Each time I’ve gone grocery shopping lately, I’ve bought extra bunches of bananas. For a couple reasons… one, we’ve been making “banana ice,” which Avaya has been loving! It’s practically her “nice cream” after-dinner desert. It’s literally just frozen peeled banana slices straight outa the freezer. We’ve also been using the slices from the freezer in our smoothies.
I let a couple bananas go too long before freezing ’em this time though. They sat for a few days on the kitchen table and went from spotty to almost completely brown. Aaron thought it was time to throw them out, but nope! Those guys are great for banana bread!
I’ve been trying to do everything with less sugar lately, and this recipe was no exception. I thought back to the healthy(ish) first birthday smash cake I made for Avaya, which tasted a lot like banana bread, so decided to go off that recipe, with a few adjustments.
This banana bread is refined sugar free (aside from the chocolate chips), and uses oat flour as it’s base. I’m totally ok with eating it for breakfast (and my daughter too!), because the way I look at it, a slice is practically oatmeal with banana and a few dark chocolate chips 🤷🏼♀️ No guilt here.
Healthy Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
AKA Oatmeal Breakfast Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups oat flour (I made my own by grinding whole oats in the food processor until getting a powder-like consistency)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 very ripe bananas
- 2/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- A little butter and oat flour for dusting the pan
Directions
- Preheat over to 350 degrees F
- Mix together all dry ingredients (oat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt) and set aside
- In a separate bowl, mash the bananas and blend in all other wet ingredients (applesauce, Greek yogurt, maple syrup, eggs, vanilla extract)
- Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and mix together well
- Mix in the chocolate chips
- Grease a bread pan with butter, and dust the bottom and sides with oat flour to avoid sticking
- Bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean
- Let the bread cool before removing from the pan, and enjoy!