Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Banana Oat Bread

It's a good thing I love banana bread and smoothies, because out of the bananas I buy each week, very few get eaten fresh. They are either frozen for my favorite fruit shakes, or ripened for recipes such as this one from my old blog. I tweaked the recipe with oats, flax seed, applesauce, and a few other changes. Very moist and delicious and just bursting with good stuff.



Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Banana Oat Bread
adapted from For Goodness Sake
original recipe from Food.com

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup whole oats, ground in food processor
1/4 cup unbleached flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup white sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 medium very ripe bananas, mashed or whizzed in food processor
1/3 cup natural crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg white
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Coat 9X5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray; add a strip of parchment paper to bottom of pan for easy removal.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl. In another bowl or bowl of mixer, mix bananas, peanut butter, applesauce, egg white, egg, and vanilla. Fold in flour mixture until no streaks of flour remain, then gently fold in chocolate chips. Scrape batter into loaf pan. Bake 40-50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out with few moist crumbs. Cool in pan on wire rack 15 minutes; carefully remove from pan and allow to cool completely on wire rack before slicing.