{Nourish} Banana Chocolate Chip Bread
When you buy bananas in anticipation of them browning, you know you’ve found a recipe you love. This Banana Chocolate Chip Bread rivals those you loved as a child. Moist, and rich without being overly sweet, I love that the speckles of dark chocolate chips are just enough to make this quick bread feel like a special treat. While the recipe incorporates some whole wheat flour, you can easily make it gluten free. This Chocolate Chip Banana bread has been our breakfast for the past couple of weeks. I even made it into muffins one week. Check out the notes in the recipe section to learn how.
Healthy Whole Grains
Oats and whole wheat pastry flour combine to create this hearty, fiber-rich loaf that is balanced out with almond meal, a good source of protein and healthy fats.
Whole wheat pastry flour is a great substitute for AP flour as it’s lighter in texture than traditional whole wheat flours. Want to make it gluten-free? You can swap the whole wheat flour for equal parts of your favorite gluten-free flour mix or simply skip the flour and up the oats and almond flour a bit. Details in the recipe.
Naturally Sweet
Bananas and chocolate, what’s not to love? I think I am obsessed. Plus, I never stress over browned bananas because I always know I will have a use for them. My family has been loving this loaf so much we have been buying extra bananas each week and willing them to brown. The natural sweetness of the bananas is emboldened with a touch of real maple syrup, my favorite natural sweetener for baking.
Browned Bananas, What to do?
There are weeks when I have too many bananas to use. Thankfully, they stay perfectly in the freezer. Peel your bananas and even cut them in half. Place them in a freezer safe container in multiples of two-three. You can use them for baked goods, smoothies and more. Try one of these recipe that use browned bananas too.
Banana’s not ripe?
You can roast them, in the skin, @425 for about 10 minutes or pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds. Poke holes in the skin first.
Healthy Sweet Treats
For a girl who hates to bake, I have been spending a good amount of time in the kitchen creating sweet treats. Ha! I attribute this to Hudson. We love baking together. Here are a few of our current favorites and they are all naturally gluten-free for my friends that need them to be:
No Bake Almond Coconut Chocolate Chip Energy Bites
No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter and Oat Bars
Tahini Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Banana Chocolate Chip Bread
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 1 Loaf
Ingredients
- 3 medium ripe bananas (1 ½ cups)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 3 Tbsp butter or oil
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/3 cup honey or maple syrup
- ½ cup unsweetened almond or dairy milk
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¾ cup almond meal
- 1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 C) and line a 9x5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Mash banana in a large bowl. Add all ingredients through almond milk and whisk vigorously to combine. Add the baking powder, sea salt, cinnamon, almond meal, flour and oats and stir.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Bake for 1 hour. When ready, it should feel firm and be crackly and golden brown on top.
- Let cool completely before cutting.
Notes
Cook time may vary. At 1 hour, check the bread with a toothpick. If it is still soft/wet, leave in for an additional few minutes. Should not exceed an additional 15 minutes.
Courses Breakfast, Snack
I have some overripe bananas that need to be used. This is perfect!
Enjoy!!
Banana + chocolate is one of my favorite combos! Delicious recipe, Katie!
Mine too — thanks, Shannon!
Banana bread gets me every time. I love that you can turn this into muffins as well!
Yes! So simple either way 🙂
I would love to make that. Nice recipe.
Thanks, let me know how it goes! 🙂
This looks delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe. 🙂
Thanks, Amy!
Adding chocolate chips to this is a genius idea! 😀
Thanks, Jessica! I LOVE the combo 😉
Banana bread, and American tradition! Adding chocolate chips, even better!!
Thanks, Kelli! I think so too 😉