a bit of their shape, but they’ll still taste great.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and baked through. Let cool completely or until just warm before glazing.
- For the glaze, whisk together all the ingredients until smooth, thinning with extra water or milk, if needed. It should be thick but pourable. Drizzle the glaze evenly over the scones. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container at room temp for 1-2 days.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from Bake from Scratch magazine
94 Comments on “Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Scones”
I really didn’t need the icing it was perfect with the dark chocolate chip!
These are delish! I had to keep them in for 22 min until they were golden and not quite as soft on top. I made a “glaze” for them of PB2 powder and honey, and blended it until they was of drizzle consistency. It was *soooo* good on these scones! Elvis would have approved 🙂
These are seriously the best scones I’ve ever had. We have literally made them at least once a week for the last month and are still in love. I make them dairy free by using earth balance butter sticks and use my Starbuck dairy free hazelnut coffee creamer in place of the Buttermilk. Thank you for such an amazing recipe!
These are a big hit at our house. Dangerously good!
First time making scones here!! thank you so for sharing this recipe. Made it 3 times in a week. My kids and husband devored them.
Delicious!!! grating in frozen butter worked really well for me, I think it made them more tender?
So delicious. I prefer to make anything that requires cutting in butter with my food processor, so I pulsed the dry ingredients and butter together and then proceeded with the rest of the recipe as written. I love that little shortcut! The dough seemed dry until I kneaded with my hands and then it was perfect. My 4 and 2 year old loved helping too, and the scones turned out delicious. Not too sweet, but very tender.
I was so excited to try these because I browned the butter and then chilled it again so it would cut in properly, and it did! The dough looked great and they turned out BEAUTIFUL, and then right before I tasted them I realized I forgot the sugar . The banana made it slightly sweet though, and with the chocolate chips they’re still yummy! So yes it works without sugar haha. Love the recipe and I’m sure they’re even better when you don’t forget an ingredient 🙂
These were amazing! I appreciated the tip to refrigerate before baking. I was able to make them a day ahead of my brunch and then wasn’t scrambling to get them made the morning of. I just took them out of the fridge, popped them in the oven, glazed them after they cooled and took in all the compliments.
Delicious.
Hi! I’m going to make this soon…It sounds delicious! Question…some recipes have an egg and some don’t, does the banana replace the egg in this?
There are a lot of different scone variations – I don’t think the banana necessarily replaces the egg…this scone recipe just doesn’t call for any eggs.
Okay! Thanks for your response. I’ve actually got them in the oven now. Can’t wait to taste them!
Amazing. Amazing taste. Amazingly simple to make.
From now on, I’m buying extra bananas at the store and purposefully letting them get overripe so I “have” to make these.
I made these and I don’t like super wet and sticky. Do you think the bananas were over ripe? Do you usually use brown bananas?
Sorry Meant to say the Dough is super sticky and wet
It’s possible that the ripeness of the bananas could alter the texture of the dough. I usually use bananas that have a lot of brown spots (but the whole peel hasn’t yet turned dark brown).
My scones were tough, but I think that was because I overworked the dough. The banana flavor was delicious, but there was too much salt. My parents (I’m 12) couldn’t taste it though. Overall, good recipe!
We constantly have sad bananas on the counter, and these scones are a delicious alternative to the banana muffins I usually make. So buttery and tender! Hard to stop at just one.
Had ripe bananas…wanted to try something other than my go to chocolate chip banana bread recipe….what to do….search for bananas on Mel’s page. BINGO!! Chocolate chip banana scones…im my mind yummmm.
Gonna try this out, but just wondering…do you recommend hand mixing, or have you done this in a stand mixer before? Maybe the scone dough is too delicate for a stand mixer….
Hey Tyler, sorry for the delay in responding…I definitely recommend mixing scone dough by hand (it’s too easy to over mix using an electric mixer).
I took a chance and made these with bobs redmill 1 for 1 gluten free flour and they turned out perfect!! I grated the butter (such a great idea) and added about a tablespoon extra, since the dough was overly crumbly (which is common with GF flours- they suck out all the moisture in things), I also subbed the regular sugar for dry Maple sugar and OMG!! soooo good!! Great texture, a little flakey, a little soft in the center and just perfect! my husband and daughter both said ” no way these are gluten free, they don’t look sad and deflated”! for once I had a “baked good” recipe turn out just like the picture. I’m printing out the recipe and putting in my stash. will definitely make these again.
I made these the other day. They are delicious and fairly easy to make. I grated the butter and that worked really well. Another fantastic ‘Mel’ recipe to add to my list!
Yum! I made just as directed and they were delicious. A fun change from banana bread. I liked grating the butter! It was so easy!
I soured my milk with lemon juice since I didn’t have cream or buttermilk and it worked great. They were delicious!
Can you replace brown sugar for the white sugar? And I was looking at other banana bread scone recipes where they use greek yogurt instead of heavy cream so it won’t be as sticky and spread out. I haven’t done this recipe yet but I have made scones a few times using heavy cream. Does it not spread out in the oven since you are using quite a lot of liquid in the recipe? Thanks.
This recipe has been tested with the ingredients listed, so I’m not sure how it would work to make substitutions, but you could definitely experiment!
OMG these are unreal. I’ve made them 3 times now and each time they come out perfect! Everyone always asks for the recipe! We have dubbed this recipe our favorite breakfast and will be making them for every holiday so it can be that *special recipe* that our kids will make with their kids to bring back all the memories! Thanks so much for the recipe.
I’ve made these twice now, and I can’t believe how tender they are! My kids love them, in fact, they have lots of compliments for these. I think it’s the best anything with banana recipe I’ve had. I did add a little more mashed banana because I had 4 small bananas, and I used buttermilk.
I have made these several times during the pandemic, and they have been a solid part of my coping with carbs strategy. Delicious!
Yours and mine both, Katie! 🙂 So happy you love them!
I have made theses once so far and they are delicious! Getting ready to make another batch right now.
Question…if I wanted to freeze them, would I do so before or after baking them?
Thanks ~ Lisa
My preference is to bake, cool and then freeze.
I usually buy (and hide) too many bananas so we can bake something banana-y; I may never bake banana bread or muffins again! These are amazing! Also brought to friends who devoured them. I don’t know why I haven’t discovered buttermilk glazes until this year, but now I put buttermilk in every glaze that calls for milk. Thank you!!
I made these this morning and they are SO good!!
Thanks, Pamela!
These are the absolute best baked anything with banana. I have made them once a week since you posted this. I have made them with buttermilk and with my failed clotted cream and they were both equally delicious! I used your weighted measurements and think that’s why they turned out so good. I usually just add whatever bananas I have which is usually too many. I can’t recommend this recipe enough.
Thank you so much, Andrea!
These are SO good!! I thought I would try freezing some to see if they’d work for a quick on-the-go breakfast…but they were gobbled up so fast. I guess I’ll have to make them again and hide em’ faster to find out (after eating one warm of course!)
They freeze great!
Made these last week! It was My first time making scones and I honestly thought scones were some sort of dry bread. Boy oh boy was I wrong! I made the new discovery that I LOVE SCONES! They are so yummy! These scones were devoured in seconds! I can’t wait to make all your other scone recipes Mel! Thanks!!!
So happy to hear this, Elinor! Thank you!
These are dang delicious! I made them up yesterday and baked this morning. Mine didn’t rise too well, but I’m pretty sure it’s my baking powder. I will definitely make these again, with fresh baking powder or course! Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks, Angela!
Look forward to trying this. I’ve never found a really great scone recipe. Could these be done as plain scones though? (I’m all about the jam and clotted cream with scones…)
I think taking out the banana might affect the liquid to dry ratio. This is my favorite basic scone recipe: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/amazing-cinnamon-chip-scones-best-basic-scone-recipe/
made these last weekend.. perfect! whole family devoured them all 🙂
i tried the grating-butter method for the first time, worked perfectly!
thank you!
Yay!
These were delicious!! Kids and I devoured them we are gluten free and they came out wonderfully subbing in my gf baking blend one for one. Thanks for another wonderful recipe!
So happy they worked out so well gluten free!
I made these today. Oh my gosh these are so good!! I needed an alternative to the banana chocolate chip muffins that I made over and over again… I may never make them again!! This is my new favorite recipe for my ripe bananas! Thank you!!
I love hearing this – thank you, Pamela!
Does anyone else buy extra bananas in the hopes that they get too ripe, so the kids won’t eat them and you “have” to with them? Well, I might do that, and I made these yesterday and they were so so so good!! Will be on my top banana recipes!! Thanks Mel!
Haha, I TOTALY do that, and because my kids eat so many bananas, I’ve taken to hiding a few on a top pantry shelf (hope I don’t forget about them at some point – ew!)
Looks great Mel! Can’t wait to try these out on my family. Do you happen to know the calorie information of these beauties? I can calculate by hand if you don’t, but I figured I ought to ask. So excited to bite into one of these!
I don’t – sorry!
These were so delicious! We didn’t put the glaze on because nobody wanted to wait for them to cool off! My whole family loved them!
That’s kind of how we roll around here, too, Aubri! 🙂 They are so yummy warm!
These turned out super tasty! I have baked from scratch very little in my life, so it felt like a lot if work. This was partially because my 3 and 5 year olds insisted on helping and my 2 year old year old demanded to be held towards the end. Despite all that, they turned out great! I didn’t have cream or butter milk so I used a substitution from a cook book I have. To substitute one cup of butter milk use 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar (I used lemon juice) and pour in a measuring cup. Fill up with milk (I used whole milk) until it reaches a full cup. Wait 5 minutes before using. For this recipe, I used 2 teaspoons lemon juice and filled the rest of a 2/3 cup measuring cup with whole milk. I also used granulated sugar for the glaze instead of powdered sugar. I think this made it less thick and more grainy, but it was still good on the scones. I don’t typically like powdered sugar for some reason, so I rarely have it on hand. It turned out so good! Thank you, Mel!
Thanks for the review, JoAnn! Glad the buttermilk substitution worked out well!
These scones are so amazing…I don’t think I’ll ever want to go back to banana bread. I used the cream version, skipped the glaze, and mixed the chocolate chips in right after I cut in the butter, which makes for easier mixing in my experience. I’ve never commented before, but I’ve made so many of your recipes and your blog is just my favorite. I follow a handful of other blogs and have loved baking and cooking and obsessively reading and researching about food things since I was little and it’s rare that someone comes up with something that seems truly unique and these scones are such a creative idea!
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, Sophia! Glad these worked out for you and thanks for including your notes!
Had a few bananas just begging to be used, so whipped these up. They are so yummy and, moist. Just a light banana flavour, but a great texture – light and moist. I maxed out the chocolate chips, so didn’t bother with a glaze. Delicious. Just waiting for a few more bananas to over-reopen to make another batch. Thanks, Mel.
Glad you liked these, Christine! Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know!
Yum! I mixed these up yesterday and baked them for breakfast today. I made a couple adjustments to make them dairy-free. I used plant butter, coconut yogurt and almond milk in place of buttermilk, and dairy-free chocolate chips. I was a little nervous about how they would turn out because of the substitutions, but my family and I loved them!
Thanks for the review, Heidi! Glad they worked out well!
These were amazing! I’m going to get busy trying your other scone recipes! Yum!
So happy to hear that!
Hi Mel, these scones were a hit in my home this morning. Thanks for another great recipe
Thank you so much, Nita!
I’ve never made scones before but I didn’t hesitate one bit to try your recipe— your site gives me rockstar status in the kitchen! My kids have started to ask at mealtime “is this from Mel’s kitchen cafe?”
FYI I recently learned that frozen butter can be grated into recipes calling for softened butter. I only had frozen butter this morning so I grated it into the bowl and it was a cinch!
Awesome on the grated butter, Rebecca! Thank you so much for such a sweet comment!
Made these yesterday for breakfast. Insanely easy and insanely good! Thank you for the wonderful recipe! Your doughnuts are next on my list.. .just waiting for the fryer to arrive! 🙂
So excited for you to try those donuts, Angela!
Just made these and they are very good. It was my first attempt at making scones and I was surprised by how wet the dough was. I found it hard to work with when trying to knead it – I had giant sticky dough fingers, lol. I weighed my dry ingredients so I’ll just have to practice until I get good at it. Thanks for this. Baking after my kids go to bed is my new favorite way to unwind. Plus I can eat as much as I want. I’ll save them some this time 😉
Hi Jessica – thanks for taking the time to let me know! Sorry the dough was pretty sticky – do you happen to live at high elevation? Just curious.
I made these today using my scone pan. Five stars!
So happy to hear that – love how quickly so many of you made this recipe!
I am never making banana bread again. This scone recipe is AMAZING!!! Now to make all the scones…
Haha…I’m so glad you liked them, Stefanie! Thanks for taking the time to let me know!
Just as delicious as you said they would be!
So happy to hear that, Andrea!
As soon as I saw this today I had to make it. I had two brown bananas that were just calling to go into this recipe. Made them (so quick and easy!) and they are out of the oven and cooling before we ice them, and we have already eaten several. Might not make the icing for most of them as they will be eaten before we get to that part!. So good! I am like you, I forget how good and easy scones are to make and so good to eat! Thanks! Perfect for today!
Thanks for making them so fast, Jen! And reporting back. We loved them warm, too!
This recipe popped up in my e-mail this morning and within a few minutes we were enjoying them for breakfast. My 4-year-old daughter said, “Why did it take so fast to make those scones? Are they called the fast scones?” Haha! So good Mel! We omitted the glaze because my kids are not a fan of things too sweet to breakfast. A winner recipe for sure. Thank you.
Hahaha, your 4-year old’s question is adorable. I’m going to rename these the banana bread FAST scones! 🙂
Looking forward to trying these–they look wonderful. I’m intrigued by your chocolate chunks…they look like mini ones. Did you chop a bar or have you found mini chocolate chunks which would be SO amazing!
Hi Grace! Those are chocolate chunks from Trader Joe’s. They aren’t necessarily mini, but I love them…super tasty (and on the darker end of semisweet)
Mel – do you think you could use frozen (thawed) bananas for this. I have a ton in my freezer.
I think so! I haven’t tried it, but definitely worth a try. Just keep an eye on the consistency of the dough (might be slightly stickier using frozen/thawed bananers).
making these today!
Hope you love them, Sarah!
These do look very tasty. I have only made scones maybe 2 times. It was years ago.
It’s time! 🙂