Banana bread from cake mix with pudding

This banana bread with pudding mix from Chrissy Teigen received endless accolades from our testers. The secret to Chrissy Teigen’s banana bread Bundt cake? The addition of vanilla pudding mix, dark chocolate, unsweetened coconut, and plenty of bananas.

Adapted from Chrissy Teigen | Cravings: Hungry for More | Clarkson Potter, 2018

Perfecting this single banana bread Bundt cake recipe took me nearly a year. That’s why I needed so many damn bananas. It was a fine, yummy banana bread. But something wasn’t SPECIAL about it.

I tried a million different things. Using banana pudding mix made it taste fake. Toasting the top with salty coconut made it a little too coconutty. Nuts were too controversial among my friends. Milk chocolate blended in too much. But! It turned out that putting the coconut inside left it with a subtle hint of sweet coconut goodness, vanilla pudding gave it a fluffy, moist texture I could never have imagined, and dark chocolate gave it a . . . I dunno, do I need to explain why putting in chocolate is a good thing?

Can you toss nuts in this? Sure. Can you use a different chocolate? Why not? But I’m telling you—I did this every way humanly possible so you wouldn’t have to. And the hundreds of banana bread pictures I’m tagged in (daily!) prove this.–Chrissy Teigen

☞ Table of Contents

1

• Banana Bread with Pudding FAQs
  • Can I use a different flavor of pudding mix in this banana bread?
  • How can I ripen bananas quickly?
  • How should I serve Chrissy Teigen’s banana bread?
  • In this recipe
• Banana Bread with Pudding Mix
  • Ingredients USMetric
  • Directions 
  • Show Nutrition
  • Recipe Testers’ Reviews

Can I use a different flavor of pudding mix in this banana bread?

We don’t recommend it. The flavoring added to pudding mix can change the flavor of the bread and, as Chrissy says, make it taste fake. Stick with the vanilla.

How can I ripen bananas quickly?

If you want to make this cake now and your bananas are still a little green, place the bananas on a parchment-lined baking sheet with their skins on and bake at 300°F (150°C) until soft and the skins are blackened, 10 to 20 minutes.

How should I serve Chrissy Teigen’s banana bread?

Chrissy recommends a schmear of salted butter on top of each slice, however, our testers found the cake so moist and flavorful that several opted to enjoy their banana bread unadorned. Either way is delicious.

Banana Bread with Pudding Mix

This banana bread has it all. It's a moist cake with a rich banana flavor that is nicely balanced by pieces of dark chocolate and flakes of coconut.

Prep 20 mins

Cook 1 hr 10 mins

Total 1 hr 30 mins

• ▢ 2 cups (from 6 bananas) mashed very ripe bananas
• ▢ 4 large eggs
• ▢ 2/3 cup canola oil or other mild vegetable oil plus a little more to grease the pan
• ▢ 2 cups all-purpose flour plus a little more for dusting the pan
• ▢ 2 cups granulated sugar
• ▢ One (3.5-ounce) box vanilla instant pudding mix
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• ▢ 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• ▢ One (3.5-ounce) bar dark chocolate chopped into chunks
• ▢ Salted butter for serving

• Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C).

• In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, and oil. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, pudding mix, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine well but gently. Fold in the coconut and chocolate chunks.

• Grease and flour a 12-cup (10-inch) Bundt pan (that means wipe a little grease all over the inside of the pan, dust it with flour, and tip it upside down to shake out any extra flour). Pour the batter into the pan. (This can also make two 8- by 4-inch [20- by 5-cm] loaves, but it’s so much more moist in one Bundt pan!)

  To easily flour a greased pan, fill a spice shaker with flour and use it to sprinkle all over. It helps to distribute it more evenly and it wastes less flour.

• Bake until the banana bread springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 65 to 75 minutes. If it begins to brown too much, cover loosely with foil. If you are using smaller loaf pans, your cooking time will be shorter.

• Let it cool slightly in the pan, then use a butter knife to gently release the cake from the sides of the pan and around the inner circle, then flip it onto a plate.

• Cool completely before cutting it into slices. Slather with butter and serve.

Serving: 1sliceCalories: 502kcal (25%)Carbohydrates: 71g (24%)Protein: 6g (12%)Fat: 23g (35%)Saturated Fat: 8g (50%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 62mg (21%)Sodium: 462mg (20%)Potassium: 283mg (8%)Fiber: 4g (17%)Sugar: 47g (52%)Vitamin A: 117IU (2%)Vitamin C: 3mg (4%)Calcium: 23mg (2%)Iron: 3mg (17%)

Recipe Testers’ Reviews

Originally published June 7, 2022

Recipe © 2018 Chrissy Teigen. Photo © 2018 Aubrie Pick. All rights reserved. All materials used with permission.