Whole Wheat Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips


I've really wanted to get into baking with whole grains more lately. To be honest, I really dig them, you know? There's more texture, more flavor, more personality or something. But I'm not even going to pretend that using whole wheat flour made this bread even remotely healthy, because R dumped half a bag of bittersweet chocolate chips into it. He says he would have preferred it with white flour, but I really enjoyed the whole wheat. No, really. I did. I Did! See above where I go on about texture and flavor and personality.

Whatever, dudes, if you want to use white flour, use white flour (but you'll want to tone down the sweetener if you do). But I'm telling you, give whole wheat a chance. The worse thing that happens is that you eat some whole wheat banana bread with chocolate in it. You'll be okay. (And don't forget, bananas should be almost black. I know you know.)

Whole Wheat Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips
The banana bread recipe comes from here, but the dump of chocolate chips was all R

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extreact
3-4 mashed, very ripe bananas, whatever you have turning in your fruit bowl
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour
Chocolate chips according to how many you want

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9x5" loaf pan.

Beat together the butter, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Add the banana, honey and eggs and beat until smooth. Add the flour, then stir in the chocolate. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and let it rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes.

Bake for 1 hour, until it passes the toothpick test. Remove from the oven and let cool for a bit, then turn it out of the pan and cool on a rack.

Comments

Mel said…
Ohhhh this looks SO good. I want it now. (Sadly, we ate all our bananas during the Snowpocalypse, and I'm guessing the supermarkets haven't had a chance to restock.)
Eliana said…
Oh my lord - this looks heavenly. all those chocolate chips are making my mouth water right now.
This is heaven! I just wish I know how to bake. It has been my frustration. But I guess, my mother would not get mad if I tell her to make some of this for me.
Sasha said…
Mm this banana bread looks yummy. And I agree with you - whole wheat does have more personality.
Cindy B said…
This looks great. I've been worried about swapping out my all purpose flour for whole wheat in my banana bread but I'm definitely going to give this recipe a shot. Quick question, why do you say the banana's should be so ripe they're almost black? I always use ripe banana's but never anything that's gone totally brown (I just don't have the patience). Thanks.
Andrea said…
Cindy, I always let my bananas go all the way black because it intensifies the banana flavor. Search for banana bread on this blog and you'll find a post all about it!
Sarah said…
LOL! R sounds just like my husband, a real cheeky bloke. :) I love the taste of whole wheat too and all my baked good have whole wheat flour in them. A good place to find recipes like this is on Sunita's World, one of my favourite food blogs.

On the topic of other whole grains, I made some maple cookies recently that had quinoa, of all things, as one of the ingredients. They were excellent!
Sarah said…
Oh, I thought of something else. :) R sounds like the kind of person who might like Chocolate Cake for One (made in a mug), which I make for my husband sometimes when he's craving dessert. It's made in ten minutes, including mixing, cooking, and cooling.
Beatrice said…
I'm trying to be a bit healthier with my baking as well. I've been experimenting with almond flour or spelt in place of 1/3 of the white flour. Right now, almond flour is my favorite. But, I should do some whole wheat, too.

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