Healthy Chocolate Bread is light and fluffy, made with better for you ingredients, and studded with pistachios and chocolate chips.
We also love this healthy chocolate zucchini bread and healthy chocolate zucchini cake.
Why You’ll Love This Chocolate Bread
All the ingredients that make this healthy chocolate bread so healthy are exactly what makes it so delicious!
Dark chocolate chips, cacao powder, and pistachios combined with maple syrup and coconut milk give this dessert an ultra-moist interior, crunchy texture from the nuts and a deep chocolate-y flavor.
Reader’s Review
This is one of my all-time favorite recipes! We’ve been making it for years now. I’ve been asked for the recipe multiple times.
Leigh
Ingredients for Healthy Chocolate Bread
- Whole wheat or spelt flour: Both of these whole grain flours work in this chocolate bread recipe. Baking is a science and is it not recommended to use any other flours.
- Cacao or cocoa powder: Both work well with this recipe, if you are using cocoa powder look for unsweetened cocoa vs sweetened. Cacao powder is closer to its most natural state and has not been highly processed like cocoa powder and does not have any added sugar.
- Canned coconut milk: You want to use milk from the can NOT the carton. Milk from a carton has a higher water content which will affect the outcome of this recipe. I love the Thai Kitchen brand. I have not tried recipe with light coconut milk, only full fat – I assume you can but bread will be less moist.
- Baking basics: Eggs, baking powder, baking soda and salt. These provide binding, rise and taste for the chocolate loaf cake.
- Liquid sweetener: Honey, maple syrup, agave, and brown rice syrup will work. The sweetener needs to be liquid.
- Chocolate chips: Feel free to use your favorite, I love dark chocolate for maximum chocolate taste and my preferred brand is Enjoy Life because it is lower in sugar. You can use mini chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or regular sized chips that are semi-sweet (bread will be sweeter).
- Salted pistachios: Salted pistachios are so good in this recipe, the salty-sweet balance was delicious. Pecans, almonds, walnuts or hazelnuts work too. Or use pepitas or sunflower seeds to keep bread nut free.
Dried Fruit
Dried cherries would pair exceptionally well with this chocolate loaf cake.
How to Make Healthy Chocolate Bread
Preheat oven to 325 F, line 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
- “Bloom” the chocolate: In a medium pot, add coconut milk and heat up until hot but not boiling and then remove from heat. You can also use a microwave. Whisk in your cacao powder until there are no lumps left. Set aside.
- Combine wet ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, add eggs, maple syrup, baking powder, baking soda and salt, whisk until there remains no lumps. Transfer prepared chocolate mixture to the bowl with egg mixture and whisk again until combined.
- Make batter: Add flour, stir gently until all flour is incorporated and then let batter sit for 3 minutes. Fold in 1/2 cup chocolate chips and pistachios. Batter will be runny.
- Bake: Pour into prepared loaf pan and sprinkle with 1/4 cup of remaining chocolate chips. Bake on the middle rack for 60 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove and transfer to a cooling rack for 10 minutes.
Muffins Tip
Grab a muffin tin and make muffins or even mini muffins! Bake for 20 minutes or so at 350 F and you’ve got a great snack for little hands! Or try my healthy chocolate muffins.
Tips for Best Results
- Middle rack: Using the middle rack in the oven leads to “happy baking”. This is because the middle of the oven is often where air is circulating best, heat source is evenly distributed and the top and bottom of your baked goods aren’t in danger of burning or browning too quickly.
- Patience: As chocolate bread bakes, the edges may start to look dark but don’t worry, it’s not burning. Follow the steps and you should be good. It needs to bake all the way through, so try not to open the oven door until the very end! If you are concerned that it is burning, place a piece of foil gently over the top of the bread.
- Do not overmix the batter: Overmixing will overwork the gluten. This activation process will result in chewy bread. Careful to mix just until smooth and then fold gently as needed.
- Ovens vary: All ovens bake differently and sometimes an oven may say it has reached the ideal temperature for the recipe, but it may be off a few degrees. You might have to bake the bread for shorter or longer amount of time.
- Measure flour correctly: Scoop flour into your measuring cup then level with a knife.
How to Serve
- Top a slice with your favorite nut butter, low sugar jam or simply warm up slightly then spread with butter.
- Fresh fruit would be a great pairing, try sliced strawberries, sweet cherries or raspberries. A banana is always great with chocolate – try my healthy chocolate banana bread!
- Enjoy with a cup of hot coffee, tea or healthy hot chocolate.
- Serve with a dollop of whipped cream or Greek yogurt frosting.
How to Store
Store: In a cool dry place in an airtight container for up to 5 days. You can get away with keeping an uncut loaf on the counter for a little while, but once it’s cut, to maintain the moisture, make sure to cover it.
Freeze: This chocolate loaf cake is a great one to make and freeze. It will keep in a freezer-friendly airtight container for up to 3 months.
Reheat: Allow to thaw before reheating. Heat in the oven at 350 degrees F until heated through.
FAQs
Unfortunately not.
You may try it with flax eggs or chia eggs, I haven’t tried though. Note that your bread may not rise as much.
While I do not recommend this as the recipe has not been tested with other flours, you could try to use 2 cups 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour. A safer substitute might be white whole wheat flour which could be used as a 1:1 substitute. Any other flour like oat flour, coconut flour or almond flour does not have gluten and can not be substituted.
Edges might look more burnt because it’s dark bread. Wait to check with a toothpick until at least 50 minutes has passed.
More Healthy Bread Recipes to Try
- Healthy chocolate banana bread
- Healthy pumpkin chocolate chip bread
- Healthy chocolate cake
- Healthy zucchini brownies
- Chocolate coconut flour muffins
Healthy Chocolate Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 14 ounces can coconut milk, full fat
- 1/2 cup cacao or cocoa powder
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup honey or maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 3/4 cups spelt or whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup mini dark chocolate chips, divided
- 1/2 cup salted pistachios, chopped
- Cooking spray, I use Misto
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F, line 9 x 5 loaf pan with unbleached parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a medium pot, add coconut milk and heat up until hot but not boiling (you can also use a microwave). Remove from heat, add cacao powder and whisk until no lumps are left. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add eggs, maple syrup, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk very well until no lumps are left.
- Transfer chocolate mixture to a bowl with egg mixture and whisk well. Add flour, stir gently until no more white flour patches left and let batter sit for 3 minutes.
- Add 1/2 cup chocolate chips and pistachios; give a few more gentle stirs to combine. Batter will be runny.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup of chocolate chips. Bake on the middle rack for 60 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Remove chocolate bread from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack to cool off for 10 minutes. Holding onto the flaps of parchment paper remove from a loaf pan and let it cool off completely before slicing. Cut with serrated bread knife.
Notes
- Store: Store covered in a cool dry place for up to 3 days, after that in the fridge.
- Freeze: Freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
- Coconut milk: Make sure not to use coconut milk from a carton that you would drink. I have not tried recipe with light canned coconut milk, only full fat – I assume you can but bread will be less moist.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Great recipe! I followed all directions, except i used zero calorie monk fruit granulated seeetener and it was delicious. Next time i’ll try with coconut sugar, honey or agave syrup, must be even better like that. I followed instructions to a t, didn’t open the oven until ready to test with the toothpick. It was completely baked at 60minutes for me. Thank you!!
Yay! So happy to hear! Thanks for taking time from your busy schedule to let me know you enjoyed my recipe.
How much of the monk fruit did you use?
I would like to try that variation but it would be my very first time with monk fruit. Thanks!
Hey, I made this today and it rose too fast mid-way say around 27-28 minutes but was undercooked inside. What could I be doing wrong? Thanks!
Bread does rise by that time, that’s fine. Did you bake it for full 70 minutes? I mean logically if bread rose means oven T was high enough, so if you baked for 70 mins it would have been baked through…Or did you open the oven to check on it a few times and took the bread out earlier?
I think I chickened out and took it out when I saw some of the risen edges burning a bit – the insides were definitely sticky and gooey then. Then I put it back in at a lower temperature – about 150C? After that I must have baked it for about 20 minutes. So I think my overall baking time was about 50-55 minutes. Should I just let it bake through the next time? It did turn out pretty nice eventually.
Yes, just let it bake for 60-70 minutes. It won’t burn. Edges might look more burnt because it’s dark bread. And don’t open the oven. Check with a toothpick after 60 minutes.
Henning will bring this to Volvo Cars office, i hope it will be amazing as well!
Well, hope Volvo people enjoy this healthy chocolate bread lol.
Made this today using whole wheat flour, and it turned out really good. At first I was afraid the batter was too liquidy, but after cooking it was just perfect. Thanks for the recipe. Next time I need flour, I will try the spelt variety.
You are welcome! I love spelt flour, it’s lighter and has a different flavour a bit.
Great recipe. Fantastic taste.
Brought this healthy chocolate bread to a potluck at the office and it was a hit!
This looks absolutely delicious, Olena, thanks for sharing! I love the pistachios and chocolate chips xo
This chovcolate bread looks beautiful; I would love a piece right now. I’m definitely going to make this with the help of your Recipe. Thanks for Sharing this great Recipe.
I think something went wrong because after adding the flour I ended up with lots of little lumps and couldn’t mix them properly as I didn’t want to over mix it so not sure how the bread will turn out. It’s in the oven now and I’m feeling a little anxious:(
Hi Aneta. When you mix wet and dry ingredients, there will be lumps and you are supposed to mix everything gently just enough to combine and without lumps, but not vigorously to over mix into perfectly smooth batter. You should stop mixing when lumps are gone. I don’t think anything went wrong. Have you baked muffins and bread much before? Recipes say not to over mix because then bread will not rise properly and be chewy. It has to do with gluten.
How did the bread come out???
Thanks Olena. It turned out delicious but not as light and fluffy as yours, bit more dense so I must have over mixed than.. I bake a lot, but never baked before with white spelt flour. I stopped mixing before all the lamps were gone but I think it was too much still. Never mind than I enjoyed it a lot:)it’s almost gone now.
Have a lovely holidays
Baking with spelt is the same as baking with whole wheat.:) Thank you!!!
OMG your recipe is the BEST. I doubled the ingredients and brought it at work. It was sold out. They are even asking for more. I told them sorry my son ate it at home. Going to make more next time.
Yay, Rony! So happy to hear that!