I’ve only made this recipe once before and almost forgot about it, but it was so good that it needed to be made again and with all of my friends coming to spend the night on July 4th, this seemed like the perfect time. As it turned out, this was the ultimate addition to our brunch the next day. I made 2 different types, one with and one without chocolate chunks. I did this because some people don’t like dark chocolate or at least not as much as I. Not only did the loaf with chocolate chips rise more, but it was the perfect addition to the bread, rounding out the flavor on the palette. Everyone agreed that the chocolate chip loaf was superior.
For a while I’ve been trying to concoct a portable healthy breakfast for days when I’m in a rush. As I was chomping down half a loaf of this bread, I realized that I had finally discovered the perfect breakfast to go. Banana bread in general can be a fairly healthy treat, but this one packs a nutritious punch.
The bread is sweetened with only brown sugar, contains no butter, and uses 100% whole grain flour. And this bread needs nothing to accompany it. I tried it with plain peanut butter, cinnamon raisin peanut butter, plain cream cheese, cinnamon raisin cream cheese and lastly butter. The butter was the best, but I liked it plain even more. I recommend making these a day ahead of time because they become even more moist and delicious. Just slice it up and microwave each slice for about 7 seconds. It also freezes wonderfully.
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2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed (or more, to taste)
1T baking powder
3/4t salt
1/2t cinnamon
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 large)
1 cup skim milk
3/4 cup creamy natural peanut butter w/ salt
1t vanilla extract
1/4 cup egg substitute (or 1 egg)
100g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans (or muffin tins).
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, combine mashed bananas, milk, peanut butter, vanilla and egg.
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir just until combined. Mix in the chocolate chips.
4. Split evenly between the two pans and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the loaves cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then remove from the pan and let them cool completely. Even better the next day. Yield: 2 loaves.
| Nutrition Facts |
|---|
| Serving Size 1/2'' thick slice Servings per Batch 36 |
| Amount Per Serving |
| Calories 100 |
Additional Info:
A few tips: Spoon the flour into the measuring cup, don’t dig the cup into the bag. Doing so can result in using up to 40% more flour! Also make sure the bananas are very ripe, mostly brown on the outside or at least half covered in brown spots. To mash the bananas, simply place them in a bowl and use the back of a fork to crush them until a fine puree is achieved. Also, most people prefer a sweet banana bread than myself, so you may want to use at least 1 cup of brown sugar if not a bit more.
The original recipe comes from The Recipe Girl, I just modified it to suit my fancy.
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Of course, the version with the chocolate was superior :)
I like that the bread is as healthy as it is yummy. When I’m feeling particularly virtuous (often after a pig out) I make a zucchini loaf. This goes on the see-what-a-good-mum-I-am list. Thanks Nick!
Sounds good. Very good. As a PB purist, I opt for the non-choc version.
This looks wonderful. I’m not surprised that the chocolate was better. I’d complain about people who don’t like dark chocolate, but that just means more for me :)
I was wishing I had a good banana bread recipe last night…this looks great! Do you think the sugar could be reduced at all?
Dee, Naturally, chocolate makes everything better….as does peanut butter. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
aforkful, Purposely omitting dark chocolate? That’s intense PB loyalty…I like it!
Fearless Kitchen, I agree. In fact, most people ate the regular loaf first, even though I told them the other one had chocolate, I think they just didn’t listen carefully. But once they dug into the second loaf, they all complained that I didn’t tell them about the “better” one.
Kati, The original recipe calls 1 cup sugar (1/2 white, 1/2 brown). What I actually used is 1 cup unpacked brown sugar, which translates to between 1/2 to 3/4 cup packed brown sugar. The bread was too sweet for me, so I would actually recommend using only 1/2 cup packed brown sugar or maybe even less. And 1/4 cup sugar per loaf ain’t that bad! Give it a try!
Thanks for the flour tip; I had no idea. And your bread looks delicious… I might have to make my recipe with some peanut butter added in! And possibly a hint of dark chocolate too. Is there a better combo than bananas, PB and dark chocolate? Especially when bread is added into the mixture? I think not:)
I just posted about banana bread too!! But mine had WHITE chocolate chips :0)
Nice looking banana bread! Chocolate goes well in banana bread and even better with peanut butter in the banana bread.
could it possibly be…the world’s perfect food?
superb. A keeper and I will give it a go very soon.
Well, I made this last night. I didn't use any chocolate and only used 1/2 c. of sugar. I do like the texture…pretty thick. I think it would taste better with 3/4 c. sugar but since I'm trying to limit it, oh well! I feel like the pb overwhelms the banana and it's mostly what you taste. I had some with pb on it and that was nice. I can't put my finger on what I would change :> and I'm curious to see how it tastes today and tomorrow
Kati- if you’re trying to cut back on sugar but still want a slightly sweeter bread, maybe you could try putting some dates in a food processor and adding those to the bread. I haven’t tried it before but I’ve used dates in other recipes to sweeten them and it works really well. The natural sugars in fruit can add so much more flavor!
You sure are good at incorporating peanut butter into anything! :) Peanut butter in banana bread sounds like an amazing combination.
Who? Who doesn’t like dark chocolate? Crazy people, that’s who!
That bread looks great! I love nanners.
Fat free right??? LOL
Sagan, I completely agree!
VeggieGirl, Very nice, but you can’t eat EITHER of them! What a shame!
Sarah, I truly think it may be.
daphne, let me know how you like it!
Kati, It definitely gets better the day after. I actually baked it, let it cool completely and froze it for 2 days (so it wouldn’t go bad), but still took it out a full day before serving. I agree, the amount of bananas called for in the recipe is fairly low. I would suggest perhaps 2/3 cup sugar and maybe reducing the peanut butter (sacrilege!) to 2/3 cup?
Hillary, It doesn’t get any better in my mind! I think of it as a job =).
Brilynn, Crazy indeed…
Leslie, Haha, not quite. But at least it’s healthy fats instead of butter or vegetable oil. The fat is still relatively low…If you get 12 slices out of each loaf, that’s only about 4-5g of fat per slice.
Wow, these loaves have quite the flavor combination – it sounds so decadent!
Ari (Baking and Books)
uhm, don’t you want to congratulate me for my national tv debut with Emeril by sending me one? I’ll quickly email you my addy!
very very nice! :)
Ohh. That looks AMAZING. I wonder how it would be baked as muffins? Then I could give them to my teenagers to eat when they are rushing out to school. Hmm. I wonder how many calories…
I am trying this one!
i think you can never go wrong with this combination ^_^
I made that over the weekend!
I halved the recipe and it still turned out good. The banana quantity remained the same and that wasnt any problem at all. I went for 1/2 cup of brown sugar and I think that was just right (For me anyway). Texture wise- a little dense to be called a bread but I’m not complaining. I like it that it is SO easy and quick to whip up!
This would have to be one of the top 3 ideas ever for a food blog. I ran out of peanut butter last week and was unable to have my regular 2 pieces of peanut butter toast with breakfast. It was a tough week.
Ari, It really tastes decadent, it’s also very dense as Daphne puts it. But not dense in a bad way…dense in a rich, almost creamy way.
Bren, Hey, I suppose I could. If I made a fresh batch and sent it overnight, it’d be even better by the time you got it!
Lyn, I’m sure you could! This would make some great muffins, in fact, I’m waiting for 2 bananas to ripen right now so I can make it again, perhaps I’ll make one loaf and one batch of muffins. It seems like the perfect breakfast on the go. The calories are probably fairly high, but I look at it on an ingredient basis. It’s all good stuff in there, the only extra calories are from a touch of chocolate and about 1 1/2 tsp added sugar per slice (if you figure 12 slices per loaf and 2/3 cup sugar). Otherwise, you’ve got your whole grains, healthy fats and fruit all in one, a perfect breakfast really!
Rita, Agreed!
Daphne, Yes, it’s a very dense bread, but it’s banana bread, which I think is more of a “quick bread”? I’m not too good with baking terms, but I think that means it’s meant to be more moist and closer to muffins in consistency? Glad you like it! Any tips or suggestions, like would you reduce/add anything?
Tim, Haha, I’m glad you like it. I like yours as well, especially considering how addicted I am to My Pancakes. I’m so sorry about your peanut butter….but it’s good to see that you’ve survived =)
This bread looks amazing! I need to make it ASAP! :)
I just bought a bunch of over-ripe bananas today – thanks for the inspiration!
I am a picky breakfast eater, so I should try baking banana bread the night before for a nice to-go breakfast.
Also, I bought a cookbook called Peanut Butter Planet at my local used bookstore. I haven’t tried it yet but the recipes look interesting! And of course I immediately thought of you.
Drats on the whole wheat pastry flour, but this might be worth playing with conversions on. Your bread really looks and sounds good! I’ll work on it and keep you posted. In the meantime, 101 Cookbooks has a PB Cookie recipe you might be interested in. Again, the dreaded whole wheat pastry flour is used, but they look mighty tempting. Hope all is well with you!
Melissa
Hey Nick,
LONG time no chat. I love Banana Bread, and of course Peanut Butter and Chocolate. Sounds like this could be nirvana in the making. I’ll definitely have to give this a go.
I don’t ever bake, but this will be coming out of my oven this weekend. Genius.
how could I miss it? it’s a thing of beauty.
Made this last night with milk chocolate chunks. Everyone at work is raving. Thanks!
Hey Nick, I just saw Nicole (Baking Bites) banana bread with pb/cream cheese swirl and caught your link to this bread. This is even more up my alley and I can’t wait to make them, maybe even today (or tomorrow for sure!) I’ll probably do bread, but do you think it would also work fine as muffins?
Awesome!
And I’m a dork and just saw where you put that muffins tins would work in the recipe! Pbbbttt!
Haha, no worries. You will love this bread, it’s even better the next day once everything settles and moistens. And it’s a very nutritious bread but you’d never know it! You’ll have to let me know how you like it. ~ Nick
I just found your blog through Baking Bites as well. I started baking with whole wheat flour and ww pastry flour this year, and I love it! I’m glad to see a recipe that actually calls for the pastry flour. It makes me feel better about feeding my kids something a little more healthy…thanks!
First let me just say…peanut butter is one of my passions. I’ve just started making my own (which to my surprise is super easy) and I’ve been making just about anything healthy that has peanut butter in it. This is by far the best thing I’ve made recently (I’ve made it twice this month). My only problem is that every time the bottom comes out very dark (totally edible) but crusty and dark enough to be concerned. I’ve tried greasing my pans differently and decreasing the time and temp of my oven (my oven is not…precise). I’m starting to think its a combo of my pans (they are new and this is the only bread I’ve used them for) and my lack of baking skill. Regardless…this recipe is amazing and I would recommend it to anyone regardless of whether or not they are health conscious. Wow that was long winded. Thanks again!
Well I’ve got no baking skill either so I don’t think it’s that. Perhaps it’s your flour? I use whole wheat pastry because it’s lighter, is that what you use? Oven temperatures do seem to vary widely but you can usually turn it down 25 degrees or so and bake it for longer with no ill effects. I also use a cheap ($3) aluminum pan, so nothing fancy there… Hope that helps! ~ Nick
Nick…just out of curiosity… do you have the nutritional info on this? :)
Hey Mandy, I don’t have exact stats but I just quickly calculated the calories and added them to the recipe above. Each 1/2″ thick slice has 100 calories and only 1t of added sugar. Hope this helps! ~ Nick
I bake often and was excited when I found this recipe- so i set out this morning to cook and and it smelled so good while cooking but I was SUPER disappointed upon tasting. There is something missing in the taste – mine tasted very bland, even with the chocolate and I love dark chocolate.
I’m sorry to hear that! A few pieces of advice (that I’ll have to add to the post):
First, I don’t like things too sweet so I often use a lot less sugar than most people. For the standard taste bud I recommend a solid 1 cup brown sugar if not a bit more.
Second, the bananas need to be ripe/sweet enough so that most of the starch has had a chance to turn to sugar.
And third, it’s always better the next day so give it a try tomorrow and let me know!
I want a slice…or 2:)
I’m going to make this but I only have one 9 x 5 pan, so I have to bake them one after the other. Do I have to adjust the time because of this, or do I still bake for 45-50 min? Haha this might be a dumb question, but I’m pretty clueless when it comes to cooking/baking.
(Also, I might as well ask, does it have to be skim milk, or is it ok if I use 1% or 2% or whole?)
No worries, I’ll walk you through it =). You shouldn’t have to adjust the baking time, especially because you’ll want to let each loaf cool in the pan for a bit before removing to cool completely on the counter.
Any milk will do, 1% or 2% will likely be even richer and tastier. Good luck and enjoy!