Chrissy Teigen’s Banana Bread: The Full Recipe and Story

Chrissy Teigen banana bread is the loaf that turned a pile of overripe bananas into an internet legend. If you’ve spotted this recipe all over Pinterest and wondered what actually makes it different from your usual banana bread, the answer comes down to three things: a box of vanilla pudding mix, a handful of shredded coconut, and chunks of dark chocolate folded into every slice. Below you’ll find the exact recipe, the strange true story behind it, and the swaps that actually hold up if you don’t have every ingredient on hand.

What Makes Chrissy Teigen’s Banana Bread So Popular

Most banana bread recipes stick to the basics: flour, sugar, mashed bananas, maybe a handful of walnuts. Teigen’s version does something different. It adds a box of instant vanilla pudding mix to the dry ingredients, which gives the crumb a fluffy, almost cake-like texture that regular banana bread doesn’t have. Then it folds in unsweetened shredded coconut and chopped dark chocolate, so every bite has a little crunch and a little melt.

The recipe also calls for six very ripe bananas rather than the usual two or three, which is a lot of fruit for one loaf. That extra volume is part of why the bread bakes up so moist. Home bakers who’ve made it repeatedly say the texture holds up for days, which is unusual for a banana bread this loaded with mix-ins.

Chrissy Teigen Banana Bread Ingredients You’ll Need

This is the ingredient list straight from her cookbook, Cravings: Hungry for More, and it makes one large loaf (bundt-sized) or two standard 8×4-inch loaves.

• 2 cups very ripe, mashed bananas (about 6 medium bananas)
• 4 large eggs
• 2/3 cup canola oil, plus extra for greasing the pan
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for the pan
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 box (3.5 oz) vanilla instant pudding mix
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 bar (3.5 oz) dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
• Salted butter, for serving

A few notes on why each ingredient matters. The bananas need to be spotty brown, almost black, since underripe fruit won’t mash smoothly or give you that concentrated banana flavor. The canola oil is a neutral fat, so it doesn’t compete with the vanilla or the fruit the way melted butter sometimes can. And the vanilla pudding mix, not banana-flavored pudding, is the detail most people get wrong on their first try. Banana-flavored mix tends to taste artificial next to real mashed banana, while vanilla rounds everything out.

How to Make Chrissy Teigen’s Banana Bread Step by Step

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a bundt pan (or two loaf pans).
2. In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, and oil. Whisk until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, pudding mix, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir gently but thoroughly. Overmixing will toughen the crumb, so stop as soon as the flour disappears.
5. Fold in the shredded coconut and chocolate chunks by hand.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 60 to 80 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Let the bread cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then run a butter knife around the edges and turn it out onto a cooling rack.
8. Slice once fully cooled and serve with a smear of salted butter.

Bake times vary quite a bit depending on your pan. A bundt pan often needs the full 80 minutes because the batter is deeper in the center, while two loaf pans usually finish closer to 55 to 65 minutes. Check early and tent the top loosely with foil if it’s browning too fast before the center sets.

The Story Behind the Viral Twitter Banana Bread

This recipe didn’t start out as a polished cookbook entry. Back in September 2017, Teigen posted on Twitter asking her followers if anyone had six overripe bananas to spare, since she wanted to bake but didn’t have enough on hand. The request took off, and days later she shared a handwritten version of the recipe on Instagram. It later appeared, refined, in her second cookbook, Cravings: Hungry for More.

The banana bread resurfaced again in 2020, when banana bread baking spiked across the country during long stretches at home. Search interest for banana bread recipes jumped sharply that spring, and Teigen’s version, with its coconut, chocolate, and pudding mix twist, kept getting rediscovered by people bored of the plain version. That’s a big part of why “chrissy teigen banana bread” still gets searched constantly years later. It’s not just a recipe, it’s a small piece of internet history that happens to taste really good.

The Story Behind the Viral Twitter Banana Bread

Teigen’s original recipe calls for a bundt pan, and there’s a real reason for that beyond looks. The center tube in a bundt pan means heat reaches the batter from more directions, which helps this particularly wet, banana-heavy batter cook through evenly without drying out the edges. Bakers who’ve tried both report the bundt version comes out noticeably more tender.

That said, two standard loaf pans work fine if that’s what you have. You’ll get a slightly denser crumb and a shorter bake time, generally 55 to 65 minutes, but the flavor is identical. If you want the presentation of the bundt without owning one, a 9 or 10-inch tube pan is the closest substitute.

Ingredient Swaps and Substitutions That Actually Work

Not everyone keeps instant vanilla pudding mix or dark chocolate bars in the pantry, and that’s fine. Here’s what actually holds up in testing, versus what changes the texture too much to bother with.

• No vanilla pudding mix: A quarter cup of plain Greek yogurt or sour cream adds back some of the moisture and creaminess, though the crumb will be a touch denser.
• No dark chocolate bar: Semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips work well; just measure by weight (3.5 oz) rather than swapping cup for cup.
• Want it egg-free: Flax eggs (1 tablespoon ground flaxseed plus 3 tablespoons water per egg, rested until gel-like) work, but expect a slightly gummier crumb.
• Skipping the coconut: Leave it out entirely and add an extra quarter cup of chopped walnuts or pecans instead, or simply omit it if you’re not a coconut fan. The bread still works without it.
• Going dairy-free: Swap in dairy-free dark chocolate chunks; the rest of the recipe is naturally dairy-free already since it uses oil instead of butter.

One swap to avoid: don’t reach for banana-flavored pudding mix thinking it’ll boost the banana flavor. Reviewers who’ve tried it consistently describe the result as tasting artificial next to the real mashed banana already in the batter.

Quick Answer: Is Chrissy Teigen’s Banana Bread Worth the Hype

Yes. The vanilla pudding mix genuinely changes the texture, giving you a moister, more tender crumb than a standard banana bread recipe, and the coconut and chocolate add enough contrast that it doesn’t taste like just another banana loaf. It takes about 15 minutes of hands-on prep and roughly an hour in the oven, so it’s not a shortcut recipe, but it isn’t fussy either.

If you’ve been curious whether this one lives up to its reputation, it’s a solid choice for a weekend bake, a potluck, or using up a bunch of bananas that are too far gone for anything else.

How to Store and Freeze Chrissy Teigen’s Banana Bread

Because this loaf is so moist, storage matters more than it would for a drier quick bread. Once fully cooled, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap or store it in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. Keeping it wrapped, rather than just covered, is what keeps the crumb from drying out at the cut edges.

To freeze, wrap the cooled loaf (or individual slices) in plastic wrap, then place it in a freezer bag or airtight container. It keeps well for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature for a few hours, or slice off what you need and microwave individual pieces for about 20 seconds.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I use instead of vanilla pudding mix in banana bread?

Plain Greek yogurt or sour cream is the closest substitute, added at about a quarter cup. It won’t produce the exact same fluffy texture as the pudding mix, but it does add moisture and a bit of tang that works well with the bananas.

Why do you put pudding mix in banana bread?

Instant pudding mix contains starch and extra sugar that help the batter hold onto moisture during baking, which is why bread made with it tends to stay soft and tender for days longer than a standard recipe.

Can I make Chrissy Teigen’s banana bread without coconut?

Yes, you can leave the coconut out entirely without changing the bake time or texture much. Some bakers swap it for chopped walnuts or pecans instead, while others simply skip it if they’re not fans of coconut in baked goods.

How ripe do bananas need to be for banana bread?

The bananas should be heavily spotted with brown, or even mostly black on the peel, since that’s when the starches have converted to sugar and the fruit mashes down easily. If your bananas aren’t there yet, baking them on a sheet pan at 300°F for 20 to 30 minutes with the peels on will ripen them quickly.

Ready to give it a try? Grab those overripe bananas off the counter before they end up in the trash, and let us know in the comments how your loaf turns out.