Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls With Chocolate Chips

These banana bread cinnamon rolls combine a soft, lightly spiced banana yeast dough with a cooked banana, brown sugar, cinnamon, and dark chocolate filling. The rolls are soft and rich, with warm banana-bread spices from cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves and pockets of melted semisweet chocolate through the centre.

The banana flavour comes through in both the dough and filling without making the rolls taste overly sweet. Dark chocolate balances the brown sugar and ripe banana, while the cinnamon and cloves give them that familiar baked-banana flavour rather than making them taste like standard cinnamon rolls with banana added.

This is also a useful recipe when you have quite a few ripe bananas to use. A full cup of mashed banana goes into the dough and another two bananas go into the filling, using about five medium bananas altogether.

Quick Answer

Banana bread cinnamon rolls are soft yeast-raised rolls made with ripe mashed banana in the dough and a cooked banana, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and chocolate filling. This large-batch recipe uses about five medium ripe bananas and makes approximately 11 very large rolls.

A Recipe for When There Are Too Many Bananas

I specifically wanted these rolls to use a lot of bananas. We had picked up a large bunch from the produce sale rack after they had been drastically marked down, which meant I had a lot of very ripe bananas to deal with at once.

I like checking those end-of-aisle produce racks because you can sometimes find fruit and vegetables at a fraction of their regular price. The trick is having a plan for them while they’re still usable. Instead of looking at ripe produce as something that needs to be thrown away, I tend to think about what I can make that will use a good amount of it.

Banana bread is always an option, but sometimes one loaf barely makes a dent. Putting banana into both the dough and filling lets this recipe use about five medium bananas while making the banana an actual part of the cinnamon roll rather than simply an added flavour.

Why You’ll Love These Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls

Uses Plenty of Bananas: About five medium bananas go into one batch instead of leaving you with several still waiting to be used.

Chocolate Through the Swirls: Semisweet chocolate chips or chopped dark baking chocolate are scattered over the banana filling before the strips are rolled, leaving pockets of melted chocolate throughout the buns.

Flexible Pan Options: Make approximately 11 oversized rolls, divide them among three loaf pans, or use a 9-by-13-inch pan plus an 8-inch round pan.

Pantry Baking: Beyond the bananas and chocolate, most of the recipe uses basic baking ingredients.

How to Make Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls

Pour the oat milk into your large mixing bowl and warm it until lukewarm, either in the microwave or by warming it first in a saucepan. It should feel comfortably warm, not hot.

Stir in no more than ½ teaspoon of the granulated sugar, then sprinkle the yeast over the milk. Leave it for a few minutes until the yeast begins to bloom and a foamy layer develops across the surface.

Once the yeast is active, add the lightly melted butter directly to the same bowl. Add the remaining granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla, mashed banana, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.

Begin adding the flour, mixing as you go. Start with part of the measured flour rather than adding all 5 cups at once. The mixture will be very wet at first, but it will gradually become a thick, shaggy dough as more flour is incorporated.

Continue adding flour until the dough is firm enough to work with. Turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough becomes soft, smooth and elastic, adding only a little extra flour when needed to keep it manageable. It should still feel slightly tacky rather than dry or stiff.

The finished dough should form a soft ball and still feel slightly tacky. Don’t keep adding flour simply to make it dry. The mashed banana adds quite a bit of moisture, and keeping the dough soft helps give the finished rolls their softer texture.

Lightly oil the mixing bowl with a neutral oil, return the kneaded dough to the bowl, and cover. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, usually about 1½ to 2 hours.

Make the Banana Filling

While the dough rises, add the overripe bananas, butter, and dark brown sugar to a skillet or saucepan.

Cook over medium heat, breaking the bananas apart as they soften. Continue cooking until the butter and sugar have melted and the banana mixture becomes soft, glossy, and spoonable. Small pieces of banana can remain.

Remove from the heat and allow the filling to cool before spreading it over the dough.

Roll and Fill the Dough

Turn the risen dough onto a lightly floured work surface and gently press it out before rolling it into a large rectangle.

Spread the cooled banana-brown-sugar filling over the dough, leaving only a small border around the edges.

Sprinkle the cinnamon evenly over the filling, then scatter the semisweet dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate over the surface.

Cut and Roll the Cinnamon Buns

Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the filled dough lengthwise into long strips.

Starting at one end, roll each strip up individually to form a large spiral cinnamon bun. Rolling the strips separately gives you large, defined swirls without having to slice through one filled log.

Arrange the rolled buns in greased baking dishes, leaving some space between them so they have room to expand.

Cover the shaped rolls in the pan tightly with plastic wrap and let them rise in a warm place until noticeably puffy and nearly doubled in size, usually about 1 hour.

If you have a little extra banana mixture, spoon some into the centres or around the buns. Before baking, break a small amount of dark chocolate bar into pieces and scatter them lightly over the tops of the rolls. Keep it restrained so the chocolate complements the banana-cinnamon flavour instead of taking over.

Bake uncovered at 350°F for 25–30 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and the rolls in the centre of the pan are baked through.

Ingredients

These banana bread cinnamon rolls use ripe bananas in both the yeast dough and filling, with warm spices and dark chocolate to balance their sweetness.

Milk: Provides moisture for the yeast dough and gives the yeast the warm environment it needs to activate. Whole milk will make a slightly richer dough, while oat milk also works well.

Yeast: Gives the dough its rise and creates the soft, bread-like texture of the finished rolls. Let it visibly bloom in the lukewarm milk before continuing so you know it is active.

Granulated Sugar: Feeds the yeast at the beginning and lightly sweetens the dough without making the bread itself overly sugary.

Butter: Adds richness and tenderness to the dough. It is also cooked with the bananas and brown sugar for the filling, where it helps create the soft, caramel-like mixture spread over the dough.

Eggs: Add richness and structure to the yeast dough while helping it remain soft rather than bread-like and lean.

Bananas: Very ripe or overripe bananas work best because they mash easily and have a stronger flavour. Banana in the dough adds moisture and flavour, while the cooked banana filling gives the rolls a more concentrated banana centre.

Vanilla: Rounds out the banana and warm spices without making the dough noticeably vanilla-flavoured.

Cinnamon: Used in both the dough and filling so the cinnamon flavour runs through the whole roll rather than sitting only in the spiral.

Nutmeg: Adds warmth to the dough and helps move the flavour toward banana bread rather than a standard cinnamon roll.

Cloves: Adds a deeper warm-spice note. Because cloves are stronger than cinnamon or nutmeg, they help the spice blend without needing to dominate it.

Salt: Balances the sweetness from the ripe bananas, sugar, and chocolate and helps keep the dough from tasting flat.

All-Purpose Flour: Provides the structure for the yeast dough. Banana adds quite a bit of moisture, so the important decision is to add only enough flour to make the dough workable while keeping it soft and slightly tacky.

Neutral Oil: Keeps the dough from sticking to the bowl during the first rise without adding another noticeable flavour.

Dark Brown Sugar: Cooks with the banana and butter to make the filling. Its deeper molasses flavour works especially well with banana, cinnamon, and dark chocolate.

Semisweet Dark Chocolate Chips or Dark Baking Chocolate: Scattered over the banana filling before the dough is rolled, giving the finished rolls pockets of melted chocolate rather than turning the whole filling into chocolate.

Dark Chocolate Bar: A small amount is broken over the tops before baking. Keep this restrained so the chocolate adds another layer without overpowering the banana and warm spices.

Substitutions and Add-Ins for Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls

Milk: Whole milk is a good choice, but oat milk is a tested alternative in this recipe.

Bananas: There isn’t a useful substitute here because banana is fundamental to both the dough and filling. Very ripe fruit will mash and cook more easily than firm yellow bananas.

Butter: Butter is used in both the dough and filling. I haven’t tested a plant-based butter replacement, so I wouldn’t promise identical dough or filling behaviour.

Eggs: I have not tested an egg-free version of this yeast dough.

All-Purpose Flour: Stick with regular all-purpose flour for the tested recipe. More important than changing flour types is avoiding the temptation to add too much.

Dark Brown Sugar: Light brown sugar could reasonably be used if that is what you have, although the flavour will be slightly lighter.

Semisweet Dark Chocolate: Either semisweet dark chocolate chips or chopped dark baking chocolate works here.

Nutmeg and Cloves: You can reduce the secondary spices if you prefer a more cinnamon-forward roll, but removing them will give the dough less of its banana-bread-style spice profile.

Walnuts or Pecans: Chopped nuts could be added if you like banana bread with nuts, although they weren’t part of this batch.

Expert Tips

Tip #1: Let the Dough Stay Soft: Banana brings extra moisture to yeast dough. Add extra flour gradually rather than trying to eliminate every bit of tackiness.

Tip #2: Use Very Ripe Bananas: Soft, heavily spotted bananas mash more smoothly and give you stronger banana flavour than firm fruit.

Tip #3: Cool the Filling: Give the cooked banana-brown-sugar filling time to cool before spreading it onto the dough. A very hot filling will make the dough harder to roll and shape.

Tip #4: Give the Rolls Room: These are very large cinnamon rolls. Leave enough room in the pans for them to expand during their one-hour second rise.

Serving Suggestions

These banana bread cinnamon rolls work particularly well for a weekend breakfast or brunch, but they’re substantial enough to serve as dessert as well.

Because the filling already contains banana, cinnamon, brown sugar and dark chocolate, I wouldn’t feel obligated to add frosting. They’re quite rich on their own.

For a larger breakfast or brunch spread, serve them alongside something simple rather than adding another very sweet baked item.

If you still have bananas to use, my Chocolate Banana Muffins are another high-banana baking option.

For a smaller cinnamon-roll-style recipe without yeast, my Air Fried Apple Cinnamon Sweet Biscuit Rolls go in a completely different direction and make a useful internal sibling link.

Storing Suggestions

Allow the rolls to cool before covering them so trapped steam doesn’t make their surfaces wet.

Store the banana bread cinnamon rolls in an airtight container at room temperature for 1–2 days. For longer storage, refrigerate them for up to 4 days.

Warm an individual roll briefly before serving to soften the dough and remelt the chocolate between the layers.

I have not tested freezing this particular recipe, so I would leave freezer instructions out rather than promising that the cooked banana filling will thaw exactly the way we want.

More Ways to Use Ripe Bananas

If using up ripe bananas is what brought you here, there are several directions to go next.

Your Nut-Free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins use another cup of mashed banana and continue the banana-and-chocolate connection naturally.

For breakfast rather than baking, Banana Walnut Oatmeal is useful when you have only one ripe banana left to deal with.

Conclusion

These banana bread cinnamon rolls are the recipe I’d make when the banana pile has moved beyond “I should make banana bread” and into “I need to use these up.”

Using banana in both the dough and the cooked banana filling takes care of about five medium bananas, while the dark chocolate adds pockets of chocolate throughout the rolls.

If you make them, I’d especially like to know which pan arrangement you used — giant individual rolls, loaf pans, or the 9-by-13 plus round-pan combination.

Meet Amber

I’m the home cook and recipe creator behind A Cents For Cookery. I learned to cook growing up off-grid in Northern Ontario, where meals were made on a woodstove and preserving, baking, and making ingredients stretch were part of everyday life. Here I share practical family recipes, homemade baking, vintage-inspired cooking, and the kitchen knowledge I’ve picked up over the years to help you make the most of the food you have.

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