Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

It is always a good sign when your husband walks through the door and the first words out of his mouth is, “It smells good in here.”

It is even better when that sweet, cinnamon smell is coming right through the oven doors.

I had 3 ripe bananas staring at me for days, and I finally found time to put them to use yesterday evening.  There are only two things I do with ripe bananas:  Freeze them, or bake them, and yesterday I chose to bake.

Banana bread is one of my all time favorite treats.  I swear, when I was little, I would rather have a piece of banana bread than almost any other baked good.  I remember watching the kitchen timer click down until the moment that loaf would be ready, and then cut into the bread while it was still piping hot.

I knew I wanted to mix up the recipe this time, and I must say this one was a winner!  It is hard to go wrong with the addition of spicy cinnamon, sweet chocolate chips, and crunchy peanut butter, along with a couple of surprising and healthy ingredients like plain Greek yogurt, and whole wheat flour.

Trust me, skip the banana with your cereal this morning and let those guys ripen up.  You won’t regret it!

 

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup white flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 ripe bananas

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 egg

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons canola oil

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees and spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a medium sized bowl, add in whole wheat flour, white flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Lightly whisk together.

In a separate, larger bowl mash bananas with a fork.

Add in peanut butter..

Greek yogurt…

Egg…

Sugar and oil…

Then mix together.

Add chocolate chips to flour mixture and combine.  (This will keep the chips from sinking to the bottom of the loaf pan).

 

Add flour mixture to wet ingredients, stirring just until combined.

Add batter to loaf pan.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until center is fully cooked.

I know you’re not supposed to, but go ahead and cut it when it comes right out of the oven.  A hot piece is the way to go!

I had a slice this morning for breakfast, topped with just a touch of peanut butter for some staying power.

I heated up the slice of bread in the microwave for 30 seconds so the peanut butter would be nice and melted.  Delicious!

 

Questions:

Are you a fan of banana bread?  What are your favorite ‘add-ins’ to the batter?

Do you wait for your baked goods to cool before you dig in?  I know I don’t!  Especially for bread right out of the bread machine!

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