Oatmeal Banana Bread

 

I made these oatmeal pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips and found them alright, but they annoyed me from the start because they were originally billed as “flourless pumpkin muffins” even though the recipe has you put oat flakes in a blender. Which means you’re basically making oat flour, so while the muffins are wheat-free, they don’t qualify as flourless in my opinion. But anyway, I felt like I hadn’t gotten my fill of oatmeal and chocolate chips, so I made oatmeal banana bread with chocolate chips. The kids really liked this one!

(As an aside, as I type this, I can’t help but notice that on the original post, Walmart says one could purchase all the ingredients for US$41.95, which seems absolutely outrageous to me. Obviously, you have to buy a package of flour or cinnamon and then only use a bit for the recipe, but… man, inflation!)

I used 1 1/3 cups white whole wheat flour instead of a mixture of all-purpose white and whole wheat flour.

⅔ cup all-purpose flour
⅔ cup whole-wheat flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. salt
⅔ cup old-fashioned rolled oats plus 1 Tbsp., divided
1 ½ cups mashed ripe banana
½ cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup lactose-free plain whole-milk yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
¼ cup canola oil or other neutral oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg, at room temperature
⅓ cup dark chocolate chips (60-70%) plus 1 Tbsp., divided (I would use ½ cup + 1 Tbsp. next time)

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Lightly coat a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray; line with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the long sides of the pan.

Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt and 2/3 cup oats together in a medium bowl.

Combine banana, brown sugar, yogurt, oil, vanilla and egg in a large bowl; stir until well mixed.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients; stir until just combined. Stir in 1/3 cup chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon each chocolate chips and oats. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes (I baked mine 55 minutes and should have baked it a bit longer, but I think I had more banana purée than called for). Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack, about 35 minutes. Using the parchment overhang, remove the bread from the pan and serve.